Henderson police are asking for the public's help finding a 68-year-old woman with cognitive impairments who vanished Saturday evening near the M Resort and Casino in West Henderson. Ingrid Forde was last seen around 5 p.m. on September 5 in the area of Bowes Avenue and St. Rose Parkway, and officers say she may require medical assistance.
According to the KLAS 8 News Now report, Forde is described as a Black woman approximately 5 feet tall with gray hair and black eyes, and police said she was last wearing a striped grayish polo shirt and light-colored pants. The Nevada Department of Transportation's traveler alert page adds further detail, listing her weight at 135 pounds, her eyes as gray, and her hair as gray and worn in braids. That state bulletin also offers a second possible outfit, a dark blue navy sweatshirt with dark pants, in case Forde changed clothes or the original description proves inexact.
The discrepancy in Forde's reported weight, listed as 150 pounds by Henderson police per the original KLAS report but 135 pounds in the state transportation bulletin, has not been resolved publicly. Anyone with information is asked to call 311, Clark County's centralized non-emergency line that connects directly to the Henderson Police Department, though the state bulletin also lists a direct line to Henderson Police at 702-267-4750 or advises calling 911 if Forde is spotted.
Where She Vanished
The intersection where Forde was last seen sits at the southern trailhead of the 5.1-mile St. Rose Parkway Trail, directly across from the M Resort and Casino, according to AARoads. St. Rose Parkway itself is a major multi-lane arterial linking Interstate 15 with West Henderson's residential subdivisions, meaning Forde could have wandered toward busy roadways, trail paths, or nearby neighborhoods.
Because investigators have not confirmed Forde was driving a vehicle, Nevada's Silver Alert program guidelines do not call for activating the state's dynamic highway message signs in her case; those overhead alerts are reserved for situations where a missing senior's car and travel direction are verified. Instead, non-vehicle disappearances like this one rely on local media broadcasts and digital public alerts to spread the word, per state Department of Public Safety guidance.
Nevada's Silver Alert Threshold
Nevada's Silver Alert system, created by the Legislature under Senate Bill 245, allows a formal alert request for missing people age 60 or older only after local law enforcement verifies within 72 hours that the person has a documented medical or mental health condition placing them in danger. It is not yet clear from available information whether Henderson police have formally requested a Silver Alert in Forde's case, but her cognitive impairments and the concern police have expressed for her welfare fall within the conditions the state framework is designed to address.
Nevada tightened those Silver Alert procedures after public outcry over the 2021 disappearance and death of a missing 72-year-old man, prompting the state to streamline how alerts get distributed, according to FOX5 Las Vegas. That history underscores why local agencies now emphasize rapid public notification whenever a vulnerable senior goes missing.
Why the First Hours Matter
Research cited in clinical literature published on PMC shows that up to 60 percent of people living with dementia or cognitive impairment will wander from home or a care setting at least once. A separate University of Florida College of Nursing study found that 82.3 percent of memory-impaired wanderers are located within the first 12 hours of going missing, but that those not found within 24 hours face significantly higher rates of injury and death.
That urgency is part of a broader regional pattern: the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department fields roughly 683 missing person reports every month across Clark County, and the vast majority of those individuals are found within a few days. Henderson police have not released additional details about Forde's case beyond the initial appeal for public help in locating her.
