I know this is not the best of sources....but I still wondered about the presumed death status of Kevin. If somebody has a better source than please post.
Declared death in absentia - Wikipedia
United States[edit]
The
U.S. Constitution provides that all powers not expressly or implicitly assigned to the federal state are reserved to the 50 unitary states. The declaration of a missing person as legally dead thus falls under state jurisdiction unless there is a reason for the federal government to have jurisdiction (e.g. the party was military personnel who went missing while on active duty). Otherwise, there are 57 U.S. jurisdictions that comprise the United States, each of which has its own law on the question.
People who disappear are typically called
missing, or sometimes
absent. Several criteria are evaluated to determine whether a person may be declared legally dead:
- The party normally must have been missing from their home or usual residence for an extended period of time, most commonly seven years
- Their absence must have been continuous and inexplicable (e.g. the person did not say they had found a new job and were moving far away)
- There must have been no communication from the party with those people most likely to hear from them during the period the person has been missing
- There must have been a diligent but unsuccessful search for the person and/or diligent but unsuccessful inquiry into their whereabouts.
Professor Jeanne Carriere, in "The Rights of the Living Dead: Absent Persons in
Civil Law" (published in the
Louisiana Law Review), stated that as of 1990, the number of such cases in the United States was estimated at between 60,000 and 100,000.
[13] Often the missing person's bank accounts are checked for activity, and possible sightings investigated.[
citation needed]
According to Edgar Sentell, a retired senior
vice-president and
general counsel of Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company, almost all states recognize the presumption of death, by
statute or judicial recognition of the
common law rule. Some states have amended their statutes to reduce the seven-year period to five consecutive years missing, and some, such as
Minnesota and
Georgia, have reduced the period to four years.
[14]
If someone disappears, those interested can file a
petition to have them declared legally dead. They must prove by the criteria above that the person is in fact dead. There are
constitutional limitations to these procedures: The presumption must arise only after a reasonable amount of time has elapsed. The absent person must be notified. Courts permit notifying claimants by publication. Adequate
safeguards concerning property provisions must be made in the case that an absent person shows up.
Some states require those who receive the missing person's assets to return them if the person turned out to be alive. If a person is declared dead when only missing, their estate is distributed as if they were dead. In some cases, the presumption of death can be rebutted. According to Sentell, courts will consider evidence that the absent person was a
fugitive from
justice, had money troubles, had a bad relationship, or had no family ties or connection to a
community as reasons not to presume death.
[14]
