A five-year-old girl who went missing from her family's rental home in South Carolina has been found dead, bringing a mass overnight search effort to a devastating end. Saylor Hayes, from Virginia, wandered off from a property on Old Waccamaw Drive in the Hagley Community on Sunday, prompting deputies, K-9 units, boats and hundreds of local residents to join the search alongside emergency management officials.

Her body was recovered by South Carolina Department of Natural Resources agents at around 9.45am on Monday, found in water near where she had last been seen wearing a light blue one-piece bathing suit and a pink-and-white lanyard on her ankle. Authorities had used Project Lifesaver tracking technology and issued a reverse 911 alert to neighbouring homes, but Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver said no signal had been picked up as of Sunday. A coroner will now carry out an autopsy, with the sheriff's office saying the investigation remains ongoing and further details are not yet available.