WASHINGTON — There was a tearful reunion Friday when a Germantown, Maryland, mom thanked the police officer who found her missing child last Saturday.

“I thought she was dying in my arms,” Mary Wimpy recalled when Sahara, 7, finally was located. “She was pale, she was shaking, she was foaming at the mouth.”

Sahara has autism and is nonverbal. She got away from her caregiver, wandered from home and, after about an hour, was located at a drainage pipe for a nearby pond.

“It was a lot of relief for me to see here there. It was getting a little cold, the wind was whipping. I knew she was probably wet, and she was wet, she was freezing cold when I found her,” Montgomery County Police Officer Jonathon Pruziner said.[custom_gallery]

Wimpy said she is forever grateful that Pruziner decided to get out of his cruiser and walk around that pond. Pruziner said he knew what to do because departmental training taught him autistic children are attracted to water.

“Training, training, training,” said Montgomery County’s Autism and Intellectual Developmental Disabilities Outreach Officer Laurie Reyes.

In addition to training officers, Reyes said her program’s success depends on community outreach and public awareness.

“And, going above and beyond like this officer did,” Reyes said.

Pruziner said it felt good to help reunite the mother and daughter.

“That’s why cops suit up in the morning; is for calls like this,” he said.