Parents, 70 and 31, arrested after missing nonverbal five-year-old found dead in water

The parents of five-year-old girl Saylor Hayes have been arrested and charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk and wilfully abandoning a child after her body was found in water.

Georgetown County Sheriff's Office said that 70-year-old John Herb Hayes III and 31-year-old Geordyn Nichole Hayes were arrested over allegations surrounding their part in the death of their daughter.

Saylor was a nonverbal young girl who was found dead in a body of water in South Carolina on Monday (31 August) after a significant search effort.

According to the New York Post she was supposed to have been wearing a Project Lifesaver transmitter, which was instead traced to a vehicle in Virginia, where the family lived.

The family had been visiting Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and Saylor was left unsupervised near a body of water before she went missing.

John Herb Hayes III and Geordyn Nicole Hayes were arrested in Tennessee after their daughter's body was found (Facebook/Geordyn Hayes)

Arrest warrants for the parents claim that they encouraged search efforts to track the signal from Saylor's transmitter even though they knew she wasn't wearing it.

The warrant further alleges that the parents 'further directed search efforts away from the nearby body of water', and said that Saylor had a 'known affinity to water and history of elopement'.

Police only realised that the girl wasn't wearing her transmitter bracelet and thus it couldn't be used to find her when they tracked it down to the vehicle in another state.

She'd had the transmitter since 2024 but it had been removed before the family had journeyed to South Carolina.

John Herb Hayes III and Geordyn Nichole Hayes were arrested and charged in Carter County, Tennessee, for their actions towards their missing daughter before and after her disappearance.

They will be extradited back to Georgetown County.

In their arrest warrants police alleged the parents had urged them to search for Saylor's transmitter bracelet even though they knew she wasn't wearing it (Georgetown County Sheriff's Office)

In a statement the Sheriff's Office said: "The death of Saylor Hayes is a heartbreaking tragedy that has deeply affected our community and everyone who worked so hard to find her.

"From the beginning, our responsibility has been to follow the evidence wherever it led. Following an extensive investigation, Saylor’s parents have been arrested and charged under South Carolina law relating to unlawfully placing a child at risk of or causing harm, or willfully abandoning a child.

"Parents and caregivers have a fundamental responsibility to protect children who cannot protect themselves. When the evidence establishes probable cause to believe that a child has been unlawfully placed in circumstances that endanger that child’s safety, law enforcement has a responsibility to act."

They said that the five-year-old had been a vulnerable child 'who depended upon the adults responsible for her care and protection' and deserved to be protected.

Georgetown County Sheriff's Office thanked everyone who'd participated in the search efforts and reminded people that arrests 'should not be interpreted as a determination of guilt'.