Bruce Schreiner, Associated Press
Posted: Sunday, January 4, 2015, 1:08 AM
The beacon led her to Larry Wilkins' home, police said, and she knocked on the door. Wilkins answered to find a thin, black-haired girl, whimpering and trembling, shoeless, and wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt.
He took the child in, put her on his couch, and called 911. His two dachshunds, Pete and Bonnie, comforted her until police and an ambulance arrived 10 minutes later, he said Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"I come to the door and there's a little girl . . . bloody nose, bloody arms, bloody legs, one sock, no shoes, crying," Wilkins, 71, told the Associated Press. "She told me that her mom and dad were dead, and she had been in a plane crash, and the plane was upside down."
Federal Aviation Administration officials arrived at the crash scene Saturday to try to determine why the small Piper PA-34 crashed Friday evening.
Authorities said those killed were Sailor's parents, Marty Gutzler, 48, and Kimberly Gutzler, 46; her sister, Piper Gutzler, 9; and cousin Sierra Wilder, 14. All were from Nashville, Ill. The bodies have been sent to Louisville for autopsies.
The plane reported engine trouble and lost contact with air traffic controllers around 5:55 p.m. CST (6:55 p.m. in Philadelphia), authorities said. Controllers had been trying to direct the pilot to an airport five to seven miles from the crash scene, authorities said.
About 40 minutes later, 911 dispatchers received a call from Wilkins, who reported that a girl who had been involved in a plane crash had walked to his home.
Wilkins brought the girl inside, got a washcloth and "washed her little face off and her legs," he told the AP. "Brave little girl, outstanding little girl," he said. "I feel real bad for her."
Sailor had a broken wrist, but was coherent and calm when interviewed by authorities, Kentucky State Police Lt. Brent White said. He and Wilkins described the terrain she walked through as heavily wooded with thick brush. White said she traversed two embankments, a hill, and a creek bed. The temperatures were below 40 degrees.
"She literally fell out of the sky into a dark hole and didn't have anybody but her own will to live and get help for her family," White said. "Absolutely amazing."
Sailor was treated at Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Ky., and released early Saturday to a relative, Kentucky State Police said.
In Nashville, a man stepped outside the family's white, split-level home Saturday and politely waved off a reporter. "Not now," he said, his head lowered, before he stepped back inside.
Neighbors said Marty and Kim Gutzler had lifelong roots in the largely rural Illinois town about 50 miles east of St. Louis. Marty ran the furniture store that his father started, and the couple was well-known and well-liked, said neighbor Carla Povolish.
With two basketball hoops in the driveway, the Gutzlers' home was the center of neighborhood fun on a block full of children. "All the kids in the neighborhood are just so upset about this," she said.
Povolish said Sailor and Piper were together constantly. "That's what's going to be so devastating for the little one," she said.
The FAA said the plane had taken off from Tallahassee Regional Airport, Fla., and was bound for Mount Vernon, Ill.
Attorney Kent Plotner, serving as spokesman, said the Gutzler family was devastated. "We ask that you respect our privacy at this difficult time. Please pray for us, especially for Sailor Gutzler," the family said in a statement.
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