¹ The Addams Family (2010) (book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice; music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa). A copy of the script can be found at http://alexandriaareaarts.org/newweb/scripts/AdamsFamilyMusical.pdf (last visited Aug. 15, 2015) (indicating, at page 1 [page 9 of the PDF file], that Gomez's words are spoken in Act I, Scene I, during the “Overture/Prologue”). The Addams Family was created by cartoonist Charles Addams (www.charlesaddams.com) in 1938 for New Yorker magazine and later became both an ABC television series (1964–1966) and a Hollywood movie franchise (1991–1993) before being turned into a Broadway show. See H. Kevin Miserocchi, The Addams Family: An Evilution (2010). See also The Addams Family (Musical), Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Addams_Family_(musical) (last visited Aug. 15, 2015).

² For an extensive list of well-known absentees and returnees, see List of People Who Disappeared Mysteriously, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_disappeared_mysteriously (last visited Aug. 15, 2015). See also Jay Robert Nash, Among the Missing: An Anecdotal History of Missing Persons From 1800 to the Present (1978).

As one might expect, absentees and returnees figure prominently in popular culture. Recent novels include Megan Abbott, The Song is You (2007); Alafair Burke, If You Were Here (2013); Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl (2012); Alison Gaylin, And She Was (2012); Nell Gordon, The Company You Keep (2003); Stewart O'Nan, Songs for the Missing (2008); Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers (2011). Recent movies include Abduction (2011) (starring Sigourney Weaver); Changeling (2008) (Angelina Jolie); Flightplan (2005) (Jodie Foster); Gone Baby Gone (2007) (Casey Affleck); Megan is Missing (2011) (Rachel Quinn); The Forgotten (2004) (Julianne Moore); Winter's Bone (2010) (Jennifer Lawrence). Recent TV shows include Alcatraz (Fox, 2012); Lost (ABC, 2004–2010); Missing (ABC, 2012); The 4400 (USA, 2004–2007); The Missing (Starz, 2014–); Vanished (Fox, 2006); Without a Trace (CBS, 2002–09). In dissecting such fare, one observer has written:

Moze Halperin, The 10 Best Films and TV Shows About Disappearance, Flavorwire, Dec. 31, 2014, at http://flavorwire.com/496591/the-10-best-films-and-tv-shows-about-disappearance (last visited Aug. 15, 2015). See also Laura Lippmann, Top 10 Books About Missing Persons, Guardian (London), Apr. 9, 2014, at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/09/top-10-books-missing-persons-nabokov-gone-girl (last visited Aug. 15, 2015) (observing that “murder stories may be intriguing, but the open-ended nature of missing person stories make them even more compelling”).

³ See, e.g., Dayton v. Dayton, 725 S.E.2d 439 (N.C. Ct. App. 2012). In 2004, Douglas Dayton disappeared and was not heard from again. In 2010, his mother sought to have him declared dead, requested that she be appointed administratrix of his estate, sued to collect his life insurance, and demanded payment of an additional $100,000 because of the policy's “accidental death and dismemberment” clause. Disposing of these matters required the court to: 1) appoint a guardian ad litem to protect Douglas’ interests; 2) establish if he was alive or dead after examining the circumstances of his disappearance and all plausible alternatives; 3) decide if his mother was qualified to administer his estate; 4) determine if Douglas died while the policy was still in effect; 5) resolve if his death was from natural or accidental causes; 6) consider whether his mother, either in her capacity as administratrix or as beneficiary, should have to post a bond to protect the insurance company in case her son reappeared; and, 7) take into account the claims of known and potential creditors. Because the policy designated his mother as the sole beneficiary, the court did not have to delve into such questions as whether Douglas died with a will or had other heirs.

⁴ Professor Jeanne Louise Carriere has called absentees “the living dead.” See infra Item 29 of this bibliography.

Despite the intuitive appeal of Professor Carriere's phrasing, her terminology is inapt. Since 1968, when George Romero's cult classic Night of the Living Dead premiered, the words “living dead” have been understood as referring to zombies. Zombies (at least as conceptualized by Romero) are beings who unquestionably are dead. See Stephanie Boluk & Wylie Lenz, Introduction: Generation Z, the Age of Apocalypse, in Generation Zombie: Essays on the Living Dead in Modern Culture 3–5 (2011). In contrast, the undecided might be alive or might be dead (much like Schrödinger's cat).

