MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) — A travel writer who vanished from a Jamaican resort nearly two years ago has been declared legally dead.
Superior Court Judge Reginald Stanton determined that Claudia Kirschhoch died May 27, 2000 — the day the 29-year-old woman was last seen. She would have been 31 on Feb. 9.
"She did not voluntarily disappear," Stanton concluded Monday. "Some kind of foul play occurred."
Fred and Mary Ann Kirschhoch of Morristown had sought the declaration, which now allows them to pursue a lawsuit against anyone believed responsible for their daughter's disappearance and suspected homicide.
"We want to know what happened. We just have to know what happened," Fred Kirschhoch said during the three-hour hearing in Morris County.
Claudia Kirschhoch was living in New York City and working as an assistant editor for Frommer's Travel Guides when she disappeared.