An Ohio judge says a man who stood before him in court is still legally dead.



Donald Miller Jr was declared dead in 1994, eight years after he disappeared from his home in the northwest Ohio town of Arcadia.



Miller resurfaced about eight years ago and went to court this week to have the ruling changed.



His former wife opposed the move. She said she didn't have the money to repay the Social Security benefits that were paid out to her and their two children after Miller was declared dead.



The Courier newspaper in Findlay reports that she claims Miller vanished in the 1980s to skip out on child support payments.



A Hancock County judge who denied Miller's request for a reversal of the death ruling called it a "strange, strange situation".

The three-year time limit on the death ruling was clear, Davis said.



"I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still deceased as far as the law is concerned," Davis said.