Missing person is found unconscious in hospital: what do police do?
In my story a character is reported missing but it turns out they’re in the hospital after a car accident and unconscious. The person who reported it is a friend/coworker, so not next of kin or anything that would give the hospital reason to contact them.
My story’s set in Canada, if that matters, though I don’t imagine the rules will be too different in the US. I’ve been reading up on how a missing person case investigation works from the Toronto police website: they say that if an adult is found then they need consent to reveal their location to the person who reported them missing.
So what do the police do if the missing person is incapacitated and unable to consent to their location being revealed? Would they wait until the person has recovered enough to speak? Would they let the reporter know that they’ve found the person but not tell them where?