Sam Noh is like a frustrated detective as he remembers the days after his father, Shin Noh, went missing from his Coquitlam home on Sept. 18, 2013.
"This is the [location of] the strongest sighting," says Noh, sitting in the driver's seat of his Nissan SUV, the rain gently falling on the windshield.
Recalling the incident as it was reported to him days after his dad went missing, Noh describes how Shin, a fit but elderly man who suffered from Alzheimer's, would have approached a group of construction workers in the area of Kingston Avenue and Princeton Street on Burke Mountain looking for directions to Eagle Ridge Bible Fellowship, a church he attended.
It would have been a landmark for him because it was across the street from his home but Noh, a strong walker, was a long way from that neighbourhood.
"They just pointed down to the already established neighbourhood," said Noh, who drove up to Burke Mountain recently to recall the day his father went missing and promote the third annual Walk for Shin, which will take place Saturday, Sept. 17 at 9 a.m. at Eagle Ridge United Church (2813 Glen Dr.).
With 20/20 hindsight, Noh said he wishes more could have been done but at the time, the construction workers were unaware of what they were dealing with, and so his dad just kept walking.
His disappearance would confound police, search and rescue workers, volunteers and the Noh family as they checked out hundreds of tips over the next days and weeks.
Noh believes that if a community alert system had been in place to send out Shin's description and other details, his father could have been found within the first 24 to 48 hours of his disappearance, a critical timeframe for finding someone suffering from Alzheimer's, most of whom don't realize they are lost and may not reach out for help.
"First, it's an emergency right away," says Noh, "It's a myth that you can't call in a missing person's report unless 24 hours have passed."
Today, a community alert system is in place thanks to Noh and Coquitlam Search and Rescue member Michael Coyle. The two have developed BC Silver Alert to quickly send out social media alerts when a vulnerable person with cognitive impairments, such as dementia or autism, goes missing. BC Silver Alert gathers data from police missing person's reports and blasts them out via Twitter, Facebook and to email subscribers, and has already been credited with reuniting one Burnaby woman with her family.
"A lot of people care and share. At least we know that we pushed it out there and that's why the person knew [that someone had gone missing] at the time," said Coyle.
The plan is to find a way to target specific neighbourhoods with missing people alerts so the individuals could be found more quickly.
Coyle said 75% of people with dementia who go missing in an urban area are usually found within 3.2 km of their last known location, so being able to let people know where to look would make BC Silver Alert more effective.
"The idea would be to not alert everyone but just the right people — a focused approach," said Coyle, a software developer who is looking at a Wildlife Alert Reporting Program used to track bear sightings as a model.
But to take BC Silver Alert to the next level, Coyle and Noh need more people to get involved, such as helping BC Silver Alert get charitable status and becoming a subscriber to the alert system via email, Twitter or Facebook; the group also needs donations to improve the website and reporting protocol.
"I know there's a lot of people who are affected by the tragedies of missing loved ones. If those people want to be involved, they can certainly help us," said Coyle.
As for Noh, he hopes that if more people are aware about the issue of wandering and more efforts taken to look out for people who go missing, fewer families will have to experience the loss of a loved one.
• BC Silver Alerts is on Facebook and on Twitter @BCSilverAlert. To subscribe and receive alerts or get involved, visit bcsilveralert.ca.
BY THE NUMBERS
BC Silver Alerts are issued for people with cognitive impairments who go missing.
• 2014/’15 — 35 alerts issued
• 2015/’16 — 28 alerts issued
THE WALK
The third annual Walk for Shin will take place Saturday, Sept. 17 at Eagle Ridge United Church, 2913 Glen Dr. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 10:15, with refreshments, announcements and a prayer along with the walk.
