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Subscribe to RSSRaymond Roth, a 47-year-old man living in Massapequa, N.Y., was arrested Wednesday on suspicion that he faked his own drowning at a New York beach in order to collect more than $400,000 in life insurance. Roth was charged with insurance fraud, conspiracy and filing a false report. But what if he hadn't been doing it for the money? Is merely faking your own death a crime?
The short answer is no. If you hate your life, you're technically allowed to contrive a departure from it.
"I am unaware of any federal statute that would apply to an individual who fakes their own death," FBI spokesman Bill Carter told Life's Little Mysteries.
In fact, according to missing person search-and-rescue expert Jeff Hasse, president of the Minnesota-based company Midwest Technical Rescue Training Associates, the right to disappear often causes conflicts between families of missing persons and law-enforcement agencies. Families think police investigators should do more to search for their missing loved one.
"Law enforcement's response is, 'He's an adult. He can go missing if he wants to,'" Hasse told Life's Little Mysteries. If there's no evidence of foul play involved, sheriffs may not pursue a missing adult.
However, despite having the right to vanish without a trace or fake your own death, it's almost impossible to do so without eventually breaking a few laws.
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"Pseudocide (faking one's own suicide) isn't inherently a crime," said James Quiggle, director of communications for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud in Washington, D.C. "But it involves so many built-in frauds that it's virtually impossible to legally fake your drowning. Frankly, you'll only be drowning in fraud.
"You may be stealing life insurance," Quiggle continued. "Or your spouse is part of the con and files a false police report. You're also avoiding a large variety of taxes, and defrauding lenders of your home and car. Then when you resurface with a new identity, you're defrauding every government agency that processes your new identity — and old identity. And you're defrauding new lenders if you buy a house or car under your new identity."
The criminal charges quickly stack up. Of course, you'll only find yourself in handcuffs if you are found out.
Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover or Life's Little Mysteries @llmysteries. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
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Don't worry, with Prisons for Profit being the fastest growth industry in America the last 20 years, they'll find a way to make anything a crime. Oh, by the way, there were over 40,000 new laws last year, many offenses you didn't know you could commit! And so many with Draconian sentences! Aint Privatization grand! Let's hear it for the Job Creators! Hip! Hip! Oh....that's right there aren't enough left to make a cheer. Okay, from cell block C, let's hear it....
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2012/May/Nation-of-Criminals-Selling-Prisons-for-Profit/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45819570/ns/us_news-life/t/new-laws-toughen-rules-abortions-immigrants-voters/
The proliferation of laws isn't because of privatization. It is the result of our puritan beliefs that if something isn't desirable, it should be made illegal.
Laws are no longer just about desirability. There is a lot of profit and political pandering in the laws being made today - especially when it comes to small infractions where the offender can receive a financial penalty. There are a ridiculous amount of traffic laws beyond what is necessary, and it depends on the city and state you are in.
Let's not even get to talking about laws against personal "harm". Alcohol breweries, marijuana, and other drugs are very desirable to a large amount of people, but those things don't offer much profit for businesses when people can do them at home.
Not quite, Barry... Private prison companies have spent millions of dollars lobbying for stiffer penalties (i.e. extended prison time) for several laws, particularly around illegal drug use and immigration. FYI... the two largest private prison companies, had combined revenues of $2.9 billion with campaign donations of $835,514 to federal candidates and $6,092,331 to state-level candidates since 2000.
David ... they may have spent a lot of money lobbying, but the reason that they actually get those stiffer terms is because harsher prison sentences look good to the voters.
It is very easy to blame things on lobbyists or heavy advertising. But, that's letting the voters off the hook. Ultimately, it is the voters who are responsible because they don't hold their elected officials to account. I don't care how much money a SuperPAC spends, they can't FORCE you to vote for the wrong candidate. When it comes right down to it, we get the government that we deserve.
