In re Estate of Simpson

The proof adduced established that the absentee, a corrections officer, began having mental problems during the summer of 1994 and that he eventually was hospitalized as a result of these problems for three weeks. He continued to live in the home he had first shared with his mother and subsequently with his wife as well upon their marriage on May 26, 1990. On January 17, 1995, the couple had a two-year-old son and were expecting another child. Both the absentees wife and mother testified that the absentee did not work from the time of his hospitalization until January 16, 1995 and that, on that date, he returned to work for the first time in months. On January 17, 1995, the absentee was not scheduled to work. He left the house early and never returned. His wife testified that she thought he had gone out to buy a newspaper and get gas for his car. Later that day the police came to the door and showed the spouse a picture of the absentees car which had been abandoned on the Bronx Whitestone Bridge and told her that an eyewitness had reported to a toll collector that a person had been seen leaping from the bridge. Thereafter, despite newspaper articles and fliers distributed by the family there were no reports of the absentee being sighted nor was his body ever found.