Legal Question in Family Law in California

Unless you never cosumated the marriage, it is still valid. Really, though, that is probably a distinction without a difference at this point since you would need to go to court for either an annullment or a divorce either way. If you truely cannot locate him, the court will allow you to give notice of the case by publication. So if all efforts to find him fail, you can still end the marriage if that is your goal.

If he is dead, you are not married to him. A death of one spouse terminates the marriage as to both spouses. I suggest running his social security number through the Social Security Death Index to see if he is even still alive. If he is alive, there are ways that you can locate him, with what is known as a "skip trace." You can even have the Social Security Administration contact him for you.