Sec. 1. (a) When any resident of Indiana is absent from the individual’s usual place of residence and gone to parts unknown for a period of five (5) years, without having made any sufficient provision for the care and management of the individual’s property, real or personal, and the court having probate jurisdiction in the county where the individual last resided or where the property is situated determines that:

(1) the individual’s property is suffering waste for want of proper care; or

(2) the family of the individual is in need of the use and proceeds of the property for support or education (or that the sale of the property, or part thereof, is necessary for the payment of the individual’s debts);

it shall be presumed and taken by the court that the individual is dead. The court has jurisdiction over the estate of the individual in the same manner and to the same extent as if the individual were dead. The court shall appoint an administrator of the individual’s estate, who shall have all of the powers and rights over the estate and be subject to all of the liabilities and duties that appertain to administrators of decedents’ estates.

     (b) Before the court may determine that an individual should be presumed dead, notice to the individual must be published once each week for three (3) consecutive weeks, with the first notice published more than thirty (30) days before the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the individual last resided or where the individual’s property is located.

     (c) The will of an individual who is presumed dead under this section is admissible to probate under IC 29-1 and shall be probated as the will of a deceased individual.

Formerly: Acts 1859, c.4, s.1; Acts 1861, c.52, s.1; Acts 1911, c.285, s.1. As amended by P.L.263-1989, SEC.2; P.L.4-2003, SEC.6.