Supervisor Halts Welfare Visits – Then Tragedy

baby feet on a soft white blanket — Photo: estherca / Shutterstock

Deputies looked at two little girls at least six times in the weeks before both were found dead of starvation in their Ladson, South Carolina home.

Story Snapshot

Charleston County deputies and a Department of Social Services worker found the children’s bodies on September 29 during a welfare check.
Body camera footage from visits on August 30 and September 12 shows deputies and a social worker inside the home with the mother and children.
A supervisor reportedly told deputies to stop the welfare checks on September 22, just a week before the children were found dead.
The coroner says the toddlers died of starvation and dehydration three to five days before deputies discovered them.
The family is now asking South Carolina’s state police agency to review how the sheriff’s office handled the case.

Repeated Visits Failed To Stop A Tragedy

The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office says deputies responded to the Pinewood Drive home multiple times starting in August 2026. On September 29, shortly after 12:30 p.m., deputies and the family’s Department of Social Services case worker went to check on the children. They found both of them dead inside the house. Sheriff Carl Ritchie said deputies had seen the children alive with their mother, Justine May, on six separate dates before that final visit.

Released body camera video from August 30 shows May holding one of the children while a state social worker walked through the home checking on conditions. Another clip from September 12 gives the public a direct look inside the house just over two weeks before the girls died. Reporters have identified at least five specific dates deputies visited, including August 25, August 26, September 8, September 11, and September 12.

A Gap Between What Officers Saw And What Was Actually Happening

Sheriff Ritchie said deputies reported no visible signs that the children were in distress during those visits. But the Charleston County Coroner’s Office later ruled the cause of death was starvation and dehydration from neglect. A forensic autopsy estimated the children had already been dead for three to five days by the time deputies found them on September 29. That timeline means whatever deputies observed on their last visit came well before the children’s fatal decline became visible.

Published accounts of how many times officials checked on the family don’t line up. One figure put the number at 13 welfare checks in a matter of weeks. A separate official statement described ten separate visits involving May or her children between August 25 and September 20. Neither account has been publicly reconciled into a single, verified visit-by-visit record.

A Supervisor’s Order Raises Hard Questions

Reporting indicates an on-duty supervisor decided on September 22 to stop sending deputies to do additional welfare checks at the home. The deputy who ultimately found the children on September 29 reportedly went anyway, despite that directive. That single decision, made one week before two toddlers were found dead, deserves a full public accounting. Taxpayers and grieving family members have a right to know why checks were halted and who approved it.

The children’s family has publicly criticized how the sheriff’s office handled the case and is now asking South Carolina’s Law Enforcement Division to open its own review. That request puts pressure on Charleston County officials to open their files rather than control the narrative through selective video releases. A government that claims to protect children cannot hide behind partial transparency when the system clearly failed two little girls who needed help.

Accountability Must Follow The Facts

Child-welfare systems nationwide struggle with the same basic problem on display here: a brief visual check can confirm a child is present without confirming the child is actually safe, fed, or healthy. Reviews of child fatalities across the country repeatedly find that prior contact with law enforcement or social workers did not translate into protection. That pattern doesn’t excuse what happened in Ladson. It explains why families and conservative voters alike are right to demand more than a press conference and a few minutes of selectively released video.

Bodycam footage reveals police welfare check in weeks before South Carolina toddlers' deaths https://t.co/WMzvTbAYEM

— New York Post (@nypost) October 11, 2026

This case is a reminder that government agencies tasked with protecting children must be held to a real standard, not just a box-checking routine. Welfare checks exist to verify safety, not merely to confirm a pulse. South Carolina officials now owe the public the full visit-by-visit record, the supervisor’s actual directive, and a straight answer on why checks stopped just days before two children died.