How Do I Get a Death Certificate Issued for a Missing Person in Florida?
Full Question:
Answer:
The time period will vary by local court and business of its docket. A person who is absent from the place of his or her last known domicile for a continuous period of 5 years and whose absence is not satisfactorily explained after diligent search and inquiry is presumed to be dead. The person's death is presumed to have occurred at the end of the period unless there is evidence establishing that death occurred earlier. Evidence showing that the absent person was exposed to a specific peril of death may be a sufficient basis for the court determining at any time after such exposure that he or she died less than 5 years after the date on which his or her absence commenced. A petition for this determination is filed in the county in Florida where the decedent maintained his or her domicile or in any county of this state if the decedent was not a resident of Florida at the time his or her absence commenced. However, this does not preclude the establishment of death by direct or circumstantial evidence prior to expiration of the 5-year time period.
Please see the following FL statutes:
382.012 Presumptive death certificate.--
(1) "Presumptive death" means a determination by a court of competent jurisdiction that:
(a) A death of a resident of this state has occurred or is presumed to have occurred, but the body of the person involved has not been located or recovered; or
(b) A death of a nonresident of this state has occurred or is presumed to have occurred in this state, but the body of the person involved has not been located or recovered.
(2) The department shall file a presumptive death certificate when ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction. In case of a presumptive death certificate, the medical certification of cause of death must be signed by the judge issuing the court order. A petitioner seeking a presumptive death certificate must include in the petition before the court all information necessary to complete the presumptive death certificate.
731.103 Evidence as to death or status.--In proceedings under this code and under chapter 736, the following additional rules relating to determination of death and status are applicable:
(1) An authenticated copy of a death certificate issued by an official or agency of the place where the death purportedly occurred is prima facie proof of the fact, place, date, and time of death and the identity of the decedent.
(2) A copy of any record or report of a governmental agency, domestic or foreign, that a person is alive, missing, detained, or, from the facts related, presumed dead is prima facie evidence of the status and of the dates, circumstances, and places disclosed by the record or report.
(3) A person who is absent from the place of his or her last known domicile for a continuous period of 5 years and whose absence is not satisfactorily explained after diligent search and inquiry is presumed to be dead. The person's death is presumed to have occurred at the end of the period unless there is evidence establishing that death occurred earlier. Evidence showing that the absent person was exposed to a specific peril of death may be a sufficient basis for the court determining at any time after such exposure that he or she died less than 5 years after the date on which his or her absence commenced. A petition for this determination shall be filed in the county in Florida where the decedent maintained his or her domicile or in any county of this state if the decedent was not a resident of Florida at the time his or her absence commenced.
(4) This section does not preclude the establishment of death by direct or circumstantial evidence prior to expiration of the 5-year time period set forth in subsection (3).
937.021 Missing child and missing adult reports.--
(1) Law enforcement agencies in this state shall adopt written policies that specify the procedures to be used to investigate reports of missing children and missing adults. The policies must ensure that cases involving missing children and adults are investigated promptly using appropriate resources. The policies must include:
(a) Requirements for accepting missing child and missing adult reports;
(b) Procedures for initiating, maintaining, closing, or referring a missing child or missing adult investigation; and
(c) Standards for maintaining and clearing computer data of information concerning a missing child or missing adult which is stored in the Florida Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information Center. The standards must require, at a minimum, a monthly review of each case and a determination of whether the case should be maintained in the database.
(2) An entry concerning a missing child or missing adult may not be removed from the Florida Crime Information Center or the National Crime Information Center databases based solely on the age of the missing child or missing adult.
(3) A report that a child or adult is missing must be accepted by and filed with the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction in the county or municipality in which the child or adult was last seen. The filing and acceptance of the report imposes the duties specified in this section upon the law enforcement agency receiving the report. This subsection does not preclude a law enforcement agency from accepting a missing child or missing adult report when agency jurisdiction cannot be determined.
(4)(a) Upon the filing of a police report that a child is missing by the parent or guardian, the Department of Children and Family Services, a community-based care provider, or a sheriff's office providing investigative services for the department, the law enforcement agency receiving the report shall immediately inform all on-duty law enforcement officers of the missing child report, communicate the report to every other law enforcement agency having jurisdiction in the county, and within 2 hours after receipt of the report, transmit the report for inclusion within the Florida Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information Center databases. A law enforcement agency may not require a reporter to present an order that a child be taken into custody or any other such order before accepting a report that a child is missing.
(b) Upon the filing of a credible police report that an adult is missing, the law enforcement agency receiving the report shall, within 2 hours after receipt of the report, transmit the report for inclusion within the Florida Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information Center databases.
