How to Find Out if Someone Has Died
Discovering whether someone is deceased is relatively easy because there are usually public announcements posted on obituaries and websites. However, what you likely won’t find for most people is how the person died—that information is usually only circulated by word of mouth.
Can You Find Out How Someone Died?
Determining someone’s cause of death can be tricky. Short of asking a close friend or relative, your only real option is to search through the death record for the specifics. Learn how to find people on Facebook for some examples. If you’re not sure about the specific place of worship, try looking for website links to institutions in the area where you know the person is from or where they died. Be sure to include any other relevant information you can, such as a family member’s name, the location where they lived or died, their occupation, your guess on their cause of death, etc. Here’s an example: “john smith” death accident “las vegas” “wife mary” This method for seeing if someone has died can help when coupled with the other techniques on this page. News stations are usually not allowed to post the deceased’s name, but a location and general date/time are often given. If the above methods for finding out if someone is deceased weren’t helpful in seeing how they died, you might try something a little different. For example, if you’re doing a web search like in Step 4 above, try adding “cause of death” to the search.
The Answers May Be Difficult to Locate
Usually, however, the story about how someone has died is only posted online or somewhere with public access if it’s newsworthy. For example, this information might surface if the person was a celebrity, passed away tragically, or was involved in a police chase. Otherwise, for everyday folks who pass away, like a colleague, old friend, family member, neighbor, etc., the cause of death is typically not public information.
