The 5-year-old non-verbal autistic girl found dead on her South Carolina vacation died of injuries consistent with drowning, according to an autopsy released Friday.<\/p>\n
The examination found Saylor Hayes died of pulmonary edema, a condition where fluid builds up in the lungs making it hard to breathe, WMBF reported<\/a>, citing the Georgetown County Coroner\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n There were no signs of visible trauma to the little girl\u2019s body, which was found Aug. 31 in a waterway not far from her family\u2019s vacation home on Pawleys Island, according to the autopsy conducted by Medical University of South Carolina.<\/p>\n Saylor Hayes, a nonverbal 5-year-old girl, disappeared and was later found dead after wandering from a rental home wearing only a bathing suit in South Carolina on Aug. 30. Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office\/Facebook<\/p>\n No official cause of death has been determined yet \u2014 and the final autopsy report will be released in around eight to 10 weeks.<\/p>\n Saylor, who is from Virginia, was found wearing a bathing suit and a strap attached to her ankle which resembled a child\u2019s wrist tether, GCCO said.<\/p>\n The initial autopsy results come just days after the 5-year-old\u2019s parents<\/a>, John Herb Hayes III, 70, and his wife Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, were arrested in Tennessee on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Geordyn Nichole Hayes is seen in an undated mugshot. Hayes, the mother of 5-year-old Saylor Hayes, was arrested on child abuse and neglect charges involving another child earlier this year. Carter County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n Both parents face charges of unlawfully placing a child at risk<\/a> and willfully abandoning a child in connection with the death of their daughter.<\/p>\n They 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