Police arrest parents of 5-year-old girl found dead in Georgetown County
One day after the body of five-year-old Saylor Hayes was found in water near her family's Pawleys Island vacation rental home, police in Carter County, Tennessee arrested her parents.
Source: Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office
COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — One day after the body of five-year-old Saylor Hayes was found in water near her family’s Pawleys Island vacation rental home, police in Carter County, Tennessee arrested her parents Tuesday evening.
According to the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO), John Herb Hayes, III and Geordyn Nichole Hayes are each charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk or willfully abandoning a child for their actions in the disappearance and death of Saylor.
Arrest warrants released by GCSO describe Saylor as nonverbal and autistic with a “known affinity to water and history of elopement.” The documents also indicate she usually wore a monitoring device, but it was removed before she and her family left Virginia to come to South Carolina.
Additionally, the warrants said during the search for Saylor, both her parents “encouraged search efforts to be directed toward the use of tracking technology, despite knowing that the child was not wearing the device.”
“Nothing we do can bring Saylor back. What we can do is pursue the truth, seek accountability through our justice system, and continue doing everything within our authority to protect the most vulnerable members of our community,” Sheriff Carter Weaver said in a statement. “I remain extremely grateful to the deputies, investigators, first responders, partner agencies and citizens who worked tirelessly to find Saylor and determine what happened to her. This case is now entering the judicial process, and we will respect that process. Above all, we will remember Saylor and remain committed to ensuring that her life is not forgotten.”
Saylor’s parents will be extradited to South Carolina.
