Parents Arrested After 5-Year-Old Found Dead in South Carolina Waterway

The parents of a 5-year-old non-verbal girl, Saylor Hayes, who was found dead in a South Carolina waterway, have been arrested. John Herb Hayes III, 70, and Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, were apprehended in Tennessee on Tuesday and face charges of unlawfully placing a child at risk and willfully abandoning a child, according to the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office. Saylor was discovered deceased near their rental home in Pawleys Island around 9:45 a.m. on Monday, wearing a bathing suit and a white lanyard, following an extensive search involving hundreds of people and multiple agencies. The child, who had a history of wandering off, was supposed to wear a Project Lifesaver transmitter but was not wearing it when she left the property during the family’s vacation. The arrest affidavit states that her parents are accused of putting Saylor at an unreasonable risk of harm by failing to provide appropriate supervision and safeguards. The device had been removed before the family left Virginia, though it remains unclear who removed it or when. The parents are also accused of complicating the search efforts by directing them away from the nearby body of water and encouraging the use of tracking technology despite knowing the child was not wearing the monitoring device. The couple, married for five years, will be extradited back to Georgetown County, but it is unclear when they fled to Tennessee. Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver expressed sorrow over Saylor’s death, emphasizing the responsibility of parents and caregivers to protect vulnerable children. The cause of Saylor’s death has not yet been confirmed, with an autopsy scheduled for Friday. The Georgetown County Coroner stated that her body showed no visible signs of trauma, and the cause and manner of death remain undetermined pending further testing. Saylor was reported missing shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, prompting a large-scale search operation that included drones, K9s, and helicopters. Investigators discovered that Saylor was not wearing her transmitter when they traced its signal to a vehicle. The transmitter is designed to be worn continuously and cannot be easily removed. Just hours before the arrests, Geordyn Hayes had shared an online tribute to her daughter, calling her 'mommy’s little angel' and posting a picture of Saylor smiling on a slide.