Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

A probate attorney would probably be best to handle your issue. There is no specific deadline or timeline for a person to be declared legally dead. The remains of many people who died in 9/11 were never found, but they were known to be in the buildings and were declared dead in pretty short order. On the other hand the heirs of a mobster who had tried to fake his death several times and who was due to be sentenced in a criminal case the day after he disappeared, were denied a declaration of legal death many many years after his boat was found floating empty off the coast.