Death Certificate

It is a small ritual, a practical matter, but for those who have lost a spouse to death and want to date - even love - again, it is a ritual stuffed with symbolism. Newcomers to the tri-county Widows or Widowers social club, the WOWS, as they affectionately call themselves, must produce a death certificate - proof that they have lost a spouse and proof that they are ready to think about loving again. "It's an old rule, a safety thing," said David Jones, president of the club, whose members are in their mid-60s, on average.

The biggest clue that something was strange about the 1997 disappearance of 10-day-old Delimar Vera should have been the absence of clues. The newborn was missing after fire engulfed her family's Feltonville home in December 1997 - but medical investigators searching the rubble could find no evidence of her death. No shards of bone. No tiny teeth. Nothing. For more than two days, a team from the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office combed the site of the fire, according to spokesman Jeff Moran.

Edward I. Savitz had his final day in criminal court yesterday. A Common Pleas Court judge officially dismissed charges against the Center City businessman who died of AIDS nine days before he was scheduled to be tried on charges of sex-related offenses. "May Edward Savitz rest in peace," Judge Samuel M. Lehrer said in discharging the case. Savitz's attorney, Barnaby C. Wittels, handed the court a copy of his death certificate. Prosecutor Charles Ehrlich agreed to withdraw the charges, but added, "We want to make sure the record is clear as to Mr. Savitz's conduct.

It seems certain that thousands of missing victims of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington are dead, but in the eyes of the law their status is less sure. Until a doctor examines the body and signs a death certificate, a person normally is not considered legally dead. But many of those killed in the terrorist actions in New York, Washington and Somerset County, Pa., are not expected to be found. There will be no bodies for doctors to examine. Without death certificates, how will families, heirs and beneficiaries probate wills and file life-insurance claims?

Half-a-dozen caskets rested next to freshly dug graves in a potter's field full of clover and buttercups in Camden County this morning, the bodies of the unclaimed homeless, the destitute, and otherwise forgotten. But about 50 yards away, up a steep wooded hill that overlooked the field on county property in the Lakeland section of Gloucester Township, someone else had already been buried beneath a large elm tree, a female child or infant, authorities believe, who hadn't been forgotten.

HARRISBURG - Six years ago, Heidi Kauffman, pregnant with her third child, went to her doctor for a routine exam. She was concerned because her lively baby had turned oddly quiet. An ultrasound confirmed the worst. Three weeks before Kauffman's due date, her baby was dead. Doctors induced labor, and the 7-pound boy Kauffman and her husband would name Kail was delivered stillborn. Racked with pain and guilt, Kauffman asked a nurse, "When do I get a birth certificate?" "You won't," she was told.

A death certificate filed last week by the Delaware Medical Examiner's Office states that the infant son of Brian C. Peterson Jr. and Amy S. Grossberg was born with a deformed brain and suffered "multiple skull fractures . . . sustained shaking and blunt force impact. " The death certificate, officially filed almost four months after Grossberg and Peterson were charged with first-degree murder in the death and disposal in a trash bin of their son, said the brain deformity was unrelated to his death.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Terry Long committed suicide by drinking antifreeze, a revised death certificate shows, and did not die as a direct result of football-related head injuries. The Allegheny County coroner ruled in September that Long, 45, who had attempted suicide before, had died of meningitis. The condition, a swelling of the lining of Long's brain, was caused by football-related "chronic traumatic encephalopathy," also known as "punch-drunk syndrome," said the coroner at the time, Dr. Cyril Wecht.

Ever since her son died in Iraq of a nonhostile gunshot wound, Margaret Brabazon has been waiting for a death certificate. The document, she believed, would answer nagging questions about exactly how he died on March 9. The death certificate was delivered by FedEx to her Bensalem home last week - but it caused more distress for an already grieving family. The document said Army Spec. Edward W. Brabazon's death was a suicide. Margaret Brabazon says she "went crazy" when she opened the envelope from the Army.

Half-a-dozen caskets rested next to freshly dug graves in a potter's field full of clover and buttercups in Camden County this morning, the bodies of the unclaimed homeless, the destitute, and otherwise forgotten. But about 50 yards away, up a steep wooded hill that overlooked the field on county property in the Lakeland section of Gloucester Township, someone else had already been buried beneath a large elm tree, a female child or infant, authorities believe, who hadn't been forgotten.

Authorities are trying to figure out how a "well-tended" grave came to be placed under a tree in Gloucester Township, Camden County and whose body it contained. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office said the grave was discovered by people walking along the county's Lakeland complex grounds on April 20. Since then, investigators have been puzzled at how to solve the mystery of what appear to be cremated human remains in the grave. The grave site overlooks a potter's field and is situated on county property, but not in a legal burial location.

Question: My grandfather recently died and I needed to travel to Austin, Texas, a few days later for his funeral. Because I was already scheduled to fly from Baltimore to Austin on American Airlines on Nov. 24 for Thanksgiving, I thought it would be easiest to just move my outbound flight up a few days to Nov. 19. I had originally booked the flight through American's website months ago, so I called their help line Nov. 17 and explained my...

NEW DELHI - When her husband died suddenly of a heart attack, Rukmani Devi and her oldest son went to the local government offices so the state pension checks - her only source of income - could be shifted to her name. The clerk in the pension office knew Devi's husband, a retired food inspector living in the northern city of Lucknow. He listened compassionately as she told of her grief and her need for the money, which would total about $240 a month. He gave her some paperwork, and told her to come back.

FOR 19 YEARS, 5-month-old Ryan Baurley's death was attributed to something mysterious that steals the lives of babies in the night - sudden-infant-death syndrome, more commonly known as SIDS. Nearly two decades later, the cause of SIDS remains a mystery, but baby Ryan's death may no longer be a mystery. Investigators say that his life was stolen by the one woman who was paid to protect it - his baby-sitter, Melissa Haskell. Police said that a "concerned citizen" came forward this spring and said that Haskell had admitted to suffocating the child while baby-sitting in Upper Merion on Aug. 26, 1992.

LOS ANGELES - Bubba Smith, 66, the former NFL star and Police Academy movie actor, appears to have died of natural causes, but authorities said an autopsy would be conducted to determine the cause of death. Police said there were no signs of foul play at Smith's home in the Baldwin Hills section of Los Angeles, where he was found dead Wednesday afternoon. His caretaker discovered the body and called police. The autopsy will be performed later this week, but coroner's officials did not immediately say when.

HARRISBURG - Six years ago, Heidi Kauffman, pregnant with her third child, went to her doctor for a routine exam. She was concerned because her lively baby had turned oddly quiet. An ultrasound confirmed the worst. Three weeks before Kauffman's due date, her baby was dead. Doctors induced labor, and the 7-pound boy Kauffman and her husband would name Kail was delivered stillborn. Racked with pain and guilt, Kauffman asked a nurse, "When do I get a birth certificate?" "You won't," she was told.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - An elderly grandmother who left a trail of five dead husbands in five states over decades has died, leaving a longer trail of questions for survivors of her spouses that might never be answered. Betty Neumar, 79, died late Sunday or early yesterday in a hospital in Louisiana after an illness, her son-in-law Terry Sanders said. "She was a tough country girl and fought through a lot of pain," said Sanders, who has been married 38 years to Neumar's daughter.

By Matt Mackowiak What should go without saying must be said: With this week's release of President Obama's birth certificate, I hope - for the sake of my fellow Republicans - that a death certificate can be issued for this topic. Claims that Obama was not born in the United States have been unquestionably discredited not only by numerous media outlets, but by people who strongly disagree with the president, including conservative author Ann Coulter and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.