OLDSMAR, Fla. — Anu Awasthi has been found after vanishing last Thursday, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office confirms.
Volunteers with "We Are the Essentials" explained she was found by the group's co-founder, Nico Tusconi, and other volunteers in a wooded area near a CVS where she was last seen.
"I can confirm she was located near that location and is safe and well," the sheriff's office wrote in an email to 10 Tampa Bay.
The volunteer search agency, which is made up of retired military personnel and law enforcement, had spent the past two days searching the area near the Oldsmar Walmart where Awasthi had last been seen. Their search spanned miles beyond it as well.
"I called her name and that whimpering became a cry and I followed that sound," Nico Tusconi said. "She was not in very good condition. She was going in and out of consciousness and maybe in shock."
Volunteers who searched the area where she was found described it as thick brush, where they'd seen wildlife including gators and coyotes. That was on top of record-breaking heat.
"Frankly, I don't know how she's with us after six and a half days of no food or water. She was very dehydrated," Tusconi said.
She was found in an area where search teams had checked previously.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said, "At this time, her disappearance does not appear suspicious or criminal in nature. I have no further updates to provide at this time, as the case is still open and active.”
As for Anu, it appears she is eager to reconnect with loved ones. Tusconi said after they gave her some water, she began to ask for her family.
"After a while, we were able to communicate, and she said, 'Where are my boys?' And I was able to tell her they had been looking for her," Tusconi said.
Anu's sons and husband were able to visit her at the hospital where she was being treated on Wednesday evening.
"Just seeing her made me so happy. I was trying not to get too excited so I wouldn't startle her," her son Varun Awasthi told 10 Tampa Bay. "I told her how happy I was to see her. She's getting the help she needs which just makes life feel so much better now."
Awasthi's family had been frantically searching for her and had recently offered a reward for any information on her whereabouts. According to her husband Vikas, she had been depressed after the death of her father two months prior to her disappearance.
Awasthi is being treated at the hospital, according to volunteers.
We Are The Essentials is a nonprofit volunteer search organization made up of former military and law enforcement. They work off of donations and corporate sponsors. If you'd like to support their work, you can find more information on their website.