Dementia Patient Dies in Snowstorm; County's Third Weather Death

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HYATTSVILLE, MD — A woman with dementia who wandered from her home during Maryland’s record snowstorm was found dead Tuesday, marking the third weather-related death in the county.

The Prince George’s County Police Department is investigating the weather-related death of Orinda Nelson, 84, in Hyattsville. Nelson’s family reported that she was missing from a house in the 7200 block of Windsor Lane about 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Family members said Nelson suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and had wandered away from home more than a dozen times in the past.

Although police combed the neighborhood for Nelson, and searched nearby businesses where she had been found previously when she wandered, they couldn’t locate her. A bloodhound was also used in the search, without results.

On Tuesday, a neighbor found Nelson’s body in the resident’s backyard. She was pronounced dead at a hospital from dementia complicated by hypothermia.

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This is the third weather-related death in Prince George’s County caused by the snowstorm. On Monday morning, a man was found deceased in a parking lot in the 6300 block of Livingston Road. A snow removal crew had discovered the decedent while they were clearing the snow in the lot. On Saturday, a Fort Washington man died after shoveling snow outside of his home.

The Maryland National Guard was called in to help paramedics Monday in Accokeek. A woman living in her car was trapped for three days in the vehicle – and kept warm only with a blanket when the gas ran out – after the car was buried in snow. She was taken to the hospital for treatment of hypothermia.