A Dothan, Alabama, police officer spearheaded a community effort to find and bring home the beloved dog of a girl who died in a deadly car crash.

The crash, which took the life of 19-year-old McKenzie Amanda Grace Catron, was so terrifying that it caused the young woman’s dog, Kai, to run off.

“We felt we needed to find the dog,” Sgt. Jonathan Whaley told WAGA. “We were going to do whatever we needed to do to reunite this dog with this family.”

Whaley and his fellow officers initiated a search that soon included hundreds of community members. They searched the area of the crash, put up fliers and even offered a reward.

Benjamin Irwin, a lawyer whose firm put up the reward, spotted Kai two days after the search began.