The Project Lifesaver tracking transmitter assigned to Saylor Hayes, the nonverbal five-year-old girl found dead in the water near Pawleys Island, S.C., was not with her when she wandered away from her family’s rental home on August 30, 2026. Washington County, Virginia, Sheriff Blake Andis said Tuesday, September 1, that his deputies traced the device’s radio signal to a vehicle parked on the property of the girl’s home in the Bristol area, hundreds of miles from the search.
Saylor slipped away from the rental home on Old Waccamaw Drive in the Hagley community, a waterfront neighborhood in Georgetown County. Her father, John Hayes, called 911 to report her missing. The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office posted its first alert at 12:31 p.m. that day, describing a child who stood 3 feet 6 inches tall with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a light blue one-piece bathing suit and a pink and white lanyard around her ankle. Deputies warned that she was nonverbal but responded well to a calm voice, a smile, and slow movements.
South Carolina Department of Natural Resources agents recovered her body about 9:45 a.m. on August 31 in the water near the spot where she was last seen. Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver said Saylor and her family are from Virginia.
Parents Arrested and Charged
Saylor’s parents were arrested in Tennessee on the evening of Tuesday, September 1, a day after her body was recovered. John Herb Hayes III, 70, and Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, were taken into custody in Carter County and each charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk or willfully abandoning a child, the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office said. The couple appeared in a Tennessee court on September 3, waiving both their right to an attorney for that hearing and their right to an extradition hearing. South Carolina authorities collected them the next morning, and they were booked into the Georgetown County Detention Center on Friday, September 4. A Georgetown County magistrate, Steven Pop, denied both of them bond at a hearing on Saturday, September 5, citing the egregious nature of the charges and the couple’s past criminal histories.
Arrest affidavits allege that Saylor, who had severe nonverbal autism and a known attraction to water, was left unsupervised within about 15 meters, or roughly 49 feet, of the water, that her monitoring device was removed before the family left Virginia, and that her parents urged searchers to use the tracking equipment while knowing she was not wearing it.
“From the beginning, our responsibility has been to follow the evidence wherever it led,” Weaver said in a statement announcing the arrests. The sheriff said the charges rest on evidence developed during the investigation and “should not be interpreted as a determination of guilt,” adding that the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
How the Transmitter Was Traced
Sheriff Andis said Saylor had been enrolled in Project Lifesaver since June 2024. The international search and rescue program is built to help law enforcement find at-risk people who may wander, among them those living with autism, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Enrollees wear a small transmitter that broadcasts an individualized radio frequency, which specially trained personnel can follow to the wearer.
On Sunday, August 30, after Saylor was reported missing, the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office called Washington County and asked for her transmitter frequency, which Virginia authorities provided along with other information. When crews in South Carolina could not pick up the signal, Georgetown County called back and asked deputies to check the girl’s Virginia residence. There, the frequency came through clearly — 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 sheriff said the equipment performed exactly as designed, and that had the girl been wearing the device, he believes it could have helped searchers reach her far sooner, though he stressed that no technology can guarantee an outcome.
Participation in Project Lifesaver is voluntary, and the sheriff’s office said the job of keeping the transmitter fastened falls to a parent, guardian or caregiver. The band that holds the device is made for continuous wear and cannot be undone by the person wearing it; taking it off means cutting it. Andis urged families enrolled in the program to make sure their loved ones wear the transmitters consistently.
A Search That Drew Hundreds
The response in the Hagley community was enormous. Deputies and volunteers searched yards and marsh by foot, with drones operated by the sheriff’s office and Georgetown County Fire covering the area from the air. K-9 teams worked the ground, boats and marine patrol officers ran the shoreline, and divers went into the water. Divers from Horry County covered about 200 yards of water near the rental home.
Searchers brought Project Lifesaver receivers with them both on land and inside a Charleston County Sheriff’s Office helicopter, hoping to pick up a signal. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) sent a helicopter and an underwater drone for several hours, and the U.S. Coast Guard contributed a vessel. Authorities shut the Hagley Boat Landing while the operation was underway 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 searched their own properties, checked surrounding land and stood watch over local docks. Neighbors tried anything that 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. Crystal Cooper, a volunteer who drove in from the Pee Dee, and Ronald Gagliardi, a neighbor, were among those who stayed past 2 a.m., peering into every hiding place they could think of, including dog houses. 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 continued overnight into the next morning. Pawleys Island, a barrier island about a 25-mile drive south of Myrtle Beach, is a summer destination thick with tidal creeks and docks. After 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 Finds No Trauma and No Cause of Death
A forensic pathologist performed the autopsy on Friday, September 4, at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. It found fluid in Saylor’s lungs and no visible signs of trauma, the Georgetown County Coroner’s Office said, and her cause and manner of death remain undetermined. Coroner Chase Ridgeway’s office expects the final autopsy report in eight to 10 weeks.
