{"id":336183,"date":"2026-09-02T18:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T18:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336183\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T18:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T18:31:17","slug":"saylor-hayes-parents-arrested-after-nonverbal-girl-5-found-dead-in-south-carolina-waterway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336183\/","title":{"rendered":"Saylor Hayes’ parents arrested after nonverbal girl, 5, found dead in South Carolina waterway"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Virginia parents of a 5-year-old non-verbal girl who was found dead in a South Carolina waterway<\/a> have been arrested \u2013 hours after the child\u2019s mom labeled her daughter \u201cmommy\u2019s little angel\u201d in an online tribute.<\/p>\n

John Herb Hayes III, 70, and his wife Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, were captured in Tennessee on Tuesday and face charges of unlawfully placing a child at risk\/wilfully abandoning a child in connection with the death of Saylor Hayes, Georgetown County Sheriff\u2019s said.<\/a><\/p>\n

Saylor was found dead in a waterway close to their Pawleys Island rental home at around 9:45 a.m. Monday, wearing a one-piece bathing suit and white lanyard, following an \u201cintensive search involving hundreds of people and multiple agencies,\u201d authorities said.<\/p>\n

Saylor Hayes, a nonverbal 5-year-old, was found dead in South Carolina waters after wandering from her family\u2019s Pawleys Island vacation rental. Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office\/Facebook<\/p>\n

The girl, who was supposed to wear a Project Lifesaver transmitter because she tended to wander off, was not wearing the device when she walked away from the property during the family\u2019s vacation.<\/p>\n

Her parents have been accused of putting Saylor \u201cat an unreasonable risk of harm affecting her life and safety by failing to provide supervision and safeguards appropriate for a severely nonverbal, autistic, five-year-old child with a known affinity to water and a history of elopement,\u201d the arrest affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Saylor had been wearing a monitoring device since 2024, but the device had been removed before the family left Virginia, the document states. It\u2019s unclear who removed the tracker or when it was removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her parents have also been accused of complicating the search effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[They] encouraged search efforts to be directed toward the use of tracking technology, despite knowing that the child was not wearing the monitoring device,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They] further directed search efforts away from the nearby body of water.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her parents, who have been married for five years, will return to Georgetown County once extradition proceedings have been completed. It\u2019s not clear when they fled to Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Geordyn Hayes, Saylor\u2019s mom, shared a snap in December 2024 of the family sitting on a wooden bench. Facebook\/Geordyn Hayes<\/p>\n

Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver lamented Saylor\u2019s death after sheriffs revealed her parents had been charged.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents and caregivers have a fundamental responsibility to protect children who cannot protect themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the evidence establishes probable cause to believe that a child has been unlawfully placed in circumstances that endanger that child\u2019s safety, law enforcement has a responsibility to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaylor was a vulnerable five-year-old child who depended upon the adults responsible for her care and protection. She deserved to be safe. She deserved to be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saylor\u2019s cause of death has not yet been confirmed. An autopsy is set to take place on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other agencies deployed drones, K-9 units and divers, while crews scanned the waterways near where Saylor went missing. Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office\/Facebook<\/p>\n

But her body had no visible signs of trauma, Chase Ridgeway, the Georgetown County Coroner, said, according to WHSV.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe cause and manner of death remain undetermined pending the completion of the autopsy and any necessary additional testing,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saylor\u2019s parents were arrested just hours after Geordyn Hayes paid tribute to her deceased daughter.<\/p>\n

She shared an undated picture<\/a> of Saylor beaming as she came down a slide.<\/p>\n

Saylor had a halo above her head and angel wings on each side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMommy\u2019s little angel,\u201d the text on the picture said.<\/p>\n

Geordyn Hayes also shared clips of Saylor playing on an inflatable water slide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Agents with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources found Saylor\u2019s body in the water near where she was last seen, police said. Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office\/Facebook<\/p>\n

She described it as \u201cworry-free entertainment all summer long\u201d for autistic children that are \u201cattracted to water\u201d but can\u2019t swim.<\/p>\n

Saylor was reported missing just after 12:30 p.m. on Sunday and the mammoth search effort involved drones, K9s, and helicopters fitted with Project Lifesaver equipment.<\/p>\n

Cops believed the helicopter would detect the signal from her bracelet, and nearby docks and the Waccamaw shoreline were searched as part of the investigation.<\/p>\n

Cops realized Saylor wasn\u2019t wearing the transmitter when investigators traced the signal to a vehicle, Blake Andis, the Washington County, Virginia, Sheriff, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe transmitter is attached using a specialized band designed for continuous wear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt cannot simply be unclasped or removed by the client; the band must be physically cut in order to remove the transmitter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Virginia parents of a 5-year-old non-verbal girl who was found dead in a South Carolina waterway have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1015,13082,7373,95160,9,11,10,16703,1065,1843,58],"class_list":["post-336183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-deaths","tag-missing-children","tag-missing-persons","tag-myrtle-beach","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-search-and-rescue","tag-south-carolina","tag-tragedy","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}