When she wandered away from her family’s rental home on August 30, 2026, Saylor Hayes, the nonverbal five-year-old girl later found dead in the water near Pawleys Island, S.C., was not wearing her Project Lifesaver tracking transmitter. The device’s radio signal led deputies to a vehicle sitting on the property of the girl’s home in the Bristol area of Washington County, Virginia, hundreds of miles from the search, Washington County Sheriff Blake Andis said on September 1.
The girl had been staying with her parents and her sibling at a rental home on Old Waccamaw Drive in the Hagley community, a waterfront neighborhood in Georgetown County, when she slipped away. Her mother, Geordyn Hayes, was the one who reported the child missing. At 12:31 p.m. that day, the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office posted its first alert, listing a child who stood 3 feet 6 inches tall with blonde hair and blue eyes, last seen in a light blue one-piece bathing suit with a pink and white lanyard around her ankle. She was nonverbal, deputies warned, but responded well to a calm voice, a smile, and slow movements.
Her body was recovered about 9:45 a.m. on August 31 by agents with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, who found it in the water near the spot where she was last seen.
Parents Arrested and Charged
A day after her body was recovered, Saylor’s parents were arrested in Tennessee on the evening of September 1. Carter County is where John Herb Hayes III, 70, and Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, were taken into custody, according to the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office, which said each was charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk.
The couple went before a Tennessee court on September 3 for extradition proceedings — their first appearance since being charged — and waived their rights to attorney hearings and to other extradition proceedings. They were returned to South Carolina the following day. “Both have been booked into the Georgetown County Detention Center,” the station reported. A bond hearing was scheduled for Saturday, September 5.
Saylor had severe nonverbal autism and a known attraction to water, according to arrest affidavits, which allege she was left unsupervised within about 15 meters — roughly 50 feet — of the water. Removal of her monitoring device took place before the family left Virginia, the affidavits also allege, and her parents are accused of urging searchers to use the tracking equipment while knowing she was not wearing it.
“The death of Saylor Hayes is a heartbreaking tragedy that has deeply affected our community and everyone who worked so hard to find her,” Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver said in a statement announcing the arrests. “Parents and caregivers have a fundamental responsibility to protect children who cannot protect themselves.” The charges rest on evidence developed during the investigation, the sheriff’s office said, and should not be taken as a determination of guilt; the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Geordyn Hayes had faced charges in Virginia earlier this year in a case that involved a different child. Arrest warrants list the alleged victim as a male minor, not Saylor. One charge, child cruelty, was later dismissed; a second, originally filed as child abuse with disregard for life, was reduced to contributing to the delinquency of a minor and remains pending. The narrative section of the report, which would set out the specific allegations, was redacted. No prior case involving John Hayes III has been documented in the coverage of his arrest.
How the Transmitter Was Traced
Saylor had been enrolled in Project Lifesaver since June 2024, Andis said. Law enforcement agencies use the international search and rescue program to locate at-risk people prone to wandering, including those living with autism, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. A small transmitter worn by each enrollee broadcasts an individualized radio frequency, and specially trained personnel can trace that signal back to the wearer.
After the girl was reported missing on Sunday, August 30, the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office called Washington County and asked for her transmitter frequency, and Virginia authorities provided it along with other details. No signal could be picked up by crews in South Carolina, so Georgetown County called back with a request that deputies check the girl’s Virginia residence. The frequency came through clearly there, leading them to the transmitter inside a vehicle on the property.
“What makes this situation especially heartbreaking is that Saylor did not have her transmitter with her when she went missing,” Andis said. The equipment performed exactly as designed, the sheriff said, and he believes it could have helped searchers reach the girl far sooner had she been wearing it, though he stressed that no technology can guarantee an outcome.
Participation in the program is voluntary, and keeping the transmitter fastened falls to a parent, guardian or caregiver, the sheriff’s office said. Continuous wear is what the band holding the device is made for, and the person wearing it cannot undo it; removal requires cutting it. Families enrolled in Project Lifesaver should make sure their loved ones wear the transmitters consistently, Andis urged.
A Search That Drew Hundreds
The search drew an enormous response in the Hagley community. Deputies and volunteers combed yards and marsh on foot while drones covered the area from the air. Divers went into the water, boats and marine patrol officers ran the shoreline, and K-9 teams worked the ground. Divers from Horry County covered about 200 yards of water near the rental home.
Project Lifesaver receivers went with crews on land and were carried aboard a Charleston County Sheriff’s Office helicopter as well, in hopes of picking up a signal. A helicopter and an underwater drone came from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) for several hours, and a vessel was contributed by the U.S. Coast Guard. While the operation was underway, authorities closed the Hagley Boat Landing and told boaters to take care in the area. Assisting agencies also included the Horry County Fire Department, Midway Fire Rescue, the Georgetown County Fire Department, Georgetown County Emergency Services and the Georgetown City Fire Department.
“We’re here until we find her,” Weaver said during the search.
Hundreds of residents went over their own properties, checked surrounding land and stood watch over local docks. One neighbor told WMBF that people tried whatever might coax a shy child into the open, walking with their pets and arranging for an ice cream truck to roll through the neighborhood playing music. Volunteer Crystal Cooper, who drove in from the Pee Dee, and neighbor Ronald Gagliardi were among those who searched past 2 a.m., peering into every hiding place they could think of, dog houses included. Cooper said she could not bring herself to leave, and Gagliardi said the search stayed with him through a sleepless night.
Crews kept going overnight and into the next morning with ground searches, boat patrols, drones, K-9 teams and divers. Pawleys Island, a barrier island about a 25-mile drive south of Myrtle Beach, is a summer destination thick with tidal creeks and docks. Once word spread that Saylor had been found, mourners left flowers near the boat landing where crews had staged. The sheriff’s office thanked the agencies, first responders, and residents who joined the effort and offered condolences to the family.
What the Autopsy Found
An autopsy was performed on September 4 at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. It found pulmonary edema — fluid in the lungs — and no visible signs of trauma, according to autopsy findings released by Georgetown County Coroner Chase Ridgeway. The cause and manner of Saylor’s death remain undetermined. A final report is expected within eight to 10 weeks.