A Silver Alert was issued for 66-year-old Robert Warren Smith, who was last seen around 8 a.m. Wednesday in the 1900 block of 20th Avenue Drive NE in Hickory, North Carolina, driving a white Kia Stinger.
According to WCCB Charlotte, Smith was wearing a blue shirt, gray pants and silver shoes when he was last seen, and his Kia Stinger carried North Carolina license plate RLH8732. The station's report listed a Hickory Police Department contact number, 828-328-5551, for anyone with information at the time the alert was active.
Not long after the alert circulated, Yahoo reported that a Silver Alert had been issued, citing the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons. The outlet also noted that Smith is believed to be impacted by dementia or Alzheimer's.
How North Carolina's Silver Alert Cancellations Work
Details on what led to the cancellation, including where or when Smith was found, were not included in either report. North Carolina's missing persons system generally places that responsibility on local law enforcement rather than the state. Per the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, once a missing person has been located, it is the requesting law enforcement agency that completes the cancellation on the center's website.
That process explains the quick turnaround between the original alert and its cancellation, even though the public record so far doesn't spell out the specifics of how Smith's case was resolved. Silver Alerts in North Carolina are reserved for cases involving older residents or people with cognitive impairments who go missing under circumstances that suggest they may be at risk, which aligns with the dementia-related concern cited in Smith's case.
