# Using a disaster to disappear or start a new life **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-disaster-to-disappear-or-start-a-new-life/320872 "2005-09-09T20:32:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-disaster-to-disappear-or-start-a-new-life/320872/21 "2005-09-11T00:03:41Z")
> [@ITR champion](#): > > 1. Go to New Orleans > 2. Find a bloated, decaying corpse that might have looked something like yourself. > 3. Remove all ID from the corpse. > 4. Place your own ID on the corpse. > 5. Find a rescue worker and show them the corpse’s ID, claiming that you are whoever they were. > 6. After having your new identity confirmed, move a long distance away, probably to another country. That way there’s less danger of the dead person’s family, friends, or employer tracking you down. And yet to the extent you are using that dead person’s name/ID/credentials, you are leaving clues by which you can be tracked. To have much hope of success, you’ll need to pick a corpse with no friends or relatives. There is also the point that you will have to be believed to have been in NO when the disaster hit for your apparent death there to be easily readily accepted. If there’s any skepticism, they’ll soon be checking things like dental records and thus rejecting the notion that it’s you. In the age of computerized records, I think the chances of this working are slim. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-disaster-to-disappear-or-start-a-new-life/320872/22 "2005-09-11T00:47:41Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > … you’ll need to pick a corpse with no friends or relatives… Also one without a motrgage, child support, or other debts, or outstanding arrest warrants, wanted by The Mob or a drug dealer he or she had burned. I’d not risk it. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-disaster-to-disappear-or-start-a-new-life/320872/23 "2005-09-11T03:16:26Z")
> [@sleeepy2](#): > > All the books I’ve read, you check death certificates for someone your gender who was born roughly the same year as you. You request a copy of their birth certificate and use it as your own, **applying for SS card** , drivers license, etc. Apparently birth and death certificates are not cross referenced anywhere, death certs are rarely looked for, they’re just filed away and forgotten. Wouldn’t the SSA notice a dead person applying for a new SS card? They do keep track of when people die. At one point you could look dead people up in an online database by their SSN. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-disaster-to-disappear-or-start-a-new-life/320872/24 "2005-09-11T03:24:25Z")
Funny you (OP) should ask that, I have been wondering the same thing. What I \*really \*wonder is how easy it would have been for somebody to get rid of someone amidst the chaos. Are all bodies that will be recovered checked for “foulplay”? If someone were tired of his/her wife/husband and he/she stayed behind in NO he/she could have easily gotten rid of his/her spouse. \*That \*would be a great movie plot. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-disaster-to-disappear-or-start-a-new-life/320872/25 "2005-09-11T04:43:47Z")
I think you’d have to do a _Sleeping With The Enemy_ type of planning. Have EVERYTHING set up so that when the right moment came, you “disappear” in the disaster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-disaster-to-disappear-or-start-a-new-life/320872.md?page=1)