When she wandered away from her family’s rental home on August 30, 2026, the Project Lifesaver tracking transmitter belonging to Saylor Hayes, the nonverbal five-year-old girl found dead in the water near Pawleys Island, S.C., was nowhere near her. On Tuesday, September 1, Washington County, Virginia, Sheriff Blake Andis said the device’s radio signal led deputies to a vehicle parked at the girl’s home in the Bristol area — hundreds of miles from where crews were searching.
Saylor, her parents and her sibling had been staying at a rental home on Old Waccamaw Drive in the Hagley community, a waterfront neighborhood in Georgetown County, when the girl slipped away. Her mother, Geordyn Hayes, reported the child missing. In its first alert, posted at 12:31 p.m. that day, the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office described a child who stood 3 feet 6 inches tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes, dressed in a light blue one-piece bathing suit, with a pink and white lanyard around her ankle. Deputies warned that she was nonverbal, though she responded well to a calm voice, a smile, and slow movements.
Her body was recovered by agents with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources about 9:45 a.m. on August 31, in the water near the spot where she was last seen. Virginia is home to Saylor and her family, Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver said.
Parents Arrested and Charged
A day after her body was recovered, Saylor’s parents were taken into custody in Carter County, Tennessee, on the evening of Tuesday, September 1. The charge against John Herb Hayes III, 70, and Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, according to the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office, is unlawfully placing a child at risk or willfully abandoning a child. As of September 4, both remained held without bond on those charges.
The couple appeared in 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. Having waived extradition, they are scheduled to return to a Tennessee court for a status hearing on September 14, an appearance that would be voided if they are released before then.
Arrest affidavits allege that Saylor had severe nonverbal autism and a known attraction to water, and that she was left unsupervised within about 15 meters of the water. The affidavits further allege that the family removed her monitoring device before leaving Virginia, and that her parents urged searchers to rely on tracking equipment they knew she was not wearing.
“From the beginning, our responsibility has been to follow the evidence wherever it led,” Weaver said in a statement announcing the arrests. The charges rest on evidence developed during the investigation and “should not be interpreted as a determination of guilt,” the sheriff said, adding that the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
It is not the first time the two have faced child neglect allegations. The couple “were embroiled in a series of such cases” before Saylor was found dead in the waterway in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.
How the Transmitter Was Traced
Saylor had been enrolled in Project Lifesaver since June 2024, Andis said. The international search and rescue program helps law enforcement locate at-risk people who may wander, among them those living with autism, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Each enrollee wears a small transmitter that broadcasts an individualized radio frequency, and specially trained personnel can trace that signal to the wearer.
A call from the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office reached Washington County on Sunday, August 30, once Saylor was reported missing; the request was for her transmitter frequency, and Virginia authorities handed it over together with other information. No signal came through for crews in South Carolina, so a second call from Georgetown County asked deputies to look at the girl’s Virginia residence. The frequency registered clearly there, and it pointed them to the transmitter sitting 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 searchers could have reached the girl far sooner had she been wearing the device. No technology can guarantee an outcome, he stressed.
Enrollment in Project Lifesaver is a voluntary choice, and responsibility for keeping the transmitter fastened rests with a parent, guardian or caregiver, according to the sheriff’s office. Designed for continuous wear, the band holding the device cannot be undone by the person wearing it, and cutting it is the only way to take it off. Families enrolled in the program should make sure their loved ones wear the transmitters consistently, Andis urged.
A Search That Drew Hundreds
The Hagley community’s response was enormous. Deputies and volunteers combed yards and marsh on foot while drones flown by the sheriff’s office and Georgetown County Fire covered the area from the air. K-9 teams worked the ground while marine patrol officers and boats ran the shoreline. Divers, meanwhile, went into the water, and about 200 yards of water near the rental home was covered by divers from Horry County.
Searchers carried Project Lifesaver receivers with them on land and aboard a Charleston County Sheriff’s Office helicopter, hoping to pick up a signal. For several hours, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) flew a helicopter and ran an underwater drone; the U.S. Coast Guard contributed a vessel. Authorities closed the Hagley Boat Landing during the operation and told boaters to take care in the area. Also assisting were Midway Fire Rescue, the Horry County Fire Department, the Georgetown County Fire Department, the Georgetown City Fire Department and Georgetown County Emergency Services.
“We’re here until we find her,” Weaver said during the search.
Hundreds of residents combed their own properties, looked over surrounding land and kept watch on local docks. Neighbors tried whatever might draw a shy child into the open, walking their pets and arranging for an ice cream truck to roll through the neighborhood with music playing. Crystal Cooper, a volunteer, drove in from the Pee Dee; she and neighbor Ronald Gagliardi were among those who stayed 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.
Ground searches, boat patrols, drones, K-9 teams and divers pressed on overnight into the next morning. A barrier island about a 25-mile drive south of Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island 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.
Autopsy Scheduled for Friday, September 4
Georgetown County Coroner Chase Ridgeway said an autopsy is set to be performed the morning of Friday, September 4, at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Saylor’s body showed no visible signs of trauma, Ridgeway said, and investigators cannot determine how or why she died until the autopsy and any follow-up testing are finished.