A 5-year-old nonverbal girl was found dead after wandering away in a bathing suit from her family’s vacation rental in South Carolina, authorities said.
The body of Saylor Hayes was discovered around 9:45 a.m. Monday following “an intensive search involving hundreds of people and multiple agencies,” the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office announced.
Agents with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources located Saylor’s body in the water near the area where she had last been seen, police said.
Saylor, who was visiting from Virginia, disappeared Sunday after leaving her rental home in Hagley Estates in Pawleys Island, a coastal community roughly 30 miles from Myrtle Beach.
At the time she went missing, she was wearing a light blue one-piece bathing suit and had a pink-and-white lanyard around her ankle with a tracking device attached.
For hours, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office used Project Lifesaver equipment on the ground and from a helicopter in an effort to detect a signal from the device Saylor was wearing, police said.
Project Lifesaver is an emergency search-and-rescue program created to help quickly locate people with cognitive conditions, including Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism and Down syndrome, who may be prone to wandering or elopement.
Several other agencies joined the search, deploying drones, K-9 teams and divers as crews combed the nearby waterways where Saylor had vanished.
The search also drew volunteers from across the region.
Crystal Cooper said she traveled about 80 miles from her home in Peedee, SC, to help with the search, WMBF News reported.
“I just got so emotionally invested in it yesterday [Sunday] because this little girl needed us and my momma heart was in it,” Cooper said.
A neighbor who joined the search said volunteers tried everything to lure Saylor out — including walking pets through the area and bringing in an ice cream truck to play music throughout the neighborhood, WMBF News reported.
Another resident, Ronald Gagliardi, said he and others stayed out past 2 a.m. searching for the missing 5-year-old.
Gagliardi told the outlet he was heartbroken to hear the news Monday morning that Saylor’s body had been found.
“Decided to come in this morning to continue the search, although they found her now, which is, you know, it’s devastating, but it’s at least a positive thing for the family that, you know, she was recovered,” he said.
“It was really sad. I mean, I’m emotional now,” Cooper also told the outlet of the news.
“It’s just — it’s just heartbreaking, like really heartbreaking.”
Authorities have not yet released a cause of death.
Following the devastating discovery, officials praised the hundreds of volunteers and multiple agencies who gave everything they had to find Saylor.
“Hundreds of residents from the area searched their own properties and surrounding areas and guarded local docks,” the sheriff’s office said.
“The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office thanks everyone who assisted in the search and sends its deepest condolences to the young girl’s family.”
As the community grieves, flowers have been left near the boat landing where search crews had been stationed, WMBF News reported.
