Section PRP.04.07 — Evidence As To Death Or Status

(a) In proceedings under this Probate Code, the following rules relating to determination of death and status are applicable:

(1) A certified or authenticated copy of a death certificate purporting to be issued by an official or agency of the place where the death purportedly occurred is prima facie proof of the fact, place, date and time of death and the identity of the decedent;

(2) A certified or authenticated copy of any record or report of a governmental agency, domestic or foreign, that a person is missing, detained, dead, or alive, is prima facie evidence of the status and of the dates, circumstances and places disclosed by the record or report;

(3) A person who is absent for a continuous period of five years, during which they have not been heard from, and whose absence is not satisfactorily explained after diligent search or inquiry is presumed to be dead. Their death is presumed to have occurred at the end of the period unless there is sufficient evidence for determining that death occurred earlier.