Saylor Hayes autopsy results released days after parents arrested, extradited

The 5-year-old non-verbal autistic girl found dead on her South Carolina vacation died of injuries consistent with drowning, according to an autopsy released Friday.

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The examination found Saylor Hayes died of pulmonary edema, a condition where fluid builds up in the lungs making it hard to breathe, WMBF reported, citing the Georgetown County Coroner’s Office.

There were no signs of visible trauma to the little girl’s body, which was found Aug. 31 in a waterway not far from her family’s vacation home on Pawleys Island, according to the autopsy conducted by Medical University of South Carolina.

No official cause of death has been determined yet — and the final autopsy report will be released in around eight to 10 weeks.

Saylor, who is from Virginia, was found wearing a bathing suit and a strap attached to her ankle which resembled a child’s wrist tether, GCCO said.

The initial autopsy results come just days after the 5-year-old’s parents, John Herb Hayes III, 70, and his wife Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, were arrested in Tennessee on Tuesday.

Both parents face charges of unlawfully placing a child at risk and willfully abandoning a child in connection with the death of their daughter.

They have been accused of putting Saylor “at an unreasonable risk of harm affecting her life and safety by failing to provide supervision and safeguards appropriate for a severely nonverbal, autistic, five-year-old child with a known affinity to water and a history of elopement,” the arrest affidavit states.

The couple, who have been married for five years, waived extradition in a Tennessee court Thursday and were released to the custody of the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office Friday morning, WYFF reported. 

It is unclear why Saylor’s parents fled over 300 miles north to the Volunteer State.

Tuesday’s arrest was not the first time the couple faced charges relating to the mistreatment of children.

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The parents were charged in July 2023 with two counts each of felony child abuse involving reckless or willfull disregard for human life for an incident in Washington County, Virigina, WYFF reported, citing court records. 

One year later, the couple pleaded nolo contendere to the charges — meaning they accepted the court’s punishment without admitting or denying guilt — and were given two years probation. 

The case was dismissed in early 2026.

Geordyn had another run in with the law in February of this year when she was slapped with several charges, including felony child cruelty and unlawful conduct towards a child and felony child abuse. 

The felony child cruelty charge was dropped on Aug. 14, while the child abuse charge was amended to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, three days later. 

The amended matter was resolved in court and Geordyn was ordered to pay nearly $550 in court fees. 

In the February bust, the much younger wife was also charged with misdemeanor public intoxication which she pleaded not guilty to on March 12. 

Just hours before she was captured in Tennessee, Saylor’s mother paid tribute to her daughter on social media, calling her “Mommy’s little angel.”

The girl, who was supposed to wear a Project Lifesaver transmitter because she tended to wander off, was not wearing the device when she walked away from the property during the family’s vacation. 

The 5-year-old was reported missing Aug. 30, one day before her little body was discovered in the waterway. 

Saylor had been wearing a monitoring device since 2024, but the device had been removed before the family left Virginia, according to her parents’ arrest affidavit.

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It’s unclear who removed the tracker or when it was removed.