How America’s 88,000 Missing People Become Legally Dead

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, there are currently approximately 88,000 people that are actively missing. These people are somewhere in the legal limbo of dead and alive, and without a death certificate, the families of these individual are facing not only emotional trauma but potentially financial trauma.

A death certificate of a person is the literal key for many things, such as selling jointly-owned property, collecting social security benefits for minors, or collecting benefits from retirement plans. Life insurance policies may be especially tricky, as often of the pay outs are dependent upon the cause of death of the insured.

Attorney Beth Chapman who practices in Juneau, Alaska, Chapman has worked with the families involved in two “presumption of death” trials in regards to people who disappeared while engaging in outdoor activities. She says that it has been extremely emotional for her as an attorney to work on these case, but also that, “It is wrenching for families to go into court to seek a death declaration without a body.”

See American has 88,000 Missing Persons, and Some Families Need Them Declared Dead, Real Clear Life, August 17, 2018; see also Sara Randazzo, How America’s 88,000 Missing People Become Legally Dead, Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2018.