Silver alert issued for missing, vulnerable 91-year-old Winnipeg woman

A silver alert was issued for a missing and vulnerable 91-year-old woman who was last seen in the 1700 block of Portage Avenue on Sunday morning.

Police said Anna Polgar was wearing a short black jacket over a long red jacket, a short-sleeve shirt with brown and yellow stripes, dark-coloured pants and black shoes with yellow soles.

Investigators released an image that showed the senior using a red walker with four wheels inside a building at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday.

The sighting was about seven kilometres from the 400 block of Tache Avenue in St. Boniface, where police said Polgar was seen at about 9:45 a.m. Saturday.

The silver alert included details about the sighting in St. Boniface when it was sent to the media and published on the Winnipeg Police Service social media pages Sunday night.

It was updated Monday to include details of Sunday’s sighting in the St. James area, and the image of Polgar with a walker.

Anyone with information about Polgar’s whereabouts is asked to call the missing persons unit at 204-986-6250.

Silver alerts are issued when a vulnerable adult is reported missing, WPS said. The alert for Polgar brought heightened concern because it was issued amid a spell of extreme cold.

The family of a Winnipeg man who went missing in December 2023 has advocated for a national silver-alert program and cellphone emergency alerts to help find vulnerable adults when they are reported missing.

Earl Moberg, who had dementia, was 81 when he was last seen in River East. He is presumed dead. A silver alert was issued after he was reported missing to police.

Moberg’s daughter, Britt, saw the alert for Polgar on social media Sunday night. Her thoughts immediately turned to Polgar and the woman’s family.

“Hearing about these things is quite painful,” she said.

Her family had a petition that called on the federal government to work with provincial governments and law enforcement to develop a national silver-alert system that would geographically target mobile devices and broadcast information about missing vulnerable adults.

“There are some cases where absolutely I believe it could save someone’s life,” she said.

Tory MP Raquel Dancho (Kildonan-St. Paul) presented the petition in the House of Commons in October.

The federal, provincial and territorial National Public Alerting System allows Canada’s emergency-management organizations to warn the public about disasters, Amber Alerts for child abductions and other emergencies.

The federal Liberal government did not make any commitments in response to the petition. Britt Moberg said she hoped for an act that would provide criteria and guidance to provinces.

“Alert fatigue,” where people ignore notifications if they are too frequent, is one of the concerns she heard in response to the proposal.

Manitoba’s Emergency Management Organization previously brought forward recommendations to a working group for silver alerts to be sent to television, radio and compatible wireless devices, a spokesperson said.

Britt Moberg and her family also called for more resources to help prevent people such as her father from going missing.

There is a sense of urgency when vulnerable adults go missing, said Jessica Harper, senior manager of the First Link program at the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba, which shares silver alerts on social media.

“And then there’s that added reality of the harsh Manitoba winters, which just adds an extra layer of concern and risk to an already risky situation,” she said.

Harper said the organization is in favour of alternative strategies or mechanisms that are proven to be helpful to locate older adults who are missing.

“At the same time, the Alzheimer Society also recognizes the need for better community supports, services and resources to be in place that would better meet the needs of older adults to safely age in place and reduce potential safety risks,” she said.

The Alzheimer Society of Manitoba hasn’t taken a public stance for or against a national silver-alert system.

Harper said the organization has heard concerns from search-and-rescue officials that a national system could lead to alert fatigue.

“We hope that Ms. Polgar is found and is safely located. Our thoughts are with her family right now,” Harper said.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca