HILO, Hawaii (AP) - The wife of a Hawaii man who vanished more than five years ago has filed a civil court petition requesting that her husband be declared dead.
An attorney filed the petition in Hilo Circuit Court March 13 on behalf of Marylou Meek, the wife of Jeffrey Meek, The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Sunday.
The affidavit filed by Honolulu attorney Robert Holland said there have been “diligent searches and inquiry” into the man’s disappearance and that no “satisfactory explanation for his absence, and Jeffrey Everett Meek is presumed dead.”
Marylou Meek, who now lives in Southern California, needs a judicial determination of her husband’s death to obtain a death certificate, which would allow her to receive Social Security survivor benefits and settle her husband’s affairs, the court filing said.
No hearing date has been set in the case.
The 44-year-old plumber from Keaau on the Big Island went missing on Nov. 8, 2014.
Jeffrey Meek phoned an employee to help get his stuck pickup truck out of mud at a property where his family planned to build a pair of houses, police said.
He was not heard from again despite a search mounted by friends, family and fellow church parishioners. Two days later, one of his boots was found. The other boot was discovered the next day more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the property.
Police classified the disappearance as a missing person case and said there was no evidence of foul play.
At least two private investigators were hired to investigate Meek’s disappearance.
Private investigator Steve Goodenow reported his probe developed two theories about the case.
“The first theory is that Mr. Meek may have committed suicide by jumping into the ocean near the family’s property,” Goodenow wrote. “The other theory was that Mr. Meek was killed by unsavory associates.”
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