A 52-year-old woman from Suitland, Maryland, has been missing since Friday night, when he was last seen driving a red 2021 Kia SUV near his home. Collen Nelson was last spotted around 8:30 pm in the 3500 block of Woodcreek Drive, and police are now asking the public for help tracking down both the woman and her vehicle.
Prince George's County Police Department shared Nelson's description and photos in a Facebook post early Saturday, describing her as 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 235 pounds. His SUV carries Maryland tag 2GP7455, according to the same post. Anyone who spots Nelson or his vehicle is asked to call 911 immediately.
Woodcreek Drive sits in Suitland, an unincorporated Prince George's County community near Silver Hill and Hillcrest Heights, not far from the D.C. line, according to the Prince George's Post. The area falls within ZIP code 20746, giving searchers a starting point as they work to retrace Nelson's movements since Friday evening.
How Police Search for a Missing Driver
Prince George's County Police Department created a dedicated Missing Persons Unit within its Special Crimes Division in 2024, a team built specifically to focus investigative resources on missing children and endangered adults, per the county's own police department documentation. That unit typically leads cases like Nelson's, coordinating tips and evidence as officers work to locate someone reported missing.
Families do not have to wait to report a loved one missing in Maryland. State law and Prince George's County Police Department General Orders impose no mandatory waiting period, and the department actively urges residents to call police right away rather than waiting 24 or 48 hours, as outlined in a departmental social media post.
Because Nelson was operating a vehicle when he was last seen, investigators can lean on tools built for exactly this kind of case. Once a missing person report involving a vehicle is filed, officers enter the individual's physical details and the vehicle's tag into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database, according to the University of Maryland Baltimore Police Department. That entry allows officers anywhere in the country to flag the plate during a routine stop.
Technology That Could Help Locate the Kia SUV
Prince George's County also operates a network of more than 110 mobile automated license plate reader systems and trailer units that scan public roadways, according to the Prince George's County Council. Those readers automatically cross-reference scanned plates against active NCIC alerts, potentially flagging Nelson's Kia SUV if it passes a monitored stretch of road.
If the case meets certain state criteria, Maryland's Department of Transportation State Highway Administration can also display a vehicle's tag number and description on overhead electronic message signs along regional highways, per BayNet. Those signs are typically activated along suspected travel corridors to reach drivers directly. Statewide missing person investigations are also supported by the Maryland Center for Missing and Unidentified Persons, an operational arm of the Maryland Department of State Police that maintains records and helps coordinate searches across multiple agencies.
It remains unknown whether Nelson has any medical or cognitive condition that may be relevant to the search, what direction his vehicle may have traveled from Suitland, or whether any of the county's license plate readers have detected his tag since Friday. Maryland's Silver Alert system can be activated by the Department of State Police for missing individuals with cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer's or dementia when their disappearance poses a credible safety threat, though no such alert has been described in connection with Nelson's case. Prince George's County has one of the highest rates of Alzheimer's disease among older adults in the state, with 16.1% of residents 65 and older diagnosed with the condition according to 2024 Alzheimer's Association data cited by Simpson Law, well above Maryland's already elevated statewide average of 12.9%.
A County With a History of Missing Person Alerts
Prince George's County has seen several missing person cases resolve safely in recent months. Hoodline previously reported that a three-year-old was found safe in February following an urgent multi-agency search, and a 12-year-old from the county was also located safely that same month after police issued public alerts. In April 2025, a 78-year-old man named Woodrow Snyder was found safe after police and social media outreach helped track him down.
Federal alert protections for missing adults between 18 and 64 years old trace back to Prince George's County as well. The Ashanti Alert Act of 2018 is named for Ashanti Billie, a 19-year-old Prince George's County high school graduate who was abducted and killed in 2017, according to the U.S. Office of Justice Programs. Her case exposed a gap in alert systems for adults who did not qualify for existing AMBER or Silver alerts, leading to the creation of a new federal framework still in use today.
For now, investigators are asking anyone with information about Collen Nelson's whereabouts, or who spots the red Kia SUV bearing Maryland tag 2GP7455, to call 911 right away.
