Florida police helped deliver a happy ending to a terrifying situation that began Monday evening when a 5-year-old girl with autism walked away from her home near Tampa. "The panic starts to kick in," Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister tells ABC News of the moment parents realized the girl was not at a neighbor's house. The sheriff's department sent deputies into a heavily-treed wetland to search for the 5-year-old while an aviation unit used a thermal imaging camera to scour the area from above. Authorities had searched thousands of miles by air when a deputy conveyed a message to deputies on the ground, per ABC. "Hey, I think I got her in the woods," said a voice, noting the girl was 80 feet from where other deputies were searching. "She might be able to hear ... if you call her now."
Body camera footage shows three officers making their way through dense trees toward a stretch of muddy water. Only when they're roughly 10 yards from the girl do they see her standing ankle-deep in muck. The footage shows a deputy raising his arms and calling out to the girl, who mimics his behavior before walking toward him. "Let's get you out of the water. I'll get you to everyone," the deputy said as he carried the girl to safety, per the AP. Chronister credited his deputies for turning "a potential tragedy into a hopeful reunion." "She could have slipped, she could have [fallen] in the water and this outcome would have been much different," he tells ABC. The girl, who suffered only scratches, was reunited with her family, People reports. (More missing child stories.)