What is the proper way to return a nodeList to a calling function in javascript?

Question

I am trying to understand why the code below does not seem to be returning retVal to the calling function>

The called function is

    function GetDropDownItems(pDropDowns, pDropDownTarget) {

    retVal = null;

    pDropDowns.forEach(dropDown => {

        r = dropDown.querySelector('div[aria-labelledby="' + pDropDownTarget + '"]');
        if (r != null) {
            retVal = Array.from(r.querySelectorAll('a.dropdown-item'));
            console.log('GetDropDownItems  ', retVal);
            return retVal;
        }
    });
}

The calling function is:

function GetNavData() {

menuItems  = null;
.
.
.
switch (title) {

        case 'inventory home':
            menuItems = GetDropDownItems(dropDowns, 'InventoryMenu');
            console.log('GetNavData ', menuItems);
            return menuItems;
            break;
    }
}

Abbreviated the code in calling function down to just point value is returned.

When the code is run and I look at the console in the browser the line

console.log('GetDropDownItems ', retVal);

Shows that retVal has the data that is expected.

However, the lines below in the calling function show menuItems as undefined.

menuItems = GetDropDownItems(dropDowns, 'InventoryMenu');

console.log('GetNavData ', menuItems);