How Do I Get a Death Certificate for a Missing Person in Oregon?
Full Question:
Answer:
Please see the following OR statutes to determine applicability:
146.181 Missing persons; police report; supplementary report.
(1) When a person is reported as missing to any city, county or state
police agency, the agency, within 12 hours thereafter, shall enter into
state and federal records maintained for that purpose, a report of the
missing person in a format and according to procedures established by
the authorities responsible respectively for the state and federal
records.
(2) The law enforcement, agency to which the report is made:
(a) May request from the person making the report information or
material likely to be useful in identifying the missing person or the
human remains of the missing person, including, but not limited to:
(A) The name of the missing person and any alternative names the
person uses;
(B) The date of birth of the missing person;
(C) A physical description of the missing person, including the
height, weight, gender, race, eye color, current hair color and natural
hair color of the missing person, any identifying marks on the missing
person, any prosthetics used by, or surgical implants in, the missing
person and any physical anomalies of the missing person;
(D) The blood type of the missing person;
(E) The driver license number of the missing person;
(F) The Social Security number of the missing person;
(G) A recent photograph of the missing person;
(H) A description of the clothing the missing person is believed to
have been wearing at the time the person disappeared;
(I) A description of items that the missing person is believed to have
had with the person at the time the person disappeared;
(J) Telephone numbers and electronic mail addresses of the missing
person;
(K) The name and address of any school the missing person attends;
(L) The name and address of any employer of the missing person;
(M) The name and address of the primary care physician and dentist of
the missing person;
(N) A description of any vehicle that the missing person might have
been driving or riding in when the person disappeared;
(O) The reasons why the person making the missing person report
believes the person is missing;
(P) Any circumstances that indicate that the missing person may be at
risk of injury or death;
(Q) Any circumstances that may indicate that the disappearance is not
voluntary;
(R) Information about a known or possible abductor or a person who was
last seen with the missing person; and
(S) The date of the last contact with the missing person.
(b) May request in writing from any dentist, denturist, physician,
optometrist or other medical practitioner possessing it such medical,
dental or other physically descriptive information as is likely to be
useful in identifying the missing person or the human remains of the
missing person.
(3) The law enforcement agency, upon obtaining information pursuant to
subsection (2) of this section, shall make a supplementary entry of that
information into the state and federal records described in
subsection (1) of this section. The supplementary report shall be in a
format and according to procedures established by the authorities
responsible respectively for the state and federal records.
176.740 Governor's proclamation; presumption for missing person;
death certificate.
(1) The Governor may proclaim that a natural disaster or an act of
war, terrorism or sabotage has caused the death of unknown persons on a
specific date at a specific place.
(2) For the purposes of any civil or administrative proceeding, there
is a presumption that a missing person is dead if it is shown that:
(a) The person was at or near the place described in a proclamation
under this section on the date specified in the proclamation; and
(b) The person's absence cannot be satisfactorily explained after
diligent search.
(3) In administering the estate of an absentee under ORS chapter 117,
the court may enter an order directing the State Medical Examiner to
deposit a death certificate with the county registrar for a decedent
presumed to be dead under this section. The county registrar may not
charge a fee for depositing a death certificate under this subsection or
for issuing a copy of a death certificate deposited under this
subsection. The State Medical Examiner shall indicate on the death
certificate that the death certificate was issued pursuant to an order
entered under this section.
(4) This section does not establish, limit or abrogate the
special peril doctrine.