A little hero: Toddler finds elderly woman with Alzheimer's who'd been missing for 4 days

An elderly woman in early stages of Alzheimer's is home and resting with her family now thanks to the careful eye of a local toddler.

On August 9, the Coweta County Sheriff's Office issued a silver alert for Nina Lipscomb, an 82-year-old resident of Senoia, Georgia, about an hour south of Atlanta. Lipscomb had last been seen around 2 a.m. earlier that morning.

Though police and concerned neighbors conducted a thorough search of the local area, no one could find Lipscomb.

That is, until 1-year-old Ethan Moore went chasing bubbles in his backyard.

According to a Facebook post from his mom, Brittany Moore, little Ethan and his dogs were playing in the backyard like usual last Friday when the wind picked up and carried their bubbles toward a wooded area behind their fence.

"This time, Ethan didn't just chase the bubbles," Moore wrote, "but he stopped and looked into the woods. He bent down a little holding onto the fence and said 'feet.'"

When Brittany asked Ethan to repeat what he'd said, he once again uttered the word "feet" and gestured toward the woods.

"I proceeded to bend down to get on his level to see what he was pointing at," the post continues, "and I saw feet."

Like many others in the community, Brittany Moore and her family had heard about Lipscomb's disappearance and had prayed that authorities would find her soon. When Moore saw the pair of feet that Ethan had spotted in the woods, she knew that Ms. Nina had finally been found.

Moore said she then panicked with worry about Lipscomb's condition.

"I sobbed and all I could think was, she is right here, please be alive," Moore recalled in the post.

It turns out, Moore needn't have worried. Shortly after paramedics and police arrived, someone announced, "She is alive and talking!"

Medical teams then transported Lipscomb to the hospital where she remained under observation until Monday.

The sheriff's office has since updated its BOLO post about Ms. Nina to confirm she had been located.

According to CBS46 Atlanta, the Moores refused the reward money offered by the Lipscomb family. Ms. Nina was discovered less than a quarter of a mile from where she disappeared.

"Thank you God for protecting her," Moore wrote on Facebook. "Thank you God for the breeze to move the bubbles. Thank you God for being with us in that moment. Thank you for giving this family and community peace. Thank you for all of the first responders, 911 agent, my husband, parents, and inlaws."