Mother’s prior child-abuse charges surface as 5-year-old Saylor Hayes dies in SC waterway

A nonverbal, autistic 5-year-old girl named Saylor Hayes was found dead in a South Carolina waterway after a large search. Her parents, Geordyn Hayes and John Hayes III, were extradited to South Carolina and charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk and willfully abandoning a child in connection with her death, and they are being held without bond. Geordyn Hayes had been arrested in Tennessee six months earlier on separate child-abuse and reckless-disregard-for-life charges involving another child. The case continues with extradition proceedings and ongoing investigation.