Missing non-verbal girl, 5, found dead after leaving South Carolina vacation home
A MISSING five-year-old girl has tragically been found dead after wandering away from her family’s vacation home.
Saylor Hayes, who was non-verbal, sparked a desperate overnight search involving hundreds of people after disappearing on Sunday.
Her body was recovered from a waterway near where she was last seen in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, at around 9.45am on Monday, authorities said.
Agents with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources made the heartbreaking discovery following an intensive search involving helicopters, drones, K-9s and divers.
Saylor, who was visiting from Virginia with her family, had wandered away from their rental home in the Hagley Community.
She was last seen wearing a light blue one-piece bathing suit and had a pink and white lanyard with a tracking device attached around her ankle.
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Crews desperately tried to pick up a signal from the device using Project Lifesaver equipment both on the ground and from a Charleston County Sheriff’s Office helicopter.
The technology is designed to help locate vulnerable people with cognitive conditions who may be prone to wandering.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division also deployed a helicopter and underwater drone, while the US Coast Guard sent a vessel to scour the area.
Hundreds of locals joined the huge search effort, checking properties and guarding docks as crews combed nearby waterways through the night.
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Some volunteers even walked pets around the neighborhood and brought in an ice cream truck to play music in a desperate bid to coax Saylor towards searchers, WMBF reported.
Crystal Cooper traveled around 80 miles to help find the youngster and remained searching until after 2am.
She told WMBF: “I just got so emotionally invested in it yesterday [Sunday] because this little girl needed us and my momma heart was in it.”
Cooper added: “You know, we felt if we left, we were giving up on her; we were leaving her, in a sense. I guess that’s the parent in us, you know.
“So we would all be like ‘Oh we gotta go, we gotta go,’ and then we were here for like another hour, we’re standing here still.”
Local Ronald Gagliardi also searched into the early hours before returning on Monday morning to continue helping.
But by then, Saylor had tragically been found.
He said: “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.”
Cooper said the discovery left the community devastated.
“It was really sad. I mean, I’m emotional now,” she said.
“It’s just – it’s just heartbreaking, like really heartbreaking.”
Flowers have since reportedly been placed near the boat landing where search crews had been stationed.
The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office thanked the army of volunteers and agencies that helped with the operation.
It said: “Hundreds of residents from the area searched their own properties and surrounding areas and guarded local docks.”
“The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office thanks everyone who assisted in the search and sends its deepest condolences to the young girl’s family.”
Saylor’s cause of death has not yet been released.
