The 5-year-old non-verbal autistic girl found dead on her South Carolina vacation died of injuries consistent with drowning, according to an autopsy released Friday.

The examination found Saylor Hayes died of pulmonary edema, a condition where fluid builds up in the lungs making it hard to breathe,, citing the Georgetown County Coroner’s Office.

There were no signs of visible trauma to the little girl’s body, which was found Aug. 31 in a waterway not far from her family’s vacation home on Pawleys Island, according to the autopsy conducted by Medical University of South Carolina.

Saylor Hayes, a nonverbal 5-year-old girl, disappeared and was later found dead after wandering from a rental home wearing only a bathing suit in South Carolina on Aug. 30.Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook

No official cause of dєatᩚh has been determined yet — and the final autopsy report will be released in around eight to 10 weeks.

Saylor, who is from Virginia, was found wearing a bathing suit and a strap attached to her ankle which resembled a child’s wrist tether, GCCO said.

The initial autopsy results come just days after, John Herb Hayes III, 70, and his wife Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, were arrested in Tennessee on Tuesday.

Geordyn Nichole Hayes is seen in an undated mugshot. Hayes, the mother of 5-year-old Saylor Hayes, was arrested on child 𝘢bu𝘴e and neglect charges involving another child earlier this year.Carter County Sheriff’s Office

Both parents face charges of and willfully abandoning a child in connection with the dєatᩚh of their daughter.

They have been 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.

The couple, who have been married for five years, waived extradition in a Tennessee court Thursday and were released to the custody of the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office Friday morning,

It is unclear why Saylor’s parents fled over 300 miles north to the Volunteer State.

Tuesday’s arrest was not the first time the couple faced charges relating to the mistreatment of children.

The parents were charged in July 2023 with two counts each of felony child 𝘢bu𝘴e involving reckless or willfull disregard for human life for an incident in Washington County, Virigina, WYFF reported, citing court records.

One year later, the couple pleaded nolo contendere to the charges — meaning they accepted the court’s punishment without admitting or denying guilt — and were given two years probation.

Geordyn Nichole Hayes is seen in an undated Facebook photo. Hayes, the mother of 5-year-old Saylor Hayes, was arrested on child 𝘢bu𝘴e and neglect charges involving another child earlier this year.Facebook/Geordyn Hayes

The case was dismissed in early 2026.

Geordyn had another run in with the law in February of this year when she was 𝘴ℓappєḋ with several charges, including felony child cruelty and unlawful conduct towards a child and felony child 𝘢bu𝘴e.

The felony child cruelty charge was dropped on Aug. 14, while the child 𝘢bu𝘴e charge was amended to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, three days later.

The amended matter was resolved in court and Geordyn was ordered to pay nearly $550 in court fees.

In the February bust, the much younger wife was also charged with misdemeanor public intoxication which she pleaded not guilty to on March 12.

Just hours before she was captured in Tennessee, Saylor’s mother paid tribute to her daughter on social media, calling her.”

The girl, who was supposed to wear a Project Lifesaver transmitter because she tended to wander off, was not wearing the device when she walked away from the property during the family’s vacation.

The 5-year-old was reported missing Aug. 30, one day before her little body was discovered in the waterway.

Saylor had been wearing a monitoring device since 2024, but the device had been removed before the family left Virginia, according to her parents’ arrest affidavit.

It’s unclear who removed the tracker or when it was removed.

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