TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A missing 11-year-old girl was safely reunited with her family on Friday night, thanks to the help of a Hillsborough County Sheriff K-9, who found the girl locked inside a bathroom at a nearby park.
According to the sheriff’s office, Deputy Sarah Ernstes and K-9 Mary Lu were dispatched around 7:57 p.m. to the 16000 block of Carlton Lake Drive to help search for the missing and endangered girl.
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HCSO said Ernstes and Mary Lu “quickly jumped into action,” tracking the 11-year-old to a neighbor’s house, where they learned the residents had given her a ride to an apartment complex in Wimauma.
As deputies arrived at the location, Mary Lu led authorities to a locked bathroom door at a park in the area, where deputies found the missing 11-year-old.
Body camera footage of the night shows the K-9 lead deputies to the bathroom.
“She does have happy tail over here at these bathrooms, which she only does when she’s close to somebody,” Deputy Enstes can be heard saying.