Body of missing 5-year-old girl recovered after she wandered from family’s rental home

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, SC (WMBF/Gray News) - The body of a nonverbal 5-year-old girl who went missing has been recovered in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

Agents with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources recovered the body of Saylor Hayes around 9:45 a.m. Monday in the water near where she was last seen.

Authorities said Saylor wandered from a rental home she was staying at with her family along Old Waccamaw Drive Sunday afternoon. She was last seen wearing a one-piece light blue bathing suit and a pink-and-white lanyard around her ankle, according to the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office.

“We’re here until we find her,” Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver said Sunday.

Weaver said Saylor and her family are from Virginia.

Deputies were attempting to track Saylor using Project Lifesaver, a tracking technology typically used to locate people enrolled in the program who may wander. Weaver said as of Sunday, there had been no ping for the girl.

Multiple agencies and methods were deployed in the search, including drones, K-9s, divers, search crews along the water and a Charleston County Sheriff’s Office helicopter equipped with Project Lifesaver equipment.

The sheriff’s office sent out a reverse 911 call to neighboring homes earlier on Sunday, and neighbors helped search for Saylor.

Aiden Cooper lives in the area and helped look for Saylor on Sunday.

“Community has really came together, really, really started to focus on finding her, and I really hope we can, we can bring her back home safely,” Cooper said.