BEAUFORT, S.C. (Dec. 18, 2025) – A 40-year-old St. Helena Island woman who intentionally drowned her 6-year-old daughter in a bathtub before attempting to kill the girl’s 8-year-old sister has been sentenced to prison.
Jamie Michele Bradley-Brun of Sam Doyle Road pleaded guilty Thursday to murder in the 2023 drowning death of her 6-year-old daughter, Mackay Bradley-Brun. Bradley-Brun also pleaded guilty to attempted murder for trying also kill her 8-year-old daughter by the same method. She received a 50-year prison sentence for murder and 30 years for attempted murder. The sentences are to be served concurrently.
“This wasn’t an accident or a mental health crisis,” said Deputy Solicitor Mary Jones of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case. “This defendant planned it. She is competent and she knew what she was doing. She placed blame on others and on her alcoholism, neither of which is a legitimate defense in South Carolina. She held her daughter under the water and tried to do the same to her middle daughter. There is no excuse.”
On May 19, 2023, Bradley-Brun woke up Mackay and had her undress herself and then told her to climb into bathtub and get on her knees. Even as the young child fought back, Bradley-Brun held her down by the hair under the water until she drowned.
Bradley-Brun then took the young girl out of the bathtub, put her in a “funeral dress” and placed the girl’s body on a bed. Then, she awakened the 8-year-old and attempted to repeat the process. However, the older girl was stronger and struggled against her mother.
Bradley-Brun’s oldest daughter was awakened by her sister’s screams and intervened before Bradley-Brun could drown the 8-year-old.
“The older daughter fought the mother off, ran outside with her 8-year-old sister and called for help,” Jones said. “Thank God the middle child could fight back; and God bless that oldest child; she saved her sister’s life.”
Circuit Court Judge Marvin Dukes handed down Thursday’s sentence.
Jones is a member of the Career Criminal Unit, which prosecutes the most violent and habitual offenders. The team has earned convictions against 538 of the 591 defendants it has prosecuted since its inception in late 2009.
