South Carolina teen saved sister from mom who allegedly tried to drown her and killed another sibling

A South Carolina woman was accused of killing one of her daughters and trying to kill another after their teenage sibling was awakened by her younger sister’s screams and saved her from an attempted drowning, officials said.

Jamie Bradley-Brun, 37, is accused of murder and attempted murder in the May 19 killing of Mackaya Bradley-Brun, 6, and the attempted killing of her 8-year-old sister, according to court records in Beaufort County, South Carolina. 

Jail records show Bradley-Brun is being held without bond.

Neither the 8-year-old nor her older sister, 16, have been identified. In a news release, the sheriff’s office said Mackaya had likely drowned.

“She defended her family when no one else was available to,” Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said of the teen credited with the rescue during a news conference. “Her courage is amazing.”

Tanner declined to identify a possible motive but said: “I know what happened and it’s pretty horrific.”

The 16-year-old called 911 at 1:25 a.m. Friday after she awoke to her sister’s screams inside their home on St. Helena Island, roughly 50 miles north of Savannah, Tanner said.

The teen had been “completely asleep,” Tanner said. She went to the bathroom and saw her mother trying to drown the sister, Tanner said.

“She had the ability and courage to utilize her own strength to get her 8-year-old” out of the house, he said. “She had the composure to know that 911 needed to be called because she knew her other sister was in the home.”

The teen fled with her younger sister to the nearby home of a relative, Tanner said.

Authorities later found 6-year-old Mackaya in a different part of the house and performed CPR on her, Tanner said. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital, he said.

After deputies responded to the scene, Bradley-Brun allegedly tried to take a weapon from one of them and authorities used a stun gun, he said.

Tanner said Bradley-Brun has no prior arrests and has been interviewed by authorities. It isn’t clear if she has a lawyer to speak on her behalf.