Wayne David Hays is a fictional character in the third season of the anthology crime drama television series True Detective on HBO.

[6] Ali was praised for his performance for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

As a child, Hays had dyslexia and later in life confessed that he is not an avid reader because of that experience besides reading some Batman and Silver Surfer comics.

He served in the United States Army, completing two tours in the Vietnam War as a member of a long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) team in the 75th Infantry Regiment.

In 1990, Amelia writes Life and Death and the Harvest Moon, a successful book about the missing children case Hays was investigating when they met.

Hays is a peaceful, calm man tending to play a role of a good cop, while West, who is also a Vietnam veteran, is more aggressive and quicker to resort to violence.

[9][10] The filmmaker, Elisa Montgomery (Sarah Gadon), believes the children were kidnapped and murdered by a pedophile ring, similar to a Louisiana case resolved in 2012.

In 1980, Hays and West find Will dead in a cave, and come to suspect a local Native American man named Brett Woodard (Michael Greyeyes).

In 1990, Amelia writes a book about the case, which puts a strain on her and Hays' marriage; he believes she is trying to capitalize on the Purcell family's pain, while she thinks he is trying to control her.

The case is reopened when the children's mother Lucy (Mamie Gummer) is murdered, and a woman claiming to be Julie calls the police, asking them to stop looking for her.

After talking to Montgomery, Hays contacts West for the first time in 25 years to help him solve the case once and for all, before he loses his cognitive faculties completely.