A Purple Alert went out across Montgomery County before dawn Friday for Keylijah Holt, a 16-year-old girl with autism who is nonverbal, after she was last seen near 16th Street and East-West Highway in Silver Spring around 3:30 a.m. By mid-morning, authorities said the search was over and she had been found.
Police described Holt as about 5 feet 4 inches tall and roughly 140 pounds, with brown eyes and short black hair, according to dcnewsnow.com. She was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, black pants, and black sneakers with white trim. The alert, which first circulated through FOX 5 DC, asked anyone with information on her whereabouts to call Montgomery County police at 301-279-8000.
Montgomery County police later confirmed the search had ended. “UPDATE: Keylijah Holt has been located safe and unharmed,” the department said in a statement. The same report noted the Purple Alert had been cancelled after she was found safe, per the dcnewsnow.com account.
How Maryland's Purple Alert System Works
Purple Alerts are a relatively new tool in Maryland, built to rapidly share information when someone goes missing and doesn't fit the criteria for an Amber or Silver Alert. The Maryland General Assembly's statute creating the program directs the Department of State Police to establish a system for the rapid dissemination of information to help locate a missing person, according to the Maryland General Assembly.
The Maryland State Police describe the Purple Alert, started in 2024, as a system aimed at locating missing adults ages 18 to 60 who have cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities, brain injuries, or hearing impairments and are considered endangered. How that description applies to an alert issued for a 16-year-old is not addressed in the available information.
The push for the alert system followed the disappearance of Rashawn Williams, a Maryland man with Down syndrome who was missing for nearly a week before he was found in a Metro station, according to NBC4 Washington. That case helped drive lawmakers to create a dedicated alert category for vulnerable residents who previously had no clear path to a rapid public notification.
