Missing Alzheimer's, Dementia & Autism Research Powered by MissingPatient.com

John Guingrich describes his brother, William, as moderately developmentally disabled and subject to depression and anxiety.

His brother has held jobs as a dishwasher and busboy in the past, but he hasn’t worked in years. Still, he manages to live on his own with help from family.

William, though, can’t grasp abstract ideas and is easily manipulated, his brother says. Two men once moved into his apartment and wouldn’t leave. William was nervous because the men had guns, and eventually he told his brother he was afraid to go home. His brother handled that issue; he called the police and the two men were eventually arrested.

It was reasonable, therefore, for the family to be concerned when William disappeared on Oct. 4. Family members were supposed to take him to two appointments that week, including one to see a lawyer about applying for disability benefits. William was reportedly excited and looking forward to it.

Neighbors, though, told John Guingrich that his brother and some others described as “slow” had gone with a man in a van, supposedly to do a roofing job out of town. This troubled John Guingrich. His brother isn’t a roofer.

So John Guingrich contacted police and asked them to issue a Silver Alert for his brother.

Police refused.

John Guingrich was upset, and he continued to worry about his brother, who a week later hadn’t turned up.

Eventually, William came home. John said he turned up Sunday, two weeks after he disappeared. The story John Guingrich got from his brother is that a man had taken him and a couple of others to Indianapolis and for two weeks made them canvass neighborhoods, handing out fliers. They ate one meal a day out of dollar stores and stayed in cheap motels where the men weren’t allowed to use the phone. They were never paid, John Guingrich claims.

John Guingrich is still upset about the police refusal to issue a Silver Alert for his brother, whom he considers an endangered adult.

Police say there is some confusion about the recent law creating Silver Alerts. The common notion is that the Silver Alert is for people with Alzheimer’s or dementia who might wander off and have no idea where they live.

The wording of the law, though, is very broad, Fort Wayne Deputy Police Chief Karl Niblick said. It makes reference to people who are mentally impaired, who might have been abducted, who are considered endangered, at risk of injury or death or who might need medicines. There’s even a reference to people who have been missing for more than 30 days.

Police departments, Niblick says, have the discretion to narrow the criteria for who qualifies.

In a way, that’s good. Ohio, for example, Niblick says, has issued hundreds of Silver Alerts. The danger there is that if too many Silver Alerts are issued, people will become numb to them. The alerts will lose their effect. People will quit listening to them.

Plus, in the case of William, there was a real question in the mind of police whether he qualified. William lives on his own. He apparently wasn’t abducted. He went willingly, even bringing extra clothes with him when he left.

Niblick makes some good points. The Silver Alert system, if overused, could lose its usefulness.

We can’t forget, though, that there are all kinds of people who are classified as endangered adults who still live on their own and sometimes even own their own homes. Many get disability benefits and receive regular financial guidance from various agencies.

It’s designed to ensure they can take care of themselves after their parents die. They are still prime targets for people looking for easy marks.

We do have to be careful not to cry wolf, but the Silver Alert system does rate some scrutiny to help police make better decisions when an endangered adult is missing.

One question to be pondered is, when a man legally regarded as endangered is taken to another city and forced to work for two weeks without pay, was he just duped or criminally victimized?