An Ohio man is finding out there’s no easy way to come back from the dead.
Donald Miller Jr. went to court this week to ask a county judge to
reverse a 1994 ruling that declared him legally dead after he had
disappeared from his home eight years earlier. But the judge turned down
his request, citing a three-year time limit for changing a death
ruling.
Hancock County Probate Court Judge Allan Davis called it a “strange, strange situation.”
“We’ve got the obvious here. A man sitting in the courtroom, he
appears to be in good health,” said Davis, who told Miller the
three-year limit was clear.
“I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” the judge said.
Miller resurfaced about eight years ago and went to court so that he
could get a driver’s license and reinstate his Social Security number.
His ex-wife had opposed the move, saying she doesn’t have the money
to repay the Social Security benefits that were paid out to her and the
couple’s two children after Miller was declared dead.
Robin Miller said her former husband vanished because he owed big
child support payments and that the overdue payments had totaled $26,000
by 1994, The (Findlay) Courier (http://bit.ly/1e5mJkr) reported.
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.
His parents told him about his “death” when he came back to the state, he said.
“It kind of went further than I ever expected it to,” Miller said. “I just kind of took off, ended up in different places.”
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