A county coroner, medical examiner, or the prosecuting attorney having jurisdiction may file a certificate of presumed death when the official filing the certificate determines to the best of the official's knowledge and belief that there is sufficient circumstantial evidence to indicate that a person has in fact died in the county or in waters contiguous to the county and that it is unlikely that the body will be recovered. The certificate shall recite, to the extent possible, the date, circumstances, and place of the death, and shall be the legally accepted fact of death.

     In the event that the county in which the death occurred cannot be determined with certainty, the county coroner, medical examiner, or prosecuting attorney in the county in which the events occurred and in which the decedent was last known to be alive may file a certificate of presumed death under this section.

     The official filing the certificate of presumed death shall file the certificate with the local registrar of the county where the death was presumed to have occurred, and thereafter all persons and parties acting in good faith may rely thereon with acquittance.

[2005 c 365 § 160; 1981 c 176 § 1.]