Declaring a missing person legally dead

Site Admin Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 1987

What are the regulations or guidlines for declaring a missing person legally dead?
How many years must you wait?
What must you do to prove you attempted to find the missing person?
What are the expected Court Costs?

Site Admin Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 1987

My daughter has been missing for almost 12 yrs now. The Kentucky State Police have her files and they continue to refuse to give me and my attorney any answers to our questions. Will declaring her legally dead close her case in the eyes of KSP? Sarah Teague
270-824-8343

Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 2

People disappear for many reasons. Some individuals choose to disappear alone; most of these soon return. About 10% of missing persons in the United States never return, however. Reasons for this include:

* Leaving home to start again in a new place under a new name.
* Becoming the victim of kidnap.
* Abduction (of a minor) by a non-custodial parent or other relative.
* Seizure by government officials without due process of law.
* Suicide in a remote location or under an assumed name (to spare their families the suicide at home, or to allow their deaths to be eventually declared in absentia).
* Victim of murder (body disguised, destroyed, or hidden).
* Mental or neurological illness can cause someone to become lost, or they may not know how to identify themselves.
* Death by natural causes or accident far from home without identification.
* Disappearance in order to take advantage of better employment or living conditions elsewhere.
* Sold into slavery, serfdom, sexual servitude, or other unfree labor.
* To avoid discovery of a crime or apprehension by law-enforcement authorities. (See also failure to appear).
* Joining a cult or other "religious" organization.
* To escape domestic abuse.
* To avoid war or persecution during a genocide.
* To escape famine or natural disaster.

Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 2

A common misconception is that a person must be absent for 72 hours before being legally classed as missing, but this is rarely the case; in instances where there is evidence of violence or of an unusual absence, law enforcement agencies often stress the importance of beginning an investigation promptly.

In most common law jurisdictions a missing person can be declared dead in absentia (or "legally dead") after seven years. This time frame may be reduced in certain cases, such as deaths in major battles or mass disasters such as the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Joined: 02 Aug 2009 Posts: 5

I don't have to much knowledge but i think one year !