(5)(a) Upon receiving a request to record, report, transmit, display, or release Amber Alert or Missing Child Alert information from the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the missing child, the Department of Law Enforcement as the state Amber Alert coordinator, any state or local law enforcement agency, and the personnel of these agencies; any radio or television network, broadcaster, or other media representative; any dealer of communications services as defined in s. 202.11; or any agency, employee, individual, or entity is immune from civil liability for damages for complying in good faith with the request and is presumed to have acted in good faith in recording, reporting, transmitting, displaying, or releasing Amber Alert or Missing Child Alert information pertaining to such child.
(b) Upon receiving a request to record, report, transmit, display, or release information and photographs pertaining to a missing adult from the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the missing adult, the department, a state or local law enforcement agency, and the personnel of these agencies; any radio or television network, broadcaster, or other media representative; any dealer of communications services as defined in s. 202.11; or any agency, employee, individual, or person is immune from civil liability for damages for complying in good faith with the request to provide information and is presumed to have acted in good faith in recording, reporting, transmitting, displaying, or releasing information or photographs pertaining to the missing adult.
(c) The presumption of good faith is not overcome if a technical or clerical error is made by any agency, employee, individual, or entity acting at the request of the local law enforcement agency having jurisdiction, or if the Amber Alert, Missing Child Alert, or missing adult information is incomplete or incorrect because the information received from the local law enforcement agency was incomplete or incorrect.
(d) Neither this subsection nor any other provision of law creates a duty of the agency, employee, individual, or entity to record, report, transmit, display, or release the Amber Alert, Missing Child Alert, or missing adult information received from the local law enforcement agency having jurisdiction. The decision to record, report, transmit, display, or release information is discretionary with the agency, employee, individual, or entity receiving the information.
(6) If a missing child or missing adult is not located within 90 days after the missing child or missing adult report is filed, the law enforcement agency that accepted the report shall attempt to obtain a biological specimen for DNA analysis from the missing child or missing adult or from appropriate family members in addition to obtaining necessary documentation. This subsection does not prevent a law enforcement agency from attempting to obtain information or approved biological specimens for DNA analysis before the expiration of the 90-day period.
(7) The department shall adopt rules specific to cases involving missing children and missing adults which will:
(a) Identify biological specimens that are approved by the department for DNA analysis.
(b) Identify the documentation necessary for the department to use the biological specimens for DNA analysis.
(c) Establish procedures for the collection of biological specimens by law enforcement agencies.
(d) Establish procedures for forwarding biological specimens by law enforcement agencies to the department.
(8) Subsections (6) and (7) are contingent upon the availability of federal funding for the submission and processing of approved biological specimens for DNA analysis.
937.031 Dental records of missing persons; access and use.--When a person has been reported missing and has not been located within 30 days after such report, the law enforcement agency conducting the investigation of the missing person shall request the family or next of kin to provide written consent to contact the dentist of the missing person and request that person's dental records. Notwithstanding the provisions of s. 456.057, a dentist, upon receipt of proof of written consent, shall release a copy of the dental records of the missing person to the law enforcement agency requesting such records, providing or encoding the dental records in a form requested by the Department of Law Enforcement. The law enforcement agency shall then enter the dental records into the criminal justice information system for the purpose of comparing such records to those of unidentified deceased persons.
92.30 Presumption of death; official findings.--A written finding of presumed death, made by the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Navy, or other officer or employee of the United States authorized to make such findings, pursuant to the 1Federal missing persons Act (56 Stat. 143, 1092, and Pub. L. No. 408, Ch. 371, 2d Sess. 78th Cong.; 50 U.S.C. App. Supp. 1001-17), as now or hereafter amended, or a duly certified copy of such finding, shall be received in any court, office, or other place in this state as evidence of the death of the person therein found to be dead, and the date, circumstances, and place of the person's disappearance.
History.--s. 1, ch. 22866, 1945; s. 22, ch. 77-104; s. 514, ch. 95-147.
1Note.--Repealed by Act Sept. 6, 1966, Pub. L. No. 89-554, s. 8(a), 80 Stat. 632, 651-654, 656, 657, 659, 662.
92.31 missing persons and persons imprisoned or interned in foreign countries; official reports.--An official written report or record, or duly certified copy thereof, that a person is missing, missing in action, interned in a neutral country, or beleaguered, besieged, or captured by an enemy, or is dead, or is alive, made by any officer or employee of the United States authorized by the act referred to in s. 92.30, or by any other law of the United States to make same, shall be received in any court, office, or other place in this state as evidence that such person is missing, missing in action, interned in a neutral country, or beleaguered, besieged, or captured by an enemy, or is dead, or is alive, as the case may be.