⁵ Antonin Scalia, A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law 138 (1997).

⁶ In 1994, Eugene Miller was declared legally dead. In 2013, he reappeared, explaining that he had disappeared to avoid paying child support but now needed to reactivate his Social Security number to obtain a driver’s license. When he sought to have his declaration of death set aside, his request was denied by an Ohio probate court:

John Schwartz, Declared Legally Dead, as He Sat Before the Judge, N.Y. Times, Oct. 12, 2013, at A14.

⁷ Kevin Kepple et al., By the Numbers: Missing Persons in the USA, USA Today, Sept. 25, 2014, at http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/09/23/missing-persons-children-numbers/16110709/ (last visited Aug. 15, 2015). As this source notes:

Id.

⁸ In a 2013 interview, Todd Matthews, the communications director of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (www.namus.gov), explained:

Audie Cornish, Majority of Missing Persons Cases are Resolved, NPR, May 7, 2013, at http://www.npr.org/2013/05/07/182000622/majority-of-missing-persons-cases-are-resolved (last visited Aug. 15, 2015).

⁹ See, e.g., Mellon v. International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, 33 F. Supp. 3d 1277 (D. Wyo. 2014), aff'd, 612 F. App’x 936 (10th Cir. 2015) (dismissing the plaintiff's claim that the defendant was refusing to reveal the location of Earhart's plane, which disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in 1937, so that it could keep fundraising).

¹⁰ See, e.g., In re Search Warrant for Four Contiguous Parcels of Real Property in Milford, Michigan, 2006 WL 1779436 (E.D. Mich. 2006) (rejecting a newspaper's request to unseal a 2006 search warrant application tied to Hoffa's 1975 disappearance, which many believed was ordered by the mob).

¹¹ Crater, who vanished in 1930 after stepping into a New York City taxicab, continues to hold a special fascination for the legal profession. See, e.g., Fidell, Eugene R., Judge Crater's New York , 8 Green Bag 2d 321 (2005)Google Scholar (reviewing Richard J. Tofel, Vanishing Point: The Disappearance of Judge Crater, and the New York He Left Behind (2004)). See also People v. Austin, 168 Cal. Rptr. 401, 406 (Ct. App. 1980) (Hopper, Acting P.J., dissenting) (“Searching People v. Hobbs (1952) 109 Cal.App.2d 189, 240 P.2d 411 for its direct applicability to the instant case is to no avail and is as unrewarding as have been the searches to date for Judge Crater and Ambrose Bierce.”).

Although he was not an attorney, Bierce's disappearance in 1914 (possibly at the hands of Mexican revolutionaries) likewise intrigues lawyers because he is the author of The Devil's Dictionary (1911; originally published in 1906 under the title The Cynic's Word Book), a satirical glossary that includes many legal terms. Bierce's definition of “litigation” as a “machine which you go into as a pig and come out as a sausage” has proven particularly enduring. See, e.g., Alexe v. Lucent Techs., Inc., 2007 WL 3026864, at *4 (D.N.J. 2007); Klinge v. Bentien, 725 N.W.2d 13, 14 (Iowa 2006). See also In re Damon, 40 B.R. 367, 378 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 1984) (“The legal process is not, as defined by Ambrose Bierce, a meatgrinder with the lawyer turning the handle.”).

¹² See, e.g., Andrews v. Estate of Andrews, 149 So. 3d 760 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2014) (absentee disappeared while on her way to a local park); In re Estate of Putterman, 2013 WL 451902 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. 2013) (absentee disappeared while traveling alone in Honduras); In re Sanchez, 2009 WL 530971 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. 2009) (absentee disappeared during a short car trip); Matter of Cosentino, 676 N.Y.S.2d 856 (Sur. Ct. 1998) (absentee disappeared after leaving home to attend a business meeting).

Of course, inexplicable disappearances are easily explained if one believes in alien abductions, the supernatural, or time travel:

The court can posit several possibilities for this[,] such as they moved their law office to Brigadoon, Scotland and they will reappear in a hundred years; or the entire firm went on a cruise in the Bermuda Triangle; or perhaps they stowed away on Amelia Earhart's plane.

Centurion Capital Corp. v. Guarino, 2012 WL 1543286, at *6 (N.Y.C. Civ. Ct. 2012).

¹³ See, e.g., Woods v. Estate of Woods, 681 So. 2d 903 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1996) (absentee presumed to have died on ship that sank in Hurricane Erin).

¹⁴ See, e.g., Irby v. Fairbanks Gold Mining, Inc., 203 P.3d 1138 (Alaska 2009) (absentee presumed to have died when his bulldozer fell into an icy pond).

¹⁵ See, e.g., In re Philip, 851 N.Y.S.2d 141 (App. Div. 2008) (absentee presumed to have died in 9/11 attacks); In re Application of Gartner, 2004 WL 2187571 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. 2004) (same); In re LaFuente, 743 N.Y.S.2d 678 (Sup. Ct. 2002) (same).

¹⁶ See, e.g., In re Rausch's Estate, 347 N.Y.S.2d 925 (Sur. Ct. 1973) (absentee presumed to have died during aerial reconnaissance mission over Laos).

¹⁷ See, e.g., Levine v. March, 266 S.W.3d 426 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2007) (absentee presumed to have been killed by her husband); Nelson v. Schubert, 994 P.2d 225 (Wash. Ct. App. 2000) (same); Jones v. State Through Dep't of Health & Hosps., 671 So. 2d 1074 (La. Ct. App.), writ denied, 674 So. 2d 263 (La. 1996) (absentee living in group home for the disabled presumed to have been killed by an unknown intruder); In re Kerstetter, 582 A.2d 1122 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1990) (absentee working as a night watchman presumed to have been killed by a burglar). For a look at the difficulties of prosecuting a murder case in the absence of a corpse, see, e.g., Greene, Francis Paul, Comment, I Ain't Got No Body: The Moral Uncertainty of Bodiless Murder Jurisprudence in New York After People v. Bierenbaum , 71 Fordham L. Rev. 2863 (2003)Google Scholar; Stefanson, R., Note, Homicide—Corpus Delicti—Body Missing , 37 N.D. L. Rev. 117 (1961)Google Scholar; Steve Weinberg, Missing and Presumed Murdered, 81 A.B.A. J. 62 (Sept. 1995).

Although parental abductions of children during custody battles often qualify as absences by criminal act, further discussion of them is omitted from this bibliography. The subject is explored in detail in Child Custody and Visitation Law and Practice (Matthew Bender, rev. ed. 2015). For abductions crossing national borders, see Rhona Schuz, The Hague Child Abduction Convention: A Critical Analysis (2013).

¹⁸ See, e.g., Malone v. Reliastar Life Ins. Co., 558 F.3d 683 (7th Cir. 2009) (absentee disappeared after taking out multiple life insurance policies); Saint Calle v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 815 F. Supp. 679 (S.D.N.Y. 1993) (same).

In 1878, cowboy John Hillmon purchased four life insurance policies worth $25,000. In 1879, he disappeared. In 1880, his wife Sallie sought to collect on the policies and produced a body to prove that Hillmon had died at a remote Kansas campsite with the ironic name “Crooked Creek.” Believing they were being hoodwinked, the underwriters refused to pay. The resulting litigation, which lasted 23 years, produced two U.S. Supreme Court opinions (Mutual Life Ins. Co. of New York v. Hillmon, 145 U.S. 285 (1892), and Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Hillmon, 188 U.S. 208 (1903)) and led to the adoption of what now is Rule 803(3) of the Federal Rules of Evidence (which treats as non-hearsay an absentee's statement regarding his or her future plans). For a further discussion, see Marianne Wesson, A Death at Crooked Creek: The Case of the Cowboy, the Cigarmaker, and the Love Letter (2013).

¹⁹ A number of “how-to” books have been published to help those who want to run away. See, e.g., J.J. Luna, How to Be Invisible: Protect Your Home, Your Children, Your Assets, and Your Life (3d ed. 2012); Frank Ahearn & Eileen Horan, How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish Without a Trace (2010); Doug Richmond, How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found (1996). For the techniques used to find such persons, see Carole Moore, The Last Place You'd Look: True Stories of Missing Persons and the People Who Search for Them (2011). See also Shalev, Karen et al. , Investigating Missing Person Cases: How Can We Learn Where They Go or How Far They Travel , 11 Int'l J. Police Sci. & Mgmt. 123 (2009)Google Scholar.

²⁰ See, e.g., Garcia v. United States, 40 Fed. Cl. 247 (1998) (absentee disappeared after quarreling with his military superiors); Kentucky B. Ass'n v. Johnson, 457 S.W.3d 720 (Ky. 2015) (absentee vanished from his law practice after disciplinary charges began to be filed against him).

²¹ See, e.g., In re Boyd, 723 So. 2d 1107 (La. Ct. App. 1998) (absentee left home after fight with her mother). See also “R.P.D.,” Presumption of Death From Seven Years’ Absence as Affected by Domestic Troubles, 64 A.L.R. 1288 (1930 & Supps.).

²² See, e.g., In re Starr, 128 Cal. Rptr. 2d 282 (Ct. App. 2002) (absentee presumed to be in hiding to avoid imprisonment). See also “G.R.B.,” Presumption of Death From Absence as Affected by Fact That Person was Fugitive From Justice, 44 A.L.R. 1488 (1926 & Supps.).

²³ See, e.g., Ahn v. Kim, 678 A.2d 1073 (N.J. 1996) (although absentee previously had tried to commit suicide, there was insufficient proof to support plaintiff's contention that his subsequent disappearance was due to a successful attempt). In In re Estate of Bennett, 2006 WL 1341225 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. 2006), the court initially believed the absentee had killed himself. Once his medical records were obtained, however, it became more reasonable to believe he had died from a heart condition.

²⁴ See, e.g., In re Will of Seals, 2014 WL 980660 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. 2014) (absentee told his mother to let no one know of his whereabouts except for two specific individuals); In re Proper Family Trusts, 2007 WL 2792178, at *2 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. 2007) (denying request for declaration of death because absentee “historically [has] sought to live his life apart from his family, and without any contact to past friends/neighbors/business partners.”).

²⁵ See, e.g., In re Estate of Zagaria, 997 N.E.2d 913 (Ill. App. Ct. 2013) (absentee discovered living in a homeless shelter).

²⁶ As a result, the subject continues to make do with Franz Fraenkel's slim (80 pages) booklet Missing Persons: The Law in the United States and Europe (1950). For reviews, see Monzingo, Cloy D., Book Note , 29 Tex. L. Rev. 865 (1951)Google Scholar; Roucek, Joseph S., Book Notes , 45 Am. J. Int'l L. 403 (1951)Google Scholar.

²⁷ As used herein, the term “law review” includes bar journals. Writings referring to the undecided only in passing, or published in a language other than English, are omitted.

²⁸ See Eagle's Case, 3 Abb. Pr. 218, 219 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. 1856) (tracing the rule to the Digest of Justinian and explaining that a person was presumed to survive to his or her 100th birthday in the absence of evidence to the contrary). For a further discussion, see Note, The Presumption of Life , 9 Colum. L. Rev. 435 (1909)Google Scholar.

²⁹ See An Act to Restrain All Persons From Marriage Until Their Former Wives and Former Husbands be Dead, 1 Jac., ch. 11 (1604).

³⁰ See An Act for Redress of Inconveniences by Want of Proof of the Deceases of Persons Beyond the Seas or Absenting Themselves, Upon Whose Lives Estates do Depend, 18–19 Car. 2, ch. 11 (1667).

³¹ See Doe v. Jesson, (1805) 102 Eng. Rep. 1217, 1219 (K.B.). The United States Supreme Court approved the presumption's use in Scott v. McNeal, 154 U.S. 34 (1894). For a further discussion, see, e.g., C.P. Jhong, Necessity and Sufficiency of Showing of Search and Inquiry by One Relying on Presumption of Death From 7 Years’ Absence, 99 A.L.R.2d 307 (1965 & Supps.).

The seven-year rule has become something of a staple in popular culture. See, e.g., Michael Craft, Flight Dreams (1997) (fictional investigative reporter Mark Manning races against the deadline to find a Chicago socialite and prevent her fortune from being dispersed). In “The Mysterious Cube,” a 1958 episode of the TV show Adventures of Superman (syndicated, 1952–1958), a notorious criminal named Paul Barton has hidden himself for nearly seven years in an impenetrable cube made out of a mysterious substance. In a few days, Barton will have his brother go to court to have him declared legally dead, making it impossible for the authorities to prosecute him for his past crimes. When he realizes that he cannot break through the cube (or even look into it with his x-ray vision), Superman comes up with an ingenious solution:

James Lantz, “The Mysterious Cube,” Superman Homepage, at http://www.supermanhomepage.com/tv/tv.php?topic=reviews/aos-ep095 (last visited Aug. 15, 2015).

In “Don't Come Back Alive,” a 1955 episode of the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (CBS/NBC, 1955–1965), another seven-year tale has an equally-unexpected twist:

List of Alfred Hitchcock Presents Episodes, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alfred_Hitchcock_Presents_episodes (last visited Aug. 15, 2015).

³² The Uniform Probate Code, for example, contains a five-year waiting period. See Unif. Probate Code § 1-107(5), 8 (pt. I) U.L.A. 41 (2013).

³³ See supra notes 13–16 and accompanying text.

³⁴ Brewster on Behalf of Keller v. Sullivan, 972 F.2d 898, 902 n.4 (8th Cir. 1992). Tennyson's poem has served as the basis of numerous later works, including the movies My Favorite Wife (1940) (starring Cary Grant); “Move Over, Darling” (1963) (Doris Day); and Cast Away (2000) (Tom Hanks). Likewise, “Hi Honey, I'm Home,” a 1984 episode of the TV sitcom Night Court (NBC, 1984–1992), borrows Tennyson's plot:

“R.C.,” The Smell of Napier in the Morning, IMDb, Apr. 11, 2010, at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0660655/ (last visited Aug. 15, 2015).

³⁵ See Handbook of the National Conference on Uniform State Laws and Proceedings 201 (1939)Google Scholar. In 1981, the UAA was withdrawn and superseded by the Uniform Probate Code. See Unif. Absence as Evidence of Death and Absentees’ Property Act, 8A U.L.A. 1 (2003).

³⁶ To varying degrees, Tennessee and Wisconsin still use the UAA. See Tenn. Code §§ 30-3-101 to 30-3-210; Wis. Stats. §§ 813.22-813.34. Maryland adopted the UAA in 1941, see infra Item 30 of this bibliography, but repealed it in 1973. See Adkins, William H. II, Code Revision in Maryland: The Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article , 34 Md. L. Rev. 7, 23–25 (1974)Google Scholar. Because its statute, adopted in 1965, is modeled after the UAA, North Carolina is sometimes considered a fourth UAA jurisdiction. See infra Items 53 and 54 of this bibliography.

³⁷ 119 U.N.T.S. 99 (entered into force Jan. 24, 1952; terminated Jan. 24, 1972).

³⁸ For a further discussion, see Nehemiah Robinson, United Nations Convention on the Declaration of Death of Missing Persons: A Commentary (1951).

³⁹ 2716 U.N.T.S. 9 (opened for signature Feb. 6, 2007; entered into force Dec. 23, 2010).

⁴⁰ See, e.g., Chris Buckley, China Holds a Rights Lawyer as 3 Others Disappear, N.Y. Times, July 11, 2015, at A3 (reporting on the enforced disappearances of Zhou Shifeng, Li Shuyun, and Wang Yu, fellow attorneys at the Fengrui Law Firm in Beijing). Prominent historical examples include Adolf Hitler's “Night and Fog” decree (Dec. 7, 1941) and Argentina's “Dirty War” (1976–1983). As to the former, see Floris B. Bakels, Nacht Und Nebel: Night and Fog (1993). As to the latter, see Iain Guest, Behind the Disappearances: Argentina's Dirty War Against Human Rights and the United Nations (1990). The fallout from Argentina's Dirty War continues to the present day. See, e.g., Vaisman, Noa, Relational Human Rights: Shed-DNA and the Identification of the Living Disappeared in Argentina , 41 J.L. & Soc'y 391 (2014)Google Scholar; King, Elizabeth B. Ludwin, A Conflict of Interests: Privacy, Truth, and Compulsory DNA Testing for Argentina's Children of the Disappeared , 44 Cornell Int'l L.J. 535 (2011)Google Scholar; Avery, Lisa, A Return to Life: The Right to Identity and the Right to Identify Argentina's Living Disappeared , 27 Harv. Women's L.J. 235 (2004)Google Scholar.

⁴¹ For additional commentary, see, e.g., Tullio Scovzzi & Gabriella Citroni, The Struggle Against Enforced Disappearance and the 2007 United Nations Convention (2007).