A newly released 911 call is shedding light on the frantic moments after 5-year-old Saylor Hayes disappeared from a South Carolina rental home.
John Herb Hayes III called 911 shortly before 11:40 a.m. on Aug. 30 from a rental property in Pawleys Island. During the call, he told the dispatcher that his young daughter, who was nonverbal and autistic, had “just escaped.” He described what she was wearing and explained that she had been secured in a vehicle while the family prepared to go to the beach.
Hayes said he briefly went inside to get juice and other items. When he returned, he said, Saylor was gone. As the call continued, he became increasingly frantic, telling the dispatcher that he needed to search the nearby water and find his daughter.
Authorities launched a massive search involving deputies, firefighters, drones, a helicopter, a marine unit and a South Carolina Department of Natural Resources dive team. More than 200 local residents also joined the search effort.
On Monday, Sept. 1, officials found Saylor’s body in waters near where she had disappeared. Authorities have not released her cause or manner of death.
The case took another turn when Saylor’s parents, John Hayes, 70, and Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, were arrested in Tennessee. They are accused under South Carolina law of putting their daughter in danger or abandoning her. Arrest warrants also allege that the couple directed search efforts toward a tracking device they knew Saylor was not wearing and away from nearby water. The warrants do not establish what the parents knew about the device or what instructions they gave searchers.
The investigation remains ongoing as authorities work to determine exactly what happened to Saylor.