Deputies arrested a Waldorf woman last week in connection with a fatal crash that happened more than a year ago in Prince George's County. Maria Zelaya was taken into custody on Oct. 1 and now faces a charge of negligent manslaughter involving a motor vehicle, according to the sheriff's office.
According to a Prince George's County, Office Of The Sheriff Facebook post, deputies located Zelaya in Waldorf, Maryland, on Oct. 1 and arrested her there. The post says the charge against her stems from a September 2025 incident in Prince George's County, in which she allegedly caused a fatal crash through negligent driving. Zelaya is being held at the Prince George's County Department of Corrections in Upper Marlboro, per the same post.
The specific details of the alleged crash, including where it happened and how the collision unfolded, were not laid out in the available information. The sheriff's office post containing the original announcement is no longer accessible online, limiting what can be confirmed about the case beyond the core allegations.
What Maryland Law Says About the Charge
Maryland law treats causing a death through negligent driving as a distinct offense from more serious vehicular homicide charges. Under the statute, it is not necessarily a violation for someone to cause a death while driving negligently, but doing so is instead classified as criminally negligent manslaughter by vehicle or vessel, according to the Maryland General Assembly.
That distinction matters for how prosecutors frame the case moving forward, though no court filings, docket entries, or attorney information were available to describe how the charge against Zelaya will proceed. Anyone looking for additional case details can search the Maryland Courts' public-cases system, which Maryland Courts says logs reports of public cases created by Prince George's County courts over the prior 30 days.
A Fatal Crash Logged in County Records
Separately, Maryland State Police identified two women killed in a Prince George's County crash on Sept. 15, 2025. The deceased were named as Tameka Patterson, 46, of Suitland, and Nana Arthur, 40, of Upper Marlboro, with Patterson riding as a passenger in a Jeep Grand Cherokee and Arthur driving a Toyota RAV4, according to a release from Maryland State Police. Both women were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical services, the release states.
It has not been established whether that Sept. 15, 2025 crash is the same incident tied to Zelaya's arrest. The timing falls within the same month referenced in the sheriff's office post, but no source in the available record confirms a direct link between the two.
Road Deaths Remain a Persistent Problem in the County
Fatal crashes have been a recurring issue in Prince George's County. A May 2025 report from The Daily Record noted that the county had experienced 14 fatal crashes since the death of a person identified as Colindres. The state's broader Zero Deaths Maryland initiative points residents toward crash and fatality data as part of a stated goal of reaching zero roadway deaths and serious injuries statewide.
For now, the case against Zelaya remains in its early stages, with her custody status at the Upper Marlboro facility and the path of the prosecution still largely undocumented in public records reviewed for this report.
