Parents Charged After Girl Found Dead

The parents of five-year-old Saylor Hayes have been arrested and charged after their nonverbal daughter went missing from a rental property in South Carolina and was later found dead in nearby water.

John Herb Hayes III and Geordyn Nichole Hayes were arrested in Carter County, Tennessee, following the discovery of Saylor’s body on Monday, August 31.

Authorities have not yet determined how the child died. Georgetown County Coroner Chase Ridgeway said an autopsy has been scheduled for Friday morning at the Medical University of South Carolina. The cause and manner of death will remain undetermined until the autopsy and any additional testing are completed.

Ridgeway said there were no visible signs of trauma on Saylor’s body.

Both parents have been charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk and willfully abandoning a child. The charges relate to the circumstances surrounding Saylor’s disappearance and subsequent death.

According to Geordyn, Saylor wandered away from a rental home in the Pawleys Island area on Sunday morning, August 30. A large search operation was launched soon after she was reported missing.

Georgetown County deputies were joined by neighborhood volunteers, the Midway Fire Department, the Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol and search teams using drones. The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department also assisted in the operation.

Investigators said Saylor had previously been enrolled in Project Lifesaver, a programme that uses tracking transmitters to help locate vulnerable people who go missing. She had reportedly been using a monitoring device since 2024, but the device was removed before the family left Virginia.

Search teams later deployed Project Lifesaver equipment on the ground and in the air in an effort to detect a signal from the transmitter believed to be associated with Saylor.

Sheriff Blake Andis said the technology successfully detected the transmitter when personnel searched for Saylor’s assigned frequency. However, authorities said the child did not have the transmitter with her when she disappeared.

The sheriff stressed that such tracking technology can be extremely useful during missing-person searches, but only when the transmitter remains securely attached to the person.

Saylor was eventually found in the water at around 9:45 am, close to the area where she had last been seen.

The investigation remains ongoing, with the scheduled autopsy expected to provide authorities with more information about the circumstances surrounding the child’s death. The parents’ charges could also be affected depending on the findings of the investigation and medical examination.