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Good Samaritan Saves Sleepwalking Girl, 8, on Side of Road

The grateful mother launched a Facebook campaign to find the stranger who she says is a "hero"

An 8-year-old girl who was found sleepwalking on a busy suburban intersection reunited Monday with the good Samaritan who saved her life.

Bella walked out of her Carol Stream home early Saturday — apparently sleepwalking — and made her way to a busy intersection about a half mile away. Her mother said the family did not hear her leave the home or know she was gone.

Jacob Murphy was heading home from the airport when he spotted Belle walking alongside the road.

"She had two backpacks and she was just walking all by herself," Murphy told NBC 5.

Murphy said he sensed something wasn't right and pulled over to help. He called the Carol Stream Police Department and stayed with the girl until officers arrived to take Bella home safely.

"We heard a cop say 'we have somebody here for you,' and I was like 'what?'" Bella's mother, Jamie Soto, said.

Soto says Belle has type 1 diabetes and could have gone into a coma or collapsed and had a seizure if her blood sugar dropped.

"The other possibilities that could have happened,” Soto contemplated. “And he prevented every single one of those. He saved her."

The grateful mother launched a Facebook campaign to find the stranger her who saved her daughter. “I don’t know who this man is” Soto wrote in her post, but “I need to thank him for taking her to safety,” adding that “he’s a hero and he needs to know this.”

On Monday, Soto got to meet her “hero” and thank him in person.

"I can't even put into words how grateful I am," she said. "How grateful I know she is, our family is."

Murphy said he volunteers with the Kane County Office of Emergency Management where he’s received training in how to deal with situations like this. He said he was just at the right place, at the right time, and knew something was wrong.

“I wanted to make sure she was safe. I guess that's a hero? I don't know,” he said.

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