Prince George's County En

The family of DaCara Thompson lost critical hours because of a myth. A 19-year-old from Lanham, Thompson disappeared on August 22, 2025, and her family hesitated to call police because they believed, as many do, that a 24-hour waiting period was required before law enforcement would accept a missing persons report. No such requirement existed. Nine days later, her body was found along an embankment off Route 50 in Anne Arundel County.

Prince George's County has now codified the truth into law. DaCara Rose's Law, Bill CB-2-2026, was signed April 7 following unanimous County Council approval. It formally prohibits any mandatory waiting period to file a missing persons report, requires every municipal police department in the county to accept those reports immediately, directs the county health department to conduct a public education campaign and provide wraparound services for affected families, and calls on law enforcement to dedicate additional resources to cases involving missing Black women and girls.

Thompson, whose middle name was Rose, was last captured on surveillance footage in Langley Park, where she parked her white Ford Edge SUV and walked to a parking lot behind a Family Dollar store. At approximately 3 a.m., she got into a black SUV with a stranger and was not seen alive again. Hugo Hernandez-Mendez, 35, of Bowie, was charged with first- and second-degree murder and held without bail. Court records show he drove Thompson to his home on the 12000 block of Kembridge Drive, where she was killed. Hernandez-Mendez, a Guatemalan national working at a Baltimore-based landscaping company, was in the country illegally at the time of his arrest.

Council Member Wanika Fisher of District 2, who represents Hyattsville and grew close with the Thompson family during the search, introduced the bill at a press conference on February 10. "It puts in our county code that there is no wait time to file a missing person's report here in Prince George's County," Fisher said. "I want people to know — file it right away."

The Prince George's County Police Department had already prohibited mandatory waiting periods as an internal policy, but that policy was invisible to most residents. A Thompson family member who spoke at the bill's introduction acknowledged the gap directly. "I wasn't aware that there was no wait time in Maryland," they said. "This education piece is very important."

Fisher introduced the legislation after a troubling pattern emerged in her own district: three Black women were reported missing during the same two-week period as Thompson's disappearance. "There has been an epidemic in this country," Fisher said. "You see it on social media — it went viral about Black women being missing, the lack of attention and support."

Thompson had participated in Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's 2023 Service Year Option program, which places young adults in community service roles. Her mother, Carmen Thompson, remembered her plainly: "My daughter was an amazing girl. She just had a bright future ahead of her."

Fisher and Council Chair Krystal Oriadha of District 7 fast-tracked the bill from introduction to final vote in roughly one month. Vice Chair Eric Olson of District 3 and Council Member Tom Dernoga of District 1 were also present at the April 7 signing. The Thompson family attended as well, watching a law bearing DaCara's name reach the books less than eight months after they buried her.