On Oct. 4, people across Canada took part in Sisters in Spirit vigils honouring missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

That same day, the mother of a Chilliwack woman whose body was found more than four months after she went missing asked for the community鈥檚 help to bring awareness to a proposed missing adult alert.

Alina Durham, mother of Shaelene Keeler Bell, is urging people to write to Canada鈥檚 Governor General Mary Simon asking for a bill to be passed to help create Shaelene鈥檚 Missing Adult Alert in honour of her daughter.

Bell, a 23-year-old mother of Chilliwack, went missing on Jan. 30, 2021. Her body was found on June 2, 2021 in the Fraser River near Coquitlam.

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Durham鈥檚 plea to get the adult alert in place also came the same week that 43-year-old Chilliwack woman Tammy White went missing. Her body was found Oct. 9 in the Fraser River near Mission.

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鈥淲e hear more and more about adults going missing everyday, all over Canada. There is a lack of will, there is a lack of pressure and a lack of regulation,鈥� Durham wrote on Oct. 4.

In her public post, she asked Simon to 鈥減lease step up and help me to put Shaelene鈥檚 Missing Adult Alert in place.鈥�

Durham has been working tirelessly to get the alert in place since January, writing letters and making phone calls to provincial and federal governments, RCMP, National Public Alerting System, Alert Ready Emergency Alert System, Emergency Management BC and others.

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For the alert to be issued, first law enforcement would confirm the adult is missing and that they are at risk of imminent danger/death. An alert would then be issued and would include the person鈥檚 name, age, picture, and any other info like last known location and their vehicle description.

If Shaelene鈥檚 Missing Adult Alert is passed, authorities would be able to expand the use of the National Public Alerting System to include adults who go missing under suspicious circumstances.

鈥淩ight now this system can only be used for children under the age of 18 and seniors who may be lost due to Alzheimer鈥檚 or dementia,鈥� Chilliwack-Hope MP Mark Strahl said in January.

Durham said 鈥渋t takes a village鈥� to make this change.

鈥淭his change is long overdue. As good pillars of our community let鈥檚 all work together for the good of others. Let鈥檚 remember and honour all missing adults today,鈥� she said.

Letters in support of Shaelene鈥檚 Missing Adult Alert can be sent to the Governor General of Canada Mary Simon at info@gg.ca or by mail to: Rideau Hall, 1 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ont., K1A 0A1.

In January, Durham created a petition on change.org called 鈥樷�� with a goal of getting 5,000 signatures. As of Oct. 7, more than 3,500 people had signed the petition.

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