Thread: Research question

Hi, unsure of where to post this but I have a question which is bugging me.
I am currently writing a short story in which my protagonist pays a visit to a womans house to tell her that after being missing for the past seven years, they are now officially classing him as deceased.
My question is in relation to my protagonist's profession. Who would be the one to come and notify the woman of this information? Would it be a regular police officer? council worker? Government agent? I have no idea. My guess would be some form of police officer.
Any help would be fantastic, thank you.

I do not know who would declare a missing person to be dead. Certainly, if they had found the body, the police would make the official notification. In the case of a person who was still missing, I do not think any government agency would bother to close the books, at least not at any magical expiration date. The government hates to be embarrassed. They would never willingly declare someone to be dead, only to have that person reappear at some point in the future. To have someone declared dead would have to be initiated by the family. If the missing person had some unresolved affairs that could only be closed out if he were declared dead, or if the family wanted to receive their inheritances they could petition a court to declare their family member dead. I can't imagine such a proceeding starting without the wife knowing that the petition was before the court. She, as next of kin, might have to be the one to start such a petition. In your scenario it might be more likely that someone would approach the wife and say, "It's time we close this out" (i.e. start the petition). If the wife had asked the court to have her husband declared dead, the notification that the court had granted the petition would most likely come via the family's attorney, if the wife had not gone to court herself to directly hear the judge say it.

Recently I think a woman presumed MISSING for 23 years was found. Try and put the plot in a third world country where this can actually happen.

I do believe it would be a police officer.

Also, people can go missing in all sorts of places - not just in the third world, Custard.

Good point, Custard. I have heard of several cases in India where children or grandchildren, to get their inheritance, have a parent or grandparent declared dead. Once the death certificate is issued, the government will not rescind it, even if the "dead" person is standing right in front of the official. The official will not admit to making a mistake.

In the UK a person who is missing for seven years can be legally declared dead, though I'm not certain who does the declaring and informing.

I think it would be an insurance agent, most likely.

JohnB

I agree with custard. Also, it can make for an interesting plot to have the government declare him dead, then when they discover him alive, go to drastic lengths to insure that no one uncovers their mistake. So I'm going to go with the government agent.

The only time goverment cares about an individual is tax time,
only someone that knows the person would point out they have been missing for 7 yrs-declare them dead..
Unless of course, someone points out that the person has been missing for many years and the spouse is still collecting benefits from the goverment for the person.
Maybe an audit of tax records finds the person who hasn't paid for 7yrs and the goverment wants to close the file? Then it would be a IRS agent.