(1) In addition to the rules of evidence in courts of general jurisdiction, the following rules relating to a court determination of death and status apply: (a) Death occurs when an individual is determined dead under section 12-240-140. (b) An 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 evidence of the fact, place, date, and time of death and the identity of the decedent. (c) An authenticated copy of any record or report of a governmental agency, domestic or foreign, that an individual 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. (d) In the absence of prima facie evidence of death under paragraph (b) or (c) of this subsection (1), the fact of death shall be established by clear and convincing evidence, including circumstantial evidence. (e) An individual whose death is not established under paragraphs (a) to (d) of this subsection (1) or under section 15-10-106.5 who is absent for a continuous period of five years, during which he or she has not been heard from, and whose absence is not satisfactorily explained after diligent search or inquiry, is presumed to be dead. His or her death is presumed to have occurred at the end of the period unless there is sufficient evidence, including, without limitation, a determination under section 15-10-106.5 that death occurred earlier. (f) In the absence of evidence disputing the time of death stated on a document described in paragraph (b) or (c) of this subsection (1), a document described in paragraph (b) or (c) of this subsection (1) that states a time of death one hundred twenty hours or more after the time of death of another individual, however the time of death of the other individual is determined, establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the individual survived the other individual by one hundred twenty hours. (2) In the event that the fact of death of an absentee is entered in any action brought before a finding of death is entered in a formal testacy proceeding under this code, the finding relating to death of the absentee in such action shall not be determinative of any finding to be made in any proceeding under this code.
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