Sailor Gutzler, 7, was the sole survivor in a recent a plane crash in rural Kentucky and she had to walk about a mile in order to find help in the morning of Jan. 2, Friday.
While she was free of major injuries, the bloodied girl knocked on the door of the first home she found, which was of 71-year-old Larry Wilkins of Kuttawa, Ky.
"The little girl come to my door. She was bleeding pretty bad, her legs were bleeding, her face had a bloody nose. She was barefoot, only had one sock on," Wilkins told NBC News of the girl she described as seven-year-old "brave little girl."
According to Wilkins, the girl told him that her mother and father were dead, and "she was in a plane crash and the plane was upside down. She asked if she could stay here. I said, 'Honey, what can I do for you?' I got a washcloth and cleaned her up. I felt so sorry for her, tears come to my eyes."
Wilkins also told CNN that the place the girl had to walk through was a cold, dark and "very, very rough territory."
According to Kentucky State Police Sergeant Dean Patterson, the girl came out of the wreckage herself and found the closest residence to report the plane crash.
"It's a miracle in a sense that she survived it, but it's tragic that four others didn't," Patterson said. The four were the girl's parents Marty Gutzler, 48, and Kimberly Gutzler, 46, her sister Piper Gutzler, 9, and her cousin Sierra Wilder, 14. They were all from Nashville, Ill.
Police said the Federal Aviation Administration officials are trying to determine why the plane, which was a small Piper PA-34, crashed.