This terrifying ordeal has a happy ending. All thanks to a Michigan State Police helicopter pilot.

An 83-year-old woman wandered out of her home in rural Western Michigan. The woman, who has dementia, walked through the woods away from Waverly Township, MI for about a mile. She got turned around in the woods and finally stopped in a swamp about 100 feet from a road. With the nearby Paw Paw River masking any recognizable sounds, her predicament must have seemed especially helpless.

Then a sound echoed through the trees. The rotor of a Michigan State Police helicopter. In the background of the video from the helicopter, it sounds like she shouted for help. She began to walk around again and to wave.

The helicopter pilot radioed to the search party on the nearby road good-naturedly. “We’ve located the young lady here.”

Then, well the pilot circled overhead, he expertly guided the ground team from a point on the road, along an easy-to-traverse treeline, and into the swamp where the lost woman had fallen down. 

The helicopter pilot called “Good work. Appreciate the help,” as the crew carried her out of the woods. The MSP dubbed it a “happy ending” and released the video embedded below: