1,846. "He Died in the War."

Hilchos Geirushin 13:1

Let’s say that a woman said to her husband that he divorced her in front of certain witnesses but those witnesses contradicted her claim. If she and her husband later went overseas at a time when the world is generally peaceful and she returns alone, claiming that her husband died, she is not believed. We assume that she is lying again, in another attempt to free herself from her husband. If one witness testifies that her husband died, she is not permitted to marry out of concern that she may have hired him. If she did marry in this case, however, she need not leave the second husband because there is a witness who substantiates her claim.

Hilchos Geirushin 13:2

Similarly, if the world is generally at war and a woman claims that her husband died in the war, her word is not accepted even if their relationship was peaceful. This is out of concern that a woman might rely on a situation in which people are likely to die. For example, those in the front and in the back were killed and her husband was in the middle. She might just assume that since those at both ends were killed, her husband must also have been killed (though such is not necessarily the case). Because of this, a woman’s word is not taken in such a case even if she claims that he died in the war and she buried him. However, if she says that her husband died in bed, she is taken at her word.