                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

PRESUMPTION OF DEATH FROM ABSENCE OR DISAPPEARANCE; WHEN APPLICABLE (§
64.2-2300)

A. 1. Any person who is a resident of the Commonwealth shall be presumed to be
dead if such person:
			a. Leaves and does not return to the Commonwealth for seven successive years
and is not heard from;
			b. Disappears for seven successive years and is not heard from; or
			c. Disappears in a foreign country, his body has not been found, and he is
not known to be alive, and a report of presumptive death by the Department of
State of the United States has been issued.

   2. Any person who is not a resident of the Commonwealth, but who owns real or
   personal property located within the Commonwealth, shall be presumed to be
   dead if such person disappears for seven successive years from the place of
   his residence outside of the Commonwealth and is not heard from.

   3. The presumption created by this subsection shall be applicable in any
   action where the person&#8217;s death is in question, unless proof is offered
   that the person was alive within the time specified or, in the case of a
   presumed death in a foreign country, at any time following the person&#8217;s
   disappearance, whether before or after the report of presumptive death was
   issued.

B. The fact that any person was exposed to a specific peril of death may be a
sufficient basis for determining at any time after the exposure that the person
is presumed to have died less than seven years after the person was last heard
from.

C. Any person on board any ship or vessel underway on the high seas who
disappears from such ship or vessel, or any person on board an aircraft that
disappears at sea, who is not known to be alive and whose body has not been
found or identified prior to a hearing of a board of inquiry as to such
disappearance, shall be presumed to be dead upon the findings of a board of
inquiry that the person is presumed dead, or six months after the date of such
disappearance, whichever occurs first.

D. Before any final order or decree is entered in a cause under subsection A, B,
or C in favor of the alleged heirs, devisees, next of kin, legatees,
beneficiaries, survivors, or other successors in interest of the presumed
decedent, or persons claiming by, through, or under them, or any of them,
proceedings shall be held in conformity with &#xA7;&#xA7; 64.2-2303 through
64.2-2306.

E. The heirs at law, devisees, next of kin, legatees, beneficiaries, survivors,
or other successors in interest of the person presumed dead under subsection A,
B, or C may be made parties defendant to proceedings in respect to real or
personal property in which the presumed decedent may have an undivided interest
by order of publication or other process as provided by law. The proceedings
shall not be stayed in respect to the division, sale, or other disposition of
the entire property. The provisions of subsection D shall be applicable only to
the portion of the property set apart or to the share of the proceeds to which
such person would be entitled.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 64-101; 1954, c. 430; 1968, c. 656, § 64.1-105; 1989, c.
153; 1996, cc. 675, 684; 2003, c. 254; 2006, c. 351; 2012, c. 614.