Parents arrested in Tennessee after 5-year-old girl found dead near Pawleys Island
GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) — The parents of the missing nonverbal 5-year-old girl who was found dead in the water Monday morning were arrested. John Herb Hayes III and Geordyn Nichole Hayes were arrested in Carter County, Tennessee and are both charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk/willfully abandoning a child for their actions in the disappearance and subsequent death of their child. Geordyn Hayes said her daughter Saylor Hayes wandered off from a Pawleys Island-area rental home Sunday morning. Georgetown County deputies and neighborhood volunteers spent two days searching, with the Midway Fire Department, the Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol, drones from the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgetown County Fire Department assisting as well. The affidavit alleged that Saylor had been equipped with a monitoring device since 2024, but it was removed before leaving Virginia.
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Sheriff Carter Weaver released a statement following the arrest: The death of Saylor Hayes is a heartbreaking tragedy that has deeply affected our community and everyone who worked so hard to find her. 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.
