Personal Injury Attorney in Pawley's Island, SC.

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, SC (WMBF) - The body of a missing 5-year-old girl who was nonverbal has been recovered after an intensive search.

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

The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office thanked everyone who helped in the search and extended its condolences to Hayes’ family.

The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office first posted about her disappearance at 12:31 p.m. Sunday after she wandered from her family’s rental home along Old Waccamaw Drive in the Hagley Community.

Sheriff Carter Weaver said Hayes and her family are from Virginia.

Search efforts

The sheriff’s office spent hours searching on Sunday and continued the search through the night into Monday.

Deputies tried to track her using Project Lifesaver, a tracking technology typically used to locate people enrolled in the program who may wander.

Multiple agencies and methods were deployed during 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 South Carolina Law Enforcement Division sent a helicopter and underwater drone to assist with the search for several hours, and the U.S. Coast Guard sent a vessel to help with searches as well.

In addition, hundreds of neighbors from the area searched their own properties and surrounding areas and guarded docks, the sheriff’s office said.

Others traveled from the Pee Dee to help with the search, including Crystal Cooper.

“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.

Cooper said she and others stayed past 2 a.m. searching for the child, looking into any place they could think of, such as dog houses.

“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,” Cooper said. “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.”

Another neighbor said they tried tactics to try to get Hayes to approach them, such as walking with pets and getting an ice cream truck to play music throughout the neighborhood.

Ronald Gagliardi said he too stayed past 2 a.m., but after he left, Hayes remained on his and others’ minds.

“It just stays with you,” Gagliardi said. “Last night, even though we were all tired, many of us were talking-- couldn’t sleep without any kind of answers.”

He said he came back to the area in the morning to help continue the search before learning her body was 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,” Gagliardi said.

After learning her body was found, the community is grieving. Flowers were also left near the boat landing where crews were set up.

“It was really sad. I mean, I’m emotional now,” Cooper said. “It’s just-- it’s just heartbreaking, like really heartbreaking.”

A cause of death has not yet been released.

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Denied a rehearing by the Court of Appeals, the town of Pawleys Island and three oceanfront property owners challenging the town’s condemation efforts have asked the state Supreme Court to correct what they say are errors in the appellate court’s opinion on easements for beach renourishment.

The town says it needs the easements from the three owners to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to replace sand on the island’s south end that was lost to Hurricane Ian in 2022. The easements will also allow the Corps to fund future renourishment on the south end beach.

Neither side was happy with the opinion that the three-judge panel Appeals Court issued in June doubling the amount of attorneys fees awarded to the property owners who successfully challenged the town’s efforts to condemn the easements in 2021.

The opinion was critical of the town, saying it “engaged in troubling conduct by seeking unreasonable easements.”

It found that a Circuit Court judge erred in reducing the fee request by the property owners from $175,895 for 950 hours of work to $8,913 for 125 hours of work. The Appeals Court said 250 hours were warranted because “the Town’s behavior may have led to counsel devoting more time to these cases.”

One of the property owners, Barry Stanton, is representing the other two owners, and is not seeking fees for representing himself.

He wants the Supreme Court to grant the fee request or send the matter back to the Circuit Court with instructions on how to determine the fees, including those for appealing the original order.

The town agrees that the Appeals Court erred in its fee award by simply doubling the amount of hours without any justification.

But the primary focus of the town’s request to the Supreme Court is to correct the Appeals Court’s statements that the easements are unnecessary.

“There is absolutely nothing in the record to support the assertion that the Corps did not require the easements,” according to the petition by Will Dillard, who represents the town. “The Corps most certainly does require that these particular easements be obtained.”

The Corps plans to place up to 200,000 cubic yards of offshore sand on the island’s south end, a $14 million project that Corps officials say requires the easements from all 113 property owners in the project area.

The town has commissioned appraisals of the easement areas, a first step toward condemnation.

“Landowners will inevitably attempt to use the mistaken language in the opinion of the Court of Appeals to further object to the Town’s future efforts to take necessary steps to secure this federal funding to protect the Pawleys Island shoreline for the public,” Dillard said in his petition. “Unfortunately, it is highly probable that there will be additional litigation.”

The property owners said in their petition to the high court that the Appeals Court opinion failed to understand the nature of the case, including the likelihood of another condemnation effort.

While the appellate judges called the easements “overly broad,” Stanton said in his petition to the Supreme Court that “the easements were objectionable in appropriating any public access at all” on private property.

He called that “the central evil in the case.”

“What the town sought to impose and appropriate was no different from imposing 50-foot to 70-foot wide perpetual easements for the general public to frolick, day-camp, dig holes, engage in other recreation, or use for any other purpose, the front yards of all five justices of this Court,” Stanton said. “The issue of public access is not a matter of degree.”

The Appeals Court “made many of the same unaddressed errors as the circuit court, but merely doubled the fee award,” he said. “This is unpublished fiat, not an analysis, and is not fair.”

The Appeals Court opinion was “unpublished,” meaning it only applied to the case at hand. Stanton’s petition to the Supreme Court states that the Appeals Court is not allowed to issue unpublished opinions under state law and the court’s rules.

“South Carolina’s judicial tradition of published, written appellate decisions, followed for all people as legal precedents, was in the vanguard of governmental transparency and responsibleness,” he said.

Even though an unpublished opinion, “in the context of this ongoing dispute it is of significant public importance that this Court correct the inaccurate, unsupported language of the Court of Appeals,” Dillard said in his petition.

