South Carolina Mother Who Drowned Her 6-Year-Old Daughter and Dressed Her for Burial Sentenced to 50 Years

What happened inside a South Carolina home in the early hours of May 19, 2023, was not a tragic accident — it was, prosecutors say, a calculated and unforgivable act of violence against a child.

Jamie Michele Bradley-Brun, a 40-year-old mother of three, has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of her 6-year-old daughter, Mackay Bradley-Brun, authorities announced on Dec. 18.

Bradley-Brun was also sentenced to 30 years in prison, to be served concurrently, for attempting to drown her 8-year-old daughter — a crime that was stopped only because the child fought back and her older sister intervened.

“This wasn’t an accident. This wasn’t a mental health crisis,” said Deputy Solicitor Mary Jones. “This defendant planned it. She was competent, and she knew exactly what she was doing.”

According to prosecutors, Bradley-Brun woke Mackay in the middle of the night and instructed the young girl to undress and kneel in a bathtub. The mother then held her daughter’s hair beneath the water until the child drowned.

After killing her own child, Bradley-Brun carried out what prosecutors described as one of the most disturbing details of the case: she dressed Mackay in a “funeral dress” and placed her lifeless body on a bed.

She then turned to her next victim.

Authorities say Bradley-Brun woke her 8-year-old daughter with the intention of repeating the same act. But this time, the child screamed and fought back. Her cries alerted her older sister, who rushed in, pulled the girl away, and ran outside with her to call for help.

Deputies from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the home on Saint Helena Island around 1:25 a.m. after receiving a 911 call.

Prosecutors were unequivocal in their condemnation of Bradley-Brun’s actions.

“She held her daughter under the water and tried to do the same to her middle child,” Jones said. “There is no excuse.”

During the investigation and court proceedings, Bradley-Brun attempted to shift blame to others and to her struggles with alcoholism — arguments the prosecution firmly rejected.

“Neither alcoholism nor blaming others is a legitimate defense in South Carolina,” Jones stated.

The case has left a community shaken and a family permanently broken — one child dead, two children forever scarred by violence at the hands of the person meant to protect them.

For prosecutors, the message was clear: this was not a momentary lapse or loss of control, but a deliberate act that stripped a child of her life and endangered another.

Justice, they said, demanded accountability.