The parents of 5-year-old Saylor Hayes will stay in jail after a South Carolina magistrate sharply rejected any chance of bond Saturday, telling the courtroom there was “no way on this earth” he would allow the couple’s release following charges tied to the child’s drowning death.
Georgetown County Magistrate Steven Pop denied bond for John Hayes III, 71, and Geordyn Hayes, 31, both from Virginia. The couple is charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk and willfully abandoning a child after their daughter’s body was discovered on Aug. 31.
The family had been vacationing on Pawleys Island, South Carolina, when Saylor, who was autistic and non-verbal, wandered away. Her disappearance triggered an intensive two-day search before she was found dead in a waterway.
At the hearing, an attorney for John Hayes described the ordeal as “horrific” for the parents and urged the court to consider bond, according to The Post and Courier.
“They want to fight these charges,” attorney Jonny McCoy told the court. “They’ve gone through something horrific.”
Magistrate Pop, however, left no doubt about his decision.
“That’s not going to happen on my watch,” he said in court. “There’s no way on this earth that I’m going to grant a PR bond.”
McCoy represents John Hayes, but not his much younger wife, even though the two cases are closely connected.
An autopsy released Friday indicated Saylor died of injuries consistent with drowning.
The examination found that the young girl died of pulmonary edema — a condition where fluid buildup in the lungs restricts breathing — WMBF reported, citing the Georgetown County Coroner’s Office.
An official cause of death has not yet been determined.
Saylor’s little body was found in a bathing suit with a strap attached to her ankle, which appeared to be a wrist tether, the coroner’s office said.
The girl was supposed to wear a Project Lifesaver transmitter because she tended to wander off, but was not wearing the device when she walked away from the property during the family’s vacation.
John and Georgyn were arrested Tuesday in Tennessee and extradited to South Carolina to face charges.
They are accused of putting Saylor “at an unreasonable risk of harm affecting her life and safety by failing to provide supervision and safeguards appropriate for a severely nonverbal, autistic, five-year-old child with a known affinity to water and a history of elopement,” the arrest affidavit states.
