It'a a long story but basically my wife's Grandmother who all the family were very close to was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia approximately 5 years ago. Her Son who lived with her, is a very manipulative and abusive character, he also has an addiction to pain medication and is extremely paranoid. He's taken full advantage of her mental state completely cutting her off from her family, telling her lies about what they have apparently said and done, it's all untrue and has caused a lot of upset.
Prior to this the family had all had concerns about his controlling behavior, they'd requested a welfare check, liaised with Social Services and her GP but nothing could be done as her needs were being met and she was convinced he was the good guy. The family have spent the last 3 years trying to contact her but he's blocked their calls, won't answer the door and we suspect he also intercepted her post.
Just before Christmas my wife received a message of condolence from a cousin, they didn't know much but they'd found out that my wife's Grandmother had sadly passed 4 days previous and there was to be no funeral. This didn't make sense as she was an active member of the church for many years and had always said she wanted a small service for family and friends. The family enlisted a solicitor to determine what her wishes were. The funeral directors have not seen anything in writing, they were merely acting on the request of her son. The cremation was halted and a letter was sent to her son but he is yet to reply, our guess is that he won't.
The family desperately want her at rest but want to ensure that her wises are followed. They'd all like the chance to say goodbye or at the very least scatter her ashes somewhere she enjoyed. She had previously mentioned that she had a will, informing her daughter where a copy was kept in the house but nobody can get access to the house. She'd mentioned to my wife and I not long before contact was stopped, that her son had taken her to make some changes to the will. She didn't say what the changes were but we've always assumed that his motivation was money and he's convinced her to change it, nobody else in the family has been contacted by a solicitor and so we assume that this is what he's done.
We need to see a copy of the will to determine what her wishes were but nobody knows who the solicitor was who dealt with it, we can't seem to find it via a search and we can't get access to her house to see the copy, as he won't answer the door. Can anybody offer any advice as to where we can go with this?