09/06/2026
SAYLOR HAYES UPDATE: HER PARENTS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED. THE PROJECT LIFESAVER DEVICE WAS LEFT AT HOME IN VIRGINIA. AND HER FATHER ALLEGEDLY SENT SEARCHERS IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.
A lot has changed since I first shared her story, and the new details coming out are deeply, and I mean DEEPLY disturbing.
When I told you about Saylor on Monday, I shared the story of a community that came together overnight to search for a five-year-old nonverbal girl who had wandered from a vacation rental in Hagley Estates near Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Hundreds of volunteers. Multiple agencies. Neighbors guarding docks through the dark. A sheriff who said they would stay until they found her.
They found her Monday morning in the water. She was gone.
I told you at the time that this appeared to be a tragic accident. What I did not know then is what investigators apparently already suspected.
TODAY, Tuesday September 1st, both of Saylor's parents were arrested in Carter County, Tennessee. They had allegedly been told not to leave South Carolina following Saylor's death. They left anyway. Geordyn Nichole Hayes is reportedly from the area where they were found.
John Herb Hayes III and Geordyn Nichole Hayes are each charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk and willfully abandoning a child. They will be extradited back to Georgetown County to face those charges once legal proceedings are complete.
Now here is what the arrest warrant affidavits allege.
Saylor Hayes was severely nonverbal, autistic, had a known affinity for water, and had a documented history of wandering off. Her parents knew all of this. The affidavits allege that both parents failed to provide supervision and safeguards appropriate for a child with those specific vulnerabilities.
But it gets worse.
Saylor had been enrolled in the Project Lifesaver program since 2024. Project Lifesaver is a program that equips children and adults with special needs with a GPS tracking transmitter worn on the wrist or ankle. It exists specifically for children like Saylor, kids who wander, kids who cannot communicate, kids who are drawn to water. The family's home base is Bristol, Virginia, and local authorities there confirmed Saylor was enrolled in the Washington County Sheriff's Office Project Lifesaver program.
According to the arrest warrants, that tracking device was removed from Saylor before the family left Virginia for their South Carolina vacation.
During the search on Sunday, investigators spent hours attempting to ping Saylor's Project Lifesaver device from the ground and from a helicopter. They could not get a signal. Now we know why.
It gets even more disturbing from there. According to the warrants, after Saylor was reported missing, her father John Hayes allegedly encouraged searchers to follow the direction the tracking technology would have led them, while allegedly knowing full well that Saylor was not wearing the device. He is further accused of directing attention away from the body of water that was just 15 meters from where Saylor had last been seen.
That tracking device has since been located. It was found inside a vehicle at the family's home in Washington County, Virginia.
Investigators have noted that Saylor was left without supervision roughly 50 feet, from a body of water. For a five-year-old with a known affinity for water and a history of wandering, that distance is everything.
Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver released a statement that said in part: "Saylor deserved to be safe. She deserved to be protected."
John Herb Hayes III and Geordyn Nichole Hayes (pictured below-and no, your eyes aren’t deceiving you-theres about 40 years between them) are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. These are charges, not convictions. But the details in those warrants are something I cannot stop thinking about. Especially after that video I posted of her bizarre behavior in that interview.
An entire community stayed up all night searching for a little girl. They guarded docks in the dark. They walked through woods calling her name. And now we are learning things about the hours before she disappeared that make that search even more heartbreaking than it already was.
Rest easy, sweet Saylor. 💔
Reposted from post by Joseph Westwich.
