Memberships
Our Expertise & Services:
Asset Search
Background Check
Cohabitation Investigations
Criminal Defense
Electronic "Bug" Sweeps
Estates & Wills
Expert Witness Evaluations
Foreclosure Investigations
Franchisor Validations
Identity Theft Investigation
Insurance Defense
Plaintiff & Civil Investigations
Research –Database/Internet
Missing Persons
Surveillance
Asset Search
Background Check
Cohabitation Investigations
Criminal Defense
Electronic "Bug" Sweeps
Estates & Wills
Expert Witness Evaluations
Foreclosure Investigations
Franchisor Validations
Identity Theft Investigation
Insurance Defense
Plaintiff & Civil Investigations
Research –Database/Internet
Missing Persons
Surveillance
Estates & Wills Investigations
We Have the Resources, so YOU Have the Resources!
Estates & Wills
- Competency Issues
- Identification & Location of Heirs
- Reconstruction of Activities Prior to Death
- Undue Influence Inquiries
- Wrongful Deaths
SAMPLE CASE:
Reconstruction of Activities to Determine Validity of Holograph (Handwritten Will)
Was he of unsound mind? Was he unduly influenced? What were the events that led up to his death?
A wealthy businessman successfully hung himself in his fifth attempt to commit suicide. He owned a multi-million dollar international business, and in a holograph found beside his body, he left his entire estate to four men and an additional $100,000 to a New York City call girl. He completely disinherited his wife and three young daughters, aged five to twelve.
The wife’s attorney requested an investigation to find out what his state of mind was at the time the holograph was written. Was he unduly influenced? What happened in the months leading up to his death that caused him to shirk responsibility to his family?
A thorough reconstruction of activities prior to his suicide was assigned to incorporate the past several years of his life. The holograph also had to be analyzed by a handwriting expert to determine its validity. Was it the deceased’s own penmanship, or was it forged? What was the connection between each of the beneficiaries? The four men included two business associates, who worked in the deceased’s company, and two law enforcement officials, one local, the other federal.
Because this case involved millions of dollars, the investigation was extensive. We learned the deceased suffered from survivors’ guilt, having escaped Poland during the Holocaust at the age of five. His father became a Nazi sympathizer for the sole purpose of rescuing his family from the invasion. As a Nazi collaborator, he was in a position to smuggle his wife and child, and his brother and sister-in-law, and their two children out of the country. In their escape, the deceased and his mother became separated for a brief time from their relatives. They had to hide inside a hay wagon that was searched with pitchforks at a Nazi checkpoint. When they reunited with their family, the deceased saw his seven year old cousin and aunt die from machine gun fire. Only because of the courageous efforts of his father, who later committed suicide, himself, were he, his mother, cousin, and uncle able to safely reach Italy, and eventually England for transport to the United States a year later.
They settled in the Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. His mother never fully understood her husband’s heroic efforts to move his family out of Poland. Her resentment and hatred for the man was a constant bane to her son’s development. She criticized her husband at every opportunity, and the child grew hating the man, rejecting him at every attempt to make contact. With nowhere to go, the father killed himself with a gunshot to the head.
When he married and began raising a family, he developed a small manufacturing company, which later grew into a multi-million dollar worldwide enterprise. Unfortunately, due to survivors’ guilt and his mother’s constant harangue about her former husband, he had trouble reconciling the fact that he was still alive.
Some of his earlier unsuccessful attempts before actually succeeding to end his life showed a man with very bad luck. The first time was a drug overdose where he swallowed a bottle of sleeping tablets, only to be rescued by a friend who dropped in to say hello. Another time, he slashed his wrists in the tub, but did not cut deep enough because of alcohol intoxication, and water overflowed through a vent into his landlord’s apartment below. The landlord rushed upstairs where he broke down the door to find the subject in a tub of blood. After he had married, the family departed for a skiing trip. His wife and children took one car early on a Saturday morning, and the deceased was scheduled to join them later in the day. An hour after the family departed, he went into his closed garage, opened a newspaper, and started his car in order to die of carbon monoxide poisoning. The bizarre twist was that this man lived on the former private estate of a reputed prohibition bootlegger. An electronically controlled gate at the entrance of a quarter-mile long driveway had been left open by his family, believing he would be following soon. A UPS driver arrived with a package just as this man was drifting off. When no one answered the door, he heard the engine running in the garage, and saw a figure slumped over the seat of the car. He smashed the doors with his truck and saved the man’s life.
The final attempt was successful. He hung himself in a drunken stupor in a Route 287 hotel in Somerset County. The holograph was found in the room. The two law enforcement agents were left millions in cash, stocks, and the deed to his million dollar property. The business associates were given his company and all its assets. The wife and children were completely disinherited. The Jewish Defense League got nothing.
The investigation uncovered many questions pertaining to undue influence, as well as soundness of mind when the holograph was written. Handwriting experts confirmed differences in penmanship, and we were close to proving someone was with him when he wrote the note, moments before he died. We were very close to suggesting local authorities be brought into the investigation when the case was settled. The widow received the estate and enough money for her and the children to live very comfortably the rest of their lives. The attorney dropped the case. We were instructed to conclude the assignment and halt the investigation.
