Staci Matlock An attorney for the wife of Mel Nadel, an Eldorado resident who went missing a year ago while on a hunting trip in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, wants the state to issue a death certificate.

Santa Fe lawyer Ronald Boyd filed a lawsuit Aug. 25 in state District Court in Santa Fe seeking a state-issued a death certificate for Nadel.

"The objective is to get a death certificate issued so Edna Nadel can get financial assistance such as insurance and Social Security benefits," Boyd said.

Nadel, 61, who owned a Pilates fitness studio on St. Francis Drive, disappeared from a hunting camp near Elk Mountain on Sept. 6, 2009. Hunting companions returned to the camp to find some of Nadel's gear stowed in his locked Jeep but no sign of their friend, and no signs of foul play. Nadel had with him a bow, arrows and a pistol.

Days of searching around the mountains east of Santa Fe turned up no sign of Nadel. Searchers have periodically continued to look in the area.

In the lawsuit, Boyd said there are only two explanations for Nadel's disappearance: "He wandered off, got lost and died of natural causes, exposure or animal attack," or "was abducted ... taken to an undisclosed location, killed and his body disposed of."

The New Mexico Office of Vital Records and Health Statistics has not issued a death certificate because without a body the Office of the Medical Examiner cannot determine the cause of death.

Boyd says it's unlikely Nadel disappeared on purpose. "He was very close to his wife and daughter, he had many friends, he owned a profitable business and owned real estate," the attorney said.

New Mexico state law says a death certificate can be issued if, in the absence of physical evidence, "the fact of death may be established by clear and convincing evidence, including circumstantial evidence."

Failing that, a person who has been missing five years without an explanation can be presumed dead.

State police Lt. Eric Garcia said the Nadel case remains open and that investigators have looked into many leads. So far, however, none has yielded evidence of Nadel's whereabouts or what happened to him.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.