Add The New York Post on Google The parents of a non-verbal 5-year-old girl found dead in a South Carolina waterway appeared in court Thursday — as it was revealed the mom was previously busted on child abuse and neglect charges involving a different child.
Geordyn Hayes, 31, and her 70-year-old husband, John Herb Hayes III, were arrested in Tennessee Tuesday, a day after the body of their missing daughter, Saylor Hayes, was found following a two-day “intensive search involving hundreds of people and multiple agencies,” authorities said.
The duo appeared in striped prison jumpsuits at an extradition hearing Thursday after being charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk/willfully abandoning a child in connection with her death, Georgetown County Sheriff’s said.
Geordyn Nichole Hayes was arrested Feb. 17 and charged with child abuse and reckless disregard for life in a case involving a juvenile male. Carter County Sheriff's Office In a stomach-turning twist, mom Geordyn Hayes was arrested just six months ago for allegedly abusing another child, according to News 5.
She was taken into custody Feb. 17 and hit with charges including child abuse and reckless disregard for life in another case, involving a juvenile male, the outlet said.
The February warrant alleges she willfully of negligently caused or permitted the child’s life to be endangered, according to the outlet, which said it was not clear if the case had been resolved.
Little Saylor’s body was found Monday, two days into the huge search, authorities said.
Her parents 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.
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.
Saylor’s parents, Geordyn Hayes, 31, and her husband, John Herb Hayes III, 70, were arrested Tuesday after their daughter was found dead in a South Carolina waterway. Facebook/Geordyn Hayes The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office has said the parents will be extradited to South Carolina, and the pair appeared in a Carter County courthouse Thursday morning for a hearing, where they both waived their rights to an attorney hearing and a follow-up extradition hearing.
A status hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 14 if they haven’t been extradited to South Carolina by then.
