Absence of Evidence

Is absence of evidence - evidence of absence?

I would say yes, if you are looking for a cat in a garage and after an hour long search fail to find either the cat or any evidence of the cat (no sounds of meows, no claw marks, no fur, no droppings, etc) then it stands to reason that this is evidence that the cat is not actually in the garage at all. Clearly it isn't proof that there is no cat in the garage, but it is still evidence that it isn't.