A cause of death for 5-year-old Saylor Hayes has been determined by Virginia and South Carolina authorities.
On Monday, November 9, the Washington County, Virginia, Sheriff’s Office announced findings from Georgetown County, South Carolina, coroners, who reported that Saylor died from asphyxia due to drowning, with child neglect as a contributing factor.
A manner of death is currently undetermined as a criminal investigation continues into the events surrounding Saylor’s death.
“This classification reflects the inability to conclusively determine whether Saylor’s death was accidental or the result of a homicidal act,” a Georgetown County Coroner’s Office spokesperson told WCBC on Monday.
Saylor was found dead in a waterway near her family’s Pawleys Island, South Carolina, rental home on August 31, one day after hundreds of locals and law enforcement officials took part in a large-scale search of the area.
The child’s parents, John Herb Hayes III and Geordyn Nichole Hayes, were arrested in Tennessee on September 1 and subsequently charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk/wilfully abandoning a child. (The couple have yet to enter a plea.)
“The body of the missing girl, who had been the subject of an intensive search involving hundreds of people and multiple agencies, was found yesterday morning in the waters near Hagley Landing,” police announced that same day. “Once extradition proceedings are complete, the couple will be transported back to Georgetown County.”
An arrest affidavit laid out accusations that John, 70, and Geordyn, 31, put their daughter “at an unreasonable risk of harm affecting her life and safety by failing to provide supervision and safeguards appropriate for a severely nonverbal, autistic, 5-year-old child with a known affinity to water and a history of elopement.”
Investigators determined that Saylor was not wearing a Project Lifesaver transmitter at the time of her disappearance. She usually wore the device because she tended to wander off when she was unaccompanied by an adult. (The transmitter was allegedly removed before Saylor left her family’s Virginia home though it’s not clear why.)
John and Geordyn were accused by police of complicating search efforts by urging law enforcement to track her Project Lifesaver transmitter.
“[They] encouraged search efforts to be directed toward the use of tracking technology, despite knowing that the child was not wearing the monitoring device,” a warrant read. “[They] further directed search efforts away from the nearby body of water.”
At the time, Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver suggested that the Hayeses may have violated 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,” the sheriff said in a September 1 statement.
Weaver added that Saylor was a “vulnerable five-year-old child who depended upon the adults responsible for her care and protection.”
“She deserved to be safe. She deserved to be protected,” he continued. “These arrests are based upon the evidence developed during this investigation and the applicable law. They should not be interpreted as a determination of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.”
Following her daughter’s death, reports emerged that Geordyn was allegedly charged with child abuse over a completely separate matter six months before Saylor’s death. That case revolved around accusations of child abuse/neglect, plus reckless disregard for life, following an alleged incident with a juvenile male.
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
