how to find info on someone that may be deceased

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

so, I co-manage an office where we have an older gentleman employed to be both our in-house janitor, and a part-time back-up person that can run the office for a day, if someone calls out, is sick, on vacation, etc... he generally works only 1 or 2 days a week. in addition to coming in to our office, he also cleans the home of someone else that works for our company. he's in his late 70's, and he has had various forms of cancer over the years that has come and gone over the past 20 years or so, which he has been getting treatment for and dealing with, while still remaining an active, functional person that comes to work and rarely misses a day. for the most part, he's been getting around pretty well for someone his age. he can walk around fine, get up and down the stairs, bend down, carry an average amount of weight, etc...

well, a few weeks ago he called out sick... he then came to work the following week, then the week after that, he called out sick again... the following week after that, he was a no-show, and did not call out at all, which is highly unusual for him. we tried calling and texting him, but got no answer. the same thing happened the following week after that. also, the other person who works for us that employs him to clean their house has also not heard from him in a week and a half... needless to say, we are fearing the worst - he either is incapacitated in a hospital, in a coma, or he has passed. from what he has told us, he barely has any other family left - his wife passed years ago, he has no kids, no siblings, and only has a couple of distant nieces and/or nephews. so, if he died, there's a good chance that we won't be notified, and may not get confirmation of his death for a long, long time.

my question is - is there any way that someone can go about trying to look up a person online to find out if they had indeed passed away fairly recently? the only details I have for him is his name, and his address and cell number.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

call the coroner's office...

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

coroner's office...

I would assume that a coroner's office wouldn't be able to give out personal information for legal reasons to a normal person that is calling them randomly, which I would think confirming someone's death would be, correct? I don't know, maybe I'm wrong about that.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

if you are an employer & looking for a missing person, call the authorities. The coroner is part of that. Usually they are part of the county Sherriff's dept. You might put it out as looking for a living person 1st, but note that you are concerned, because of age, health, etc...

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

if you are an employer & looking for a missing person, call the authorities. The coroner is part of that. Usually they are part of the county Sherriff's dept. You might put it out as looking for a living person 1st, but note that you are concerned, because of age, health, etc...

ok. the one challenge though is that his residence is not in this state. we are in Pennsylvania, and he lived in Delaware. I'd have to find the contact info for the police of the town he lives in.

 

[DirtySteve]

What about, does he have an emergency contact number on file?

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

What about, does he have an emergency contact number on file?

just his cell phone number. that's it.

 

[mcblink]

Don't police regularly handle "welfare checks" if asked by family, employer, landlord, etc?

 

[10kDA]

Don't police regularly handle "welfare checks" if asked by family, employer, landlord, etc?

^ This - contact your local police and explain the situation and concern. They can then contact the police in his area, who will conduct a welfare check. They will report their findings to your local police, who can then advise you. If you try to get info from coroner, hospitals, emergency responders etc as a civilian, you will likely hit all kinds of obstacles. The police will usually get something like this done in a very timely manner and will get back to you very quickly.

The sooner ytou notify the police, the better. This happened to a music buddy of mine who was prone to making himself scarce for weeks at a time. We thought it was no big deal but after 6 weeks passed we notified the police. Their findings were pretty grim.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

so, I spoke to someone at the Delaware Medical Examiner's Office and they confirmed they did not have anything come up in their death certificate registry as of today, so they did recommend we contact the local police for a welfare checkup, as a few of you already mentioned. and we are in the process of calling the local police right now as I type this, to request a welfare checkup at his residence. I was told that they could send someone out today to do the check. hopefully we will have some results by tomorrow. fingers crossed.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

UPDATE:
police welfare checkup done - no answer, no one at home that they could see. I'd like to say "no news is good news", but its just frustrating to see someone on a weekly basis, and then all of a sudden you never see them again, and never heard anything about them again.

 

[10kDA]

UPDATE:
police welfare checkup done - no answer, no one at home that they could see. I'd like to say "no news is good news", but its just frustrating to see someone on a weekly basis, and then all of a sudden you never see them again, and never heard anything about them again.

It's not Never Again yet. More to be determined.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

well,

It's not Never Again yet. More to be determined.

well, its been a week and a half since we've heard from him or seen him. he's always been a very dependable worker. he would always come in early, and he never missed a day of work without calling us first, and for him, calling out sick was extremely rare. so for him to not show up for work for multiple days, without a phone call at all is VERY unusual. and to call and text him multiple times over several days and not get a response (his voice mail is now full) makes it even more grim.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Hope for the best.

Did he get rattled by the workplace aggression you discussed a couple weeks ago? Moved on?

 

[Matthews Guitars]

It's time to check the place again and look for flies on the windows. Yeah, that's a thing.

 

[paul-e-mann]

so, I co-manage an office where we have an older gentleman employed to be both our in-house janitor, and a part-time back-up person that can run the office for a day, if someone calls out, is sick, on vacation, etc... he generally works only 1 or 2 days a week. in addition to coming in to our office, he also cleans the home of someone else that works for our company. he's in his late 70's, and he has had various forms of cancer over the years that has come and gone over the past 20 years or so, which he has been getting treatment for and dealing with, while still remaining an active, functional person that comes to work and rarely misses a day. for the most part, he's been getting around pretty well for someone his age. he can walk around fine, get up and down the stairs, bend down, carry an average amount of weight, etc...

well, a few weeks ago he called out sick... he then came to work the following week, then the week after that, he called out sick again... the following week after that, he was a no-show, and did not call out at all, which is highly unusual for him. we tried calling and texting him, but got no answer. the same thing happened the following week after that. also, the other person who works for us that employs him to clean their house has also not heard from him in a week and a half... needless to say, we are fearing the worst - he either is incapacitated in a hospital, in a coma, or he has passed. from what he has told us, he barely has any other family left - his wife passed years ago, he has no kids, no siblings, and only has a couple of distant nieces and/or nephews. so, if he died, there's a good chance that we won't be notified, and may not get confirmation of his death for a long, long time.

my question is - is there any way that someone can go about trying to look up a person online to find out if they had indeed passed away fairly recently? the only details I have for him is his name, and his address and cell number.

I'm sure you have his address, call the police and ask them to do a well check on him. If they are familiar with him they will know if he died or is in the hospital. If not, they will break into his house to see if all is ok.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

I'm sure you have his address, call the police and ask them to do a well check on him. If they are familiar with him they will know if he died or is in the hospital. If not, they will break into his house to see if all is ok.

please read my previous two posts.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

Hope for the best.

Did he get rattled by the workplace aggression you discussed a couple weeks ago? Moved on?

no... he wasn't here to witness that. and even if he was, it wouldn't have rattled him at all.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

what I can't understand is that when the police went to his residence to conduct a welfare check-up, they essentially just knocked at his door, peered through his windows, and when no one answered, they left. that's it. what if he was deceased, in a room inside the house where he couldn't be seen? they didn't even mention whether or not his car was there. I just have a feeling that we will never see him again, and will never find out when or how he passed, no word of the funeral, etc...

 

[Filipe Soares]

I´m too anxious for that kind of waiting time. what about going to his home? you probably have his address, go there and check. if you see anything suspicious call the police to assist you.