Parents of Saylor Hayes faced child abuse charges in the past: Newly released court docs

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Va. (TCN) -- Newly released court documents have revealed past charges faced by the parents of Saylor Hayes, a nonverbal 5-year-old girl who went missing and was found dead in a waterway near her family’s vacation home. 

On Aug. 30, Saylor Hayes was reported missing by her parents, 70-year-old John Herb Hayes III and 31-year-old Geordyn Nichole Hayes. The Virginia family had traveled to Georgetown County, South Carolina and was staying at a vacation home. The child loved water and was known to run off. She wore a tracker from Project Lifesaver, a program designed to help find missing people with cognitive conditions.

Public safety agencies such as sheriff’s offices use radio frequencies to locate people wearing the Project Lifesaver bands, WCSC reports. According to Charleston County Sheriff’s master deputy with crime prevention Derek Conkey, it takes about 30 minutes to locate someone wearing the band. “Once it’s on there, it’s actually a woven material through plastic. … It’s not something you’re going to just rip, tear; you have to cut it off.”

Saylor Hayes’ body was found in a waterway on Aug. 31, and her parents were charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk/willfully abandoning a child on Sept. 1. They had allegedly fled to Tennessee, where they were apprehended and booked into jail. An investigation revealed Saylor Hayes’ tracking device had allegedly been removed before the family’s trip. It was located inside a truck on the family’s Virginia property.

During the search for the child, her parents allegedly encouraged the search team to use the tracking device even though they knew she was not wearing it, and they allegedly directed the search team away from the water.

WYFF reports that an autopsy conducted on Saylor Hayes found she suffered pulmonary edema caused by fluid buildup in the lungs restricting the flow of air. Further testing will be done, according to the Georgetown County Medical Examiner’s Office, and cause and manner of death have yet to be officially determined.

On Sept. 8, WYCB obtained court documents from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office regarding the criminal history of John Herb Hayes III and Geordyn Hayes. The documents state that authorities responded to their address in 2023 for a report of substance abuse concerns, and their children were taken away from the home and put in foster care. The parents were both charged with two counts of felony child abuse and neglect. According to the documents, only Saylor Hayes’ father was indicted, and the charges were dismissed.

The court documents say Geordyn Hayes was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of reckless disregard for human life and child endangerment in connection with the alleged treatment of a male infant, WCYB reports. She was allegedly intoxicated at the time. Her preliminary hearing in that case was scheduled for approximately two weeks prior to Saylor Hayes going missing.

According to WYFF, a felony child cruelty charged was dropped Aug. 14 and the child abuse charge was amended Aug. 17 to contributing to the delinquency of a minor. It was resolved in court and Geordyn Hayes was ordered to pay a fee of $546. Her hearing for public intoxication is scheduled for March 12, 2027.

According to WCYB, both John Herb Hayes III and Geordyn Hayes are behind bars without bond.

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