How do you declare someone dead. My childrens' father has been missing for almost 2 years?

Question

He went missing in Phenix City, Al. We are in Bradenton, FL. I have done searches on what to do and where to go but I am not getting answers. Who do I call, write? What legal matters have to be taken??

There is no Life Insurance on him. We just want closure for his children.

Child Support was issued in the divorce papers, so going after him that way is not working. His family has not had any contact with him. he has never done this before, since his leaving for Al he saw/talked to his children every other day. He went out one day and never came back. The police in Al and Fl are doing nothing to find him. Although he is wanted in FL for VOP.

Answer 1

You can't declare him dead unless...there's a body, or the police have evidence that implies with almost certainty that a homocide has been commited against a missing person...like so much blood was found at the crime scene, and confirmed as his, that he couldn't possibly be living with that much blood loss.

Just because he abandonded his children doesn't mean he needs to be declared dead. The benefit to declaring him dead would be to receive death benefits from Social Security for the children. Maybe he is dead, and maybe Social Security already knows. You can do a search on his social security number here: http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/

If you want to find out what has really happened to him, initiate a child support order for him. You can publish your intent to pursue child support for 4-6 weeks in a paper that's published in the city of his most recent address. That will suffice being unable to serve him papers if the attorney in your child support case cannot locate him. But I guarantee, if you enter a child support judgement against him, and then allow the state that of Florida to locate him, put a lien on his assets and tax refund, and to begin garnishing his wages, then they will find him. If he left the country, then eventually, they will find him when he tries to collect social security benefits when he's retirement age.

Then again, wanting to declare someone dead just because he's missing from your children's life for 2 years is going a bit overboard....so maybe I should be assuming that there's much more involved to this other than you just not knowing where he is??? Do you have proof that his disappearance was criminal? Has he had no contact with any of his family? Are they being honest if they tell you they've not heard from him in 2 years? There's gotta be a history here that you're not sharing for you to want to declare him dead. If you share that info, perhaps others here will be able to offer better information.

Answer 2

We are dealing with the concept of what is required to be legally dead. In Pennsylvania, it is covered under 20 Consolidated Pennsylvania Statutes, § § 5701 et seq. Pennsylvania law has a presumption based on absence of seven (7) years. However, the exposure to a "specific peril" -- like if somebody left home to go to work at the World Trade Center on September 11th and was never heard from again -- then there could be a shorter period of time.

Consult a Florida attorney for specific infomation.

Answer 3

A person has to be missing at least 7 years to be declared legally dead.

Be patient, maybe he's just taking a nap.

If you push it too hard, they'll know you did it for the insurance money.