As Jimmy Hall tells it, after nearly a week of searching for his son, he no longer expected to find him alive.
Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. After Williams slipped away from his caretaker and boarded a bus, then a train, Hall and other family members searched from Maryland to D.C. for him. They searched through the night and woke up early to start searching again, and as they searched, they watched one day turn into four days and four days turn into six days.“The gap just widened and widened and widened,” Hall recalled. “We were just waiting and waiting and waiting.
Hall and his wife, Christina Hall, said after they learned that Williams was missing, they expected their phones to buzz with an alert that would let the public know to keep a look out for him. When that didn’t happen, Christina Hall asked an officer to send one. The couple said that’s when they learned that Williams did not meet Maryland’s criteria for an Amber Alert, which is for abducted children, or a Silver Alert, which is for adults over the age of 60 with cognitive impairments. headtopics.com
“He would have been found that night,” Hall said. People look at their phones when they ride the bus, so those people on the bus with him would have seen the alert, he said. So, too, would have the people who rode the Metro with him. “He rode the train for over three hours. He came in contact with maybe 1,000 people that night. Somebody would have noticed him.
A look at Silver Alert programs across the country show that the criteria vary by state. Some states have programs that allow them to issue alerts for people younger than 60, and some states have created separate alert systems for individuals with disabilities. Texas and Alabama have Endangered Missing Persons Alert programs that are designed to help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. headtopics.com