An 11-year-old girl reported missing from the 900 block of Glen Willow Drive in Capitol Heights has been found safely and in good health, according to police. Joelle Davis-Porter was last seen around 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, wearing a black hoodie, white t-shirt, black leggings, and pink Crocs, before an alert circulated describing her as standing 4 feet 8 inches tall and weighing about 80 pounds.
The Prince George's County Police Department confirmed the update in a social media post, thanking residents who shared the original alert as it spread across the community. The department did not release details about where or how Joelle was found, and the circumstances behind her disappearance remain unclear.
This was not the first time police had to search for the sixth-grader. Just over a week earlier, on August 1, the department issued a nearly identical public alert after Joelle went missing from that same block of Glen Willow Drive, only to locate her safely a short time later. The repeat search from the same address within a 10-day span has not been explained by police, and it is unknown whether the two incidents are connected.
A Neighborhood Near MLK Highway
Glen Willow Drive sits in a residential stretch of Capitol Heights near Martin Luther King Jr. Highway and Cedar Heights Community Center Park, according to the Prince George's County Planning Department. The area is a quiet pocket of the county, but it has now seen two organized searches for the same child in the span of about a week and a half.
Why Police Move Fast on Missing Kids
Under department policy, Prince George's County officers do not observe any waiting period before accepting a missing person report, treating every case as an active priority the moment it comes in. That approach is reinforced by state law: Maryland Family Law Code § 9-402 requires law enforcement to immediately weigh specific risk factors when a child goes missing, including whether the minor is under 17 or has previously been reported missing, according to FindLaw. Joelle's case would have triggered both criteria given her age and the prior August 1 report.
Separately, Maryland Criminal Law Code § 3-608 requires parents or guardians with custody of a child under 13 to notify law enforcement within 24 hours if that child goes missing, per Justia. The statute underscores how quickly Maryland law expects families and police to act once a young child cannot be located.
A Dedicated Unit and a Statewide Pattern
The Prince George's County Police Department created a specialized Missing Persons Unit in 2024 to give disappearance cases dedicated investigative attention and a faster response. The department, the fourth-largest police agency in Maryland with more than 1,500 sworn officers serving nearly 900,000 residents, maintains separate tip lines for its Missing Persons Unit and its Child and Vulnerable Adult Unit for community members with information.
Joelle's case is one of thousands police statewide handle each year. The Maryland Center for Missing and Unidentified Persons has reported that between 10,000 and 12,000 children go missing across the state annually, with roughly 1,000 active cases open on any given day, according to The BayNet. That same reporting found that about one in three missing children in Maryland is located because someone in the public recognized them from a social media alert or flyer, a dynamic that mirrors how word of Joelle's case spread online before she was found safe.
Police have not said whether any further action is expected in connection with the case, and the underlying reasons behind Joelle's repeated disappearances from the same address have not been made public. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Missing Persons Unit or the Child and Vulnerable Adult Unit, and police stress that anyone who spots a missing child should call 911 immediately.
