Silver Alert for missing Nob Hill woman ends with safe reunion

San Francisco police asked the public to watch for Indira Shrestha, 80, after she was last seen at about 10:50 a.m. Wednesday, April 15, leaving her home on the 1000 block of Leavenworth Street in Nob Hill. Police described her as an Asian woman, 4 feet 5 inches tall, 104 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a long purple multicolored dress and dark-colored shoes, and officers said she was considered at risk because she suffers from dementia. Anyone with information was urged to call 911 immediately.

By Friday, April 17, police said Shrestha had been found safe by BART police, appeared to be in good health and had been reunited with her family. Investigators said foul play was not suspected.

The alert drew attention to Huntington Park, near Taylor and California streets, where police said Shrestha was known to frequent. In a city where a missing elder can move from a single block to a busy transit corridor in minutes, those location details can shape how quickly neighbors, transit workers and officers narrow the search.

California’s Silver Alert system is meant for exactly these cases: missing elderly or cognitively impaired people who are determined to be at risk. The program was created by Senate Bill 1047 and became law in 2012, giving law enforcement a statewide tool to push out urgent information fast when every hour matters.

The California Highway Patrol says the alert plan is coordinated through its Emergency Notification and Tactical Alert Center in Sacramento and works with local law enforcement, the media, X and other partners to speed recovery. In practice, that means a missing person notice can move quickly from police dispatch to phones, screens and patrol officers across the Bay Area.

San Francisco residents can also sign up for AlertSF, the city’s text, email and phone-based emergency notification system, which is separate from the Silver Alert program. Together, those systems help turn a missing-person call into a citywide response, especially in the first hours when a vulnerable adult is most exposed and the odds of a safe return depend on fast attention.