In re Judicial Declaration of Death of Philip

*82OPINION OF THE COURT

Saxe, J.

Dr. Sneha Anne Philip, a young physician who lived with her husband in the shadow of the World Trade Center, left her home on the evening of September 10, 2001, and never returned or was heard from again. Her husband, having done everything he could to investigate her disappearance, finally accepted the conclusion reached by professional investigators that she had died in the inferno of September 11, and sought a court declaration to that effect. The evidence he submitted was based upon circumstantial evidence, habit, and his wife’s predisposition to help others…