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Search For Missing Girl Ends On Happy Note Due To Heroic Friend

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Friday night, 11-year-old Krista Faber got a chance to thank her schoolmate Linnea Wright for saving her life.

"Thank you because without you, I wouldn't be here talking to you," says Krista.

Wright answers, "You're welcome."

Faber was recently diagnosed with a medical condition that causes her to be disoriented. This afternoon she wandered away from school and got lost.

Jeff Nguyen, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, was there when the girls had a happy reunion.

Explains Faber, "I guess something happened. I totally blacked out. Then I happened to wake up in the Orchard Hills Shopping Center. And I didn't know where I was."

Wright had heard that Faber was missing before she left school today.

She was riding her bike home, in Irvine, when noticed a familiar face coming around the corner. Says Wright,  "I saw her and I stopped. And I ran all the way back here."

Wright, 12, used her phone to call Krista's mom but couldn't reach her. So she called her own mother who then called police and paramedics.

In the meantime, Linnea kept Krista calm before help arrived.

Says Wright, "She was just like when someone's sad you know? They'll just be all to themselves."

Krista's twin sister, Alexa, says she's grateful to her friend Linnea. "Linnea saved someone in my family that I don't want to lose."

For her quick thinking, the fire department awarded Linnea a hero's coin -- which she carries in her pocket.

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