In re N.S. CA1/4

BACKGROUND

I. Detention

In January 2024, the department filed a petition alleging the minor came within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court based on the behavior of L.S., his mother.2 The minor was almost four years old and had been residing with L.S. The department named two men, S.L. and N.M.D., as alleged fathers. The department mailed notice of the hearing on the petition to S.L. at two different addresses in Ridgeland, South Carolina. Neither the petition nor the social worker’s report was attached to either notice. The department’s detention report listed a different

2 Because the nature of the department’s allegations

against L.S. and her actions during the dependency are not relevant to this appeal, we do not discuss them.

2 Ridgeland, South Carolina address for N.M.D., but the department gave him notice by telephone. The detention report named both S.L. and N.M.D. as alleged fathers based on L.S.’s report that either S.L., N.M.D., or a man named Antonio could be the minor’s father. The report noted that L.S. was married to S.L. before the minor’s birth and remained married to him. L.S. told the social worker that N.M.D. had helped raise the minor for the first two…