It may not be a crime but if the authorties have to spend a lot of time and money looking for you because your relatives think you were the victim of something, you should be liable for the cost the authorities spend looking for you after all that is the tax payers money going to waste because of your actions.
If you have minor children it should at least be abandonment. As if there aren't enough problems with the massive amounts of deadbeat men who abandon their responsibilities because paying child support to their ex-wives or girlfriends pisses them off. They should just start executing men who do that instead of reporting one more way they can abandon their children legally.
it's not their fault you want to spend time and money looking for them.
Why? I have no control over what my relatives think or do.
What about kidnapping yourself?
why would that be a crime? if you want to disappear, you can.
Well, if someone else pays for your ransom, then that would constitute fraud, I should think.
That is quite different than kidnapping yourself or simply disappearing.
Hmm, I wonder how many of the people buried in all the cemeteries are faking ?
Based on the number of them voting, particularly in Chicago, I would say quite a few!!!
Ha, Ha, Ha. You have to laugh to keep from crying.
Doug, only the survivors are faking.
That's why there used to be Dead Ringers.
This story came on the news while I was down at the corner bar having a drink with an elderly transvestite friend of mine who goes by the name of Kimi Hofa, she couldn't stop laughing.
Starting over isn't hard if you've just walked, driven, swam, tunneled or flown into the United States illegally! As a matter of fact it's done every day multiple times a day. You can even be a mass murderer and continue being one as long as you are a great hider, which by the way our government seems to be making it easier and easier all the time. What's your name today?
It would be OK if you have enough money to live out your life with no additional income and are willing to live completely off the grid. Income under your new identity would be taxable - avoiding tax would be tax fraud, and filing under the false name would be tax fraud.
You could not legally collect Social Security, use food stamps, claim for Medicare or Medicaid treatment, get a driving license, receive mail (even general delivery), fly on a commercial airline, open a bank account, open an account for anything - cash/charity/scavenging/hunting only. It could be done legally, but with difficulty. The easiest way would be to have a sugar-daddy who provides housing, food, clothing, transportation, medical care. The difficult way would be the hermit thing in the wilderness, totally self-sufficient (trespassing on someone else's land might be illegal, as well as hunting/fishing without license.)
You would have to have the money with you in cash, though. You need to prove identity to open a bank account...
Well, I know what I'm going tomorrow!
The key to sucessfully doing it is preperation. You need to have your identity ready and all the plans laid out, and be a bit smarter than to only go down the coast and get caught speeding. You go cross country at minimum and ditch your old identity as soon as your gone. Plus, you cannot keep in contact at all with anyone from your old life. That right there will set you up to fail.
Man, all this turmoil about faking one's own death, comments about freedom to travel and do as one wishes. Lol, why would anyone want to fake his own death, unless, he/she wanted to escape from responsibility like child support, spouse support, tax responsibility, paying bills, etc. Well, we all make our choices in life and if some of those choices result in bad things happening that's just tough. If someone wants to just remove themselves from society, from responsibility, hey, no problem, just go the suicide route and make the faked death a real one, lol. In 2006 I turned in my apartment keys, put what I wanted to keep in storage and went off down the road with my little dogs, lol, for 13 straight months visiting national parks, monuments, staying in campgrounds. Someone asked me why I would do that, just up and leave. Well, after thinking a bit I came to the conclusion that I just wanted to get away from it all. Why fake a death? Just move on down the road and fortunately, in America, that can be done. I had retired and after a while I got in touch with my kids to tell them that I was still alive, lol. Well, I did have a couple of advantages, I was debt free and single. And, I was certainly able to wander freely doing as I wished. It's great to live in America and be free. Funny thing was, after 13 months it dawned on me that what I was wanting to get away from wasn't all that bad, so, here I am, settled in a apartment and still doing as I please, not asking anyone for anything, not demanding anything from anyone, and, not living my life sor the sake of anyone else. In a way I took Ayn Rand's advice; "Shrug."