Death in absentia Totally Explained

Everything about Death In Absentia totally explained

In law, death in absentia is the status of a person who has been declared legally dead. This occurs when an individual disappears but no identifiable remains can be located or recovered.

Facts, circumstances, and the "balance of probabilities"

In most common law and civil code jurisdictions, it's usually necessary to obtain a court order directing the registrar to issue a death certificate in the absence of a physician's certification that an identified individual has died. However, if there's circumstantial evidence which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the individual is deceased on the balance of probabilities, jurisdictions may agree to issue death certificates without any such order. For example, passengers and crew of the Titanic who were not rescued by the RMS Carpathia were declared legally dead soon after the Carpathia's arrival at New York City. More recently, death certificates for those who perished in the September 11, 2001 attacks were issued by the State of New York within days of the tragedy. The same is usually true of soldiers missing after a major battle, especially if the enemy keeps an accurate record of its prisoners of war.
If there isn't sufficient evidence that death has taken place, it may take somewhat longer, as simple absence doesn't necessarily prove death. The requirements for declaring an individual legally dead may vary depending on numerous details, including:

the jurisdiction in which the individual lived before death;
the jurisdiction in which he or she's presumed to have died;
how the individual is thought to have died (murder, suicide, accident, etc.);
the balance of probabilities making it more likely than not that the individual is dead.

Most countries have a set period of time (seven years in many common law jurisdictions) after which an individual is presumed to be dead if there's no evidence to the contrary. However, if the missing individual is the owner of a significant estate, the court may delay ordering a death certificate to be issued if there has been no real effort to locate the missing person. If the death is thought to have taken place in international waters or in a location without a centralized and reliable police force and/or vital statistics registration system, other laws may be in effect.

Reappearance

Missing persons have on rare occasions been found after being declared legally dead. Prisoners of war, people with mental illnesses who become homeless, and in extremely rare circumstances kidnapping victims may be located years after their disappearance. Fugitives from justice often disappear and may be declared dead in absentia, such as John List who disappeared from Westfield, New Jersey in 1971 and was located in 1989.

Famous cases

There are numerous examples of celebrities and notable persons who have disappeared. Several of the best-known are:

Female American Aviator Amelia Earhart

Indian political leader Subhas Chandra Bose

NBA player Bison Dele

NBA player John Brisker

Hijacker D. B. Cooper

New York Judge Joseph Crater

Manic Street Preachers' guitarist/songwriter Richey Edwards

American aviator Steve Fossett

Labor leader Jimmy Hoffa

Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt

Lord Lucan

Australian anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay

Theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana

Missing child Etan Patz (the first missing child to appear on a milk carton)Further Information

Get more info on 'Death In Absentia'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://death_in_absentia.totallyexplained.com">Death in absentia Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.