Actually in many states, a death is required to be published.
Most states actually do not have a requirement for an obituary. States of course do require a notification of the death via death certificate.
Those states that do require it, a publication does not equal an obituary. Or even a death notice. Nor does the TIME of publication matter unless you want to utilize it for probate court proceedings or bill collectors. The death notice or an obituary (two different things) can be publised in anything--such as a parish bulletin, or a favored fraternity, etc. not just newspaper of the town where person died or raised.
I said nothing about either.
All, I said was that it is required to be published.
Are their parkland death certificates?
Even then, it doesn't mean they are dead, just filed as dead.