The Corps of Engineers requirement is “the central factual premise underlying all of this litigation,” he said. “In plain terms, the Town would have absolutely no reason to go to all this trouble if the Corps did not specifically require it.”

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. —

Update from Georgetown County Sheriff's Office:

"The body of missing 5-year-old Saylor Hayes, who has been the subject of an intensive search involving hundreds of people and multiple agencies, was found this morning. Agents with the Department of Natural Resources located her around 9:45 in the waters near the area where she was last seen. Saylor wandered away from a rental home in Hagley Estates in Pawleys Island late yesterday morning. The Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the Department of Natural Resources, Charleston Sheriff’s Office, SLED, Horry County Fire Department, Midway Fire Department, Georgetown County Fire Department, Georgetown County Emergency Services, and Georgetown City Fire Department. 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."

Original reporting:

Authorities in South Carolina continue to search for a missing nonverbal 5-year-old who wandered off on Pawleys Island on Sunday.

SaylorHayes was last seen Sunday afternoon on Old Waccamaw Drive.

Saylor is 3’6” with blond hair and blue eyes and was last wearing a one-piece light blue bathing suit and a pink and white lanyard around her ankle. Authorities say Sailor is nonverbal, but she will respond positively if you speak with her calmly and slowly.

Georgetown County Sheriff's Office

On Sunday, Project Lifesaver equipment was deployed on land and by helicopter by the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office for hours, trying to get a signal from the device Saylor was wearing.

Georgetown County Sheriff's Office

(Project Lifesaver is an emergency search-and-rescue program designed to quickly locate individuals with cognitive conditions—such as Alzheimer's, dementia, autism, or Down syndrome—who are prone to wandering or eloping.)

On Monday, divers from the Department of Natural Resources will continue the underwater search as needed.

Georgetown County Sheriff's Office

If anyone locates Saylor, they are asked to call 911.

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GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – Search efforts continued through the night as authorities worked to find a missing 5-year-old who wandered away from a Pawleys Island-area home. The search will continue Monday morning.

Deputies, boats and K-9 teams remained actively searching overnight for Sailor Hayes, who was reported missing Sunday from a home on Old Waccamaw Drive in the Hagley community.

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

The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office said Hayes is nonverbal and urged anyone who encounters her to approach calmly. “She may not respond to you verbally but will react positively to a gentle tone, smiles, and slow movements,” the sheriff’s office said.

Hayes is described as 3 feet, 6 inches tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a one-piece bathing suit and a pink-and-white lanyard around her ankle.

The search intensified throughout Sunday as multiple agencies joined the effort.

Midway Fire and the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol searched waterways and shorelines while volunteers monitored nearby docks. Officials also issued a CodeRED alert to area residents, and neighbors joined the search.

A Charleston County Sheriff’s Office helicopter equipped with Project Lifesaver technology was deployed to assist from the air.

“Because the signal is being beamed from the air, it is wider and less impeded by topography and is more likely to pick up the signal from 5-year-old Sailor Hayes’ transponder,” officials said.

Horry County personnel searched nearby docks, and dive teams examined approximately 200 yards underwater near the rental property where Hayes’ family is staying.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is expected to continue underwater search operations Monday, while deputies and other crews remain focused on locating the child.

The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office said Hayes wandered away from the home Sunday. The Hagley Boat Landing remains closed until further notice, and boaters are being asked to use caution in the area.

PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC (WMBF) - Pawleys Island is receiving federal help to fight chronic flooding.

Congressman Russell Fry and his staff secured $1.5 million to address long-standing drainage problems in the island’s Bird’s Nest area.

When Pawleys Island is hit with heavy rain or king tides, roads like Springs Avenue can end up with up to two feet of water covering the roads.

Just last night, water from a storm filled Springs Avenue, and patches of water remain in the area. This stormwater project is looking to lessen that impact.

Town leaders say sea level rise and heavy rainfall have caused repeated flooding and standing water on the island, a problem common on the South Carolina coast.

The town adopted a master drainage plan earlier this year, which helped kickstart the first phase of a broader five-to-10-year resilience plan estimated to cost around $60 million. The plan will benefit areas across the island.

Mayor Brian Henry said the town will address flooding across the island.

“The town is going to embark on a 5- to 10-year plan to address flooding across the island. The 1st 5 years, our focus is going to be putting in infrastructure, changing out some of the old, antiquated drainage,” Henry said.

The improvements will install reinforced concrete piping, add tide gates and catch basins, and build underground storage to hold and slowly release stormwater.

The project is also expected to incrementally add around six inches to road elevations across targeted areas.

Fry and his staff secured the $1.5 million to address long-standing drainage problems in the Bird’s Nest area.

“This really marks the first time in nearly 20 years that a House member that represents this area was able to bring back direct appropriations back to the people that they represent,” Fry said.

The initial focus of the Bird’s Nest project is on Doyle Street and Springs Avenue, which currently have no drainage infrastructure, causing standing water up to a foot deep in a heavily used pedestrian area near beach access points.

Councilman Paul Groce said the town estimates significant revenue losses if roads are not elevated.

“We estimate that without roads being elevated over the next 5 to 6 years, we could begin losing up to $6 million a year in revenue, a combination of both taxes as well as business revenue,” Groce said.

Henry said flooding and sea level rise are challenges up and down the South Carolina coast.

“This is a challenge: sea level rise, flooding, all up and down the South Carolina coast. But Pawleys Island has a plan, and we wanna be a leader in this effort,” Henry said.

Pawleys Island officials say they plan to break ground in 2027 in the Bird’s Nest area.

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