Date: 5587
From: Rabbi Moshe Sofer
To: Bucharest
A young Sephardic merchant disappeared on a business trip, and circumstantial evidence — physical description, items found near a body, and incidental testimony — was brought to establish his death. The Chasam Sofer ruled it very difficult to permit the agunah to remarry, finding that no witness had identified a living person carrying the items before reporting his death, that the physical description was not a distinctive siman, and that the evidence fell short of every required halachic standard.
Source: Shu"t Chasam Sofer EH II §145