Ohio judge declares man legally dead: Judge says he will remain dead

A Living Ohio Man Is Dead, But Doing Well

It is not the first time that a person has chosen to leave behind their family and possessions and be declared legally dead although they were still alive. Donald Miller, an Ohio man, left his home in 1986 and was declared dead in 1994.

Robin Miller said her former husband vanished because he owed big child support payments and that the overdue payments had totalled $26,000 by 1994, The (Findlay) Courier reported.

He surfaced again in 2005 when he attempted to get a driver’s license.

By 2005, he was legally dead for eleven years and now he has been legally dead for nineteen. Judge Allan Davis of Hancock county, Ohio discovered recently that death rulings in Ohio cannot be overturned if more than three years have passed since they were issued.

Miller is alive, well and in good health, but remains legally dead as a result of the law.

Miller, 61, who now lives in the northwest Ohio city of Fostoria, told the judge that he disappeared in the 1980s because he had lost his job and he was an alcoholic. He lived in Florida and Georgia before returning to Ohio around 2005.

He cannot be declared legally alive again and Davis said to him, “I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned.” He also commented that it was a “strange, strange situation.”

Strange, indeed. Miller admitted that he left his family after he lost his job. When he was finally declared dead his “widow” was allowed to collect his social security. In similar situations, insurance and social security money must be returned, but because he remains legally dead she is allowed to keep the money she collected.