B.C. RCMP working on Amber Alert-style system for adults

Alina Durham's daughter, Shaelene Keeler Bell, went missing in 2021. Her body was found in the Fraser River more than four months later.

A Chilliwack mother whose daughter went missing in 2021 says the B.C. government and RCMP’s E Division has told her it is working on developing a public assistance alert system for adults.

Alina Durham’s daughter, Shaelene Keeler Bell, went missing in 2021. Her body was found in the Fraser River more than four months later.

Durham said she reached out to Garry Begg, the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, about developing a missing adult alert system and he asked her to send his office a proposal.

“My proposal was that we take the AMBER Alert that’s already in place and we change a wording in it so that it says victim,” Durham said.

She said she received a response on May 12 asking her to reach out to B.C.’s RCMP missing person’s division and now something is in the works.

“Basically at the end of the day I’d like to see the Canada Alert Ready system used,” Durham added.

Sam Noh, whose father Shin Noh went missing in September 2013 and never returned, has been an advocate for the creation of a ‘Silver Alert’ system that would notify communities to the disappearance of a senior, particularly one with dementia. He co-founded the group, BC Silver Alert.

However, there has never been any official alert system in place, other than AMBER Alerts, which are for children who are believed to have been abducted.