A Virginia couple have been arrested after their 5-year-old daughter, described as autistic and nonverbal, was found dead in South Carolina waters this week.John Herb Hayes III, 70, and Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, of Bristol, were arrested Monday evening in Carter County, Tennessee, and charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk or willfully abandoning a child, the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office announced.Their daughter, Saylor Hayes, was reported missing Sunday afternoon.Her body was found Monday morning in the waters near Hagley Landing, a boat ramp leading to the Waccamaw River in the small town of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, following an extensive search involving hundreds of people and multiple agencies.The arrest warrant affidavits for the parents say that on Sunday, they placed Saylor at risk of harm by “failing to provide supervision and safeguards appropriate for a severely nonverbal, autistic five-year-old child with known affinity to water and history of elopement.”Saylor Hayes was reported missing Sunday afternoon.
Her body was found Monday morning in the waters near Hagley Landing, a boat ramp in the small town of Pawleys Island, S.C.Georgetown County Sheriff's OfficeThe parents were being held at the Carter County Detention Center in Tennessee without bond pending an extradition hearing.It was not immediately clear Wednesday night whether they have attorneys.Authorities initially said Saylor’s mother reported that her child had wandered off from a rental home in Hagley Estates in Pawleys Island and was last seen wearing her swimsuit.
Deputies said they were trying to track her with a Project Lifesaver transmitter, a wearable device that emits a frequency that law enforcement can track if the wearer goes missing.Saylor had been wearing a Project Lifesaver monitoring device since 2024, but it had been removed before the family left Virginia, the affidavits said.
Then, once she was in South Carolina, Saylor was left unsupervised wit...