The family of Shin Noh will spend a quiet weekend remembering the loving father who had Alzheimer’s when he went missing in Coquitlam on Sept. 18, 2013.
But on the anniversary of his disappearance, they are also hoping for good news from the provincial government in the form of an emergency alert system for people with dementia who go missing.
Son Sam Noh has been advocating for a Silver Alert system — similar to the Amber Alert system that distributes alerts when children go missing via social media, traffic control signs, commercial electronic billboards and traditional media— and hopes to hear from the province soon.
“It’s interesting to see what their position is now now that they’re the government," Noh told The Tri-City News. "They were very supportive of it in the past.”
In fact, Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA Selina Robinson, now municipal affairs and housing minister, introduced a Silver Alert Act in the legislature in 2014.
But this week, a representative from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General department headed by Port Coquitlam MLA Mike Farnworth, gave no timeline for introducing the program but said Silver Alerts in other jurisdictions are being studied.
Noh said he’s heartened by the fact that the issue isn’t dead but wants action soon so other families don’t go through what he did.
“It seems like a snail’s pace,” Noh said.
In the four years since his dad went missing, Noh has been working with numerous agencies trying to get support for the plan. A volunteer run system called BCSilverAlert that he co-founded with Michael Coyle with Coquitlam Search and Rescue is running but it’s not enough, Noh said, noting it lacks funding and needs a provincial protocol to be more thorough.
Still, using data from police missing person's reports and blasting the information via social media, the BC Silver Alert has been credited with reuniting one Burnaby woman with her family.
So far this year, BC Silver Alert has sent out about 20 alerts, roughly comparable with previous years since the program got up and running in 2014/’15.
Meanwhile, there has been little resolution for the Noh family because Shin Noh’s body has never been found.
Still, they are hopeful something good can come out of the tragedy.
“With the Silver Alert, having that going or something in place won’t help my father but will help other families and will provide closure in that sense,” Noh said.
