Manitoba family on 'last big push' in petition for changes to missing vulnerable adults alert system

It's the home stretch for the family of a man, who went missing more than a year ago, to gather the last signatures for a petition supporting the use of cellphone emergency alerts to find vulnerable adults after they disappear. 

Earl Moberg went missing in Winnipeg's River East area on Dec. 12, 2023. He was 81 at the time and suffered from dementia.

On the night Earl disappeared, Winnipeg police activated a silver alert — issued to inform the public about a missing adult who is considered vulnerable. 

But his family is pushing the federal government to create a national strategy where those alerts show up on cellphones in a similar way Amber Alerts are broadcast for missing children.

"We don't want any other seniors to go missing and a family to suffer like we have," said Brenda Moberg, Earl's wife. 

The family has submitted a petition to the federal government with more than 4,400 signatures from across the country since October in support of the changes to the existing silver alert system. 

On Saturday, Brenda set up a table at McIvor Mall located in North Kildonan with pictures of her husband and a QR code for people to sign the petition.

"This is the last big push in person," she said inside the hallway she and her husband had walked countless times before he went missing. 

Manitoba amended its Missing Persons Act allowing police to share information on vulnerable adults in hopes to safely locate them. Silver alerts are shared with media outlets who can broadcast or publish content on them, while Winnipeg police disseminate the information on their social media. 

Britt Moberg, Earl's daughter, said after the silver alert went out, media outlets published stories online, but those couldn't be shared on Facebook or Instagram due to the ban of news content on Meta platforms. 

The silver alert was posted on the Winnipeg police's Facebook page the next day, she said, leaving the family with limited content to share online the night he went missing. 

"We were in panic … it was very distressing for us," Britt Moberg said. "[With] the present system as it is … not enough people were able to be informed quickly enough to find my dad alive." 

Days after the silver alert went out a person contacted police saying they had seen someone matching Earl at a clinic near where he was last seen, Britt Moberg said. 

But the person didn't know he was reported missing until days later when they found Earl's photo on social media. 

If the alert was sent via phone, Britt Moberg said her father "certainly could have been found alive … and that's just one example" of many people that crossed paths with him but didn't think he was missing.

Short window for search time

To this day, Earl hasn't been found and his disappearance has been deemed a critical incident by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, defined by the province as a case where someone using health care services suffers "serious and unintended harm."

The health authority issued a number of recommendations after identifying missed opportunities for proactive care and safety planning to meet Earl's care needs. 

But even with these proposed improvements and other prevention efforts to keep vulnerable adults safe, Britt Moberg said there needs to be a change in the system to inform the public in a faster way when adults like her father go missing. 

According to Public Safety Canada most people with dementia wander at some point during the progression of their cognitive condition, and there is a 50 per cent chance those with Alzheimer's will be found injured or dead 12 hours after going missing.

"It's a very short window and it's a very high risk situation … at the progression of dementia, he was very much comparable to a child," Britt said. 

Britt Moberg's petition calls for silver alerts to be targeted, and get sent to cellphones that are in the immediate area where the missing person was last seen. 

Data from the University of Waterloo study published in the Globe and Mail suggests vulnerable adults who go missing are usually found within four to 12 kilometres of their last known location.

The alert "is not necessarily going out to the entire province, it would be going out more to communities … we can't have too many alerts because then people won't pay attention," she said. 

Winnipeg Conservative member of Parliament Raquel Dancho is sponsoring the petition that closes for signatures Monday morning.

The intention was to table the proposal this week, but with Parliament prorogued until March the timeline is now up in the air. 

"I don't know what kind of priority it will be for the petition, there'll be other things maybe on their agenda," Brenda Morberg said.

But for her and her daughter, it is a matter that needs to be addressed soon.

The Alzheimer Society estimates more than 414 people in Canada develop dementia every day, and by 2030 nearly one million people in the country could live with dementia. 

"No one wants to see their loved one ... wandering and dying because that could be preventable," Britt Moberg said.

"It's something nobody should have to go through."