The walking dead

Well, it’s October – the month of tricks, treats, goblins and ghouls. And for one Ohio man, the term “zombie” has taken on a new, personal meaning.

Donald Miller went to court earlier this month to reverse a 1994 ruling that declared him legally dead after he disappeared from his home eight years before. The Associated Press reports the judge turned down Miller’s petition, citing a three-year time limit for changing a death ruling.

“I don’t know where that leaves you,” the AP reports Hancock County, Ohio, Probate Judge Allan Davis told Miller. “But you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned.”

According to Findlay, Ohio’s local paper, The Courier, Robin Miller (ex-wife of the “dearly departed”) said Miller disappeared in the late ‘80s when his unpaid child support bill hit $26,000. Miller told the judge he went underground (if you pardon the pun) because he lost his job and was an alcoholic. He lived in Florida and Georgia before returning to Ohio in 2005.

Robin Miller opposes her ex-husband’s “resurrection,” according to The Courier, since she would be forced to repay the Social Security benefits she and her two children collected after her husband’s supposed demise.

“It kind of went further than I ever expected it to,” Miller told the AP. “I just kind of took off, ended up in different places.”

The AP reports Judge Davis called it a “strange, strange situation.”