Grandmother passed away and my bother emptied her home!

During October/November of last year my grandmother and mother had their usual disagreements. I was drag into the fight and my grandmother stop talking to me because I would not get on either side.

My older brother who had just come out of a 6 year prison sentence became the only person who had contact with my grandmother. This seemed fine since my mom and grandmother would always fight and my sister & I always kept up with their life[s].

During the past few month when inquiring about my grandmother, by bother (and his new girlfriend) would state that she was doing great, traveling etcetera; but that she was still angry at my mother and did not want to talk to any of us. I thought it was strange because they would never fight for that long but I honestly did not pay much attention to it.

I moved in with my brother after his imprisonment and during the moth of October we got a new apartment. At the beginning of December my brother came into the apartment with my grandmothers’ living room furniture and some other decorative objects. When I asked him where he had gotten the furniture he explained to me that my grandmother was remodeling and that she had bought new furniture and had given the old one to him.

Little by little I began to notice more of her property in my apartment. I also noticed my brother new girlfriend wearing some of my grandmothers’ jewelry and fur coats. Every time I said things like "hmm isn't that grandmas?" or "that looks like something grandma wears", their response was either "yeah, she gave it to me" or "No, she has one that looks like this but it's not this one".

At the end of December my brother showed up in my grandmother SUV stating that he was driving her because she was claiming she couldn't drive anymore.

While all this is going on my brother informed me that my grandmother (who was extremely careful about her money due a severe fear of being poor) had transferred all her CD's to a couple she had med at the hospital. My bother & his girlfriend became very good friends with these new individuals (which I met once or twice). They would BBQ on weekends, hang out and, in January of this year they went on vacation together.

When informed of what my grandmother had allegedly done my response was nonchalant and basically told my brother that I doubted my grandmother had done such thing with a couple of strangers she had recently met when she had never done anything remotely close to that with her own children or grandchildren. I also told him that I was OK with whatever decision she made, that it was her money and she could do whatever she wanted with it.

During the month of January and February. I continued to ask my brother and his girlfriend how my grandmother was doing. They would tell me stories on how they went out to eat and, that what she was doing; always ending the conversation with a reminder that she was still mad and did not want to talk to any of us.

Last Thursday one of my grandmothers friend called my mother and with a very angry to demanded to know why my mother had not informed her that my grandmother was dead.

To make a very long story short my mother informed me on Thursday that my grandmother has been dead since December 28. 2007 (shortly after all monetary [CD’s] transactions where made). That my brother did not allow anyone to go into the home while my grandmother was ill and, gave instructions to his girlfriend not to let anyone see my grandmother or even come into the house without his authorization. When my grandmothers’ friend found out of my grandmothers passing (from one of my grandmother neighbors) she asked my brothers girlfriend (which was the only person there at the time) why they had not informed her, my brothers girlfriend told her that only the immediate family was informed and that we had not gone to see her because we did not care. Meanwhile by bother has taken everything out of her home. My grandmother always had a large amount of cash and valuable jewelry in her home; I have reason to believe has taken possession of those valuables as well due to the fact that since December my brother who has been unemployed the whole time he has been out of prison, has bought himself a 6 thousand dollar Rolex and gave a down payment on a jaguar.

My family is destroyed and at the same time furious at the fact that he was the only one who knew that my grandmother was dying and kept it away from us, denying the whole family the chance to speak to her and to spend the last days with her.

I don’t not want to think that my brother did anything to my grandmother and, I am really interested in speaking to the mysterious friend couple. But my mother is terrified because in one way she dose not want to go to the police or try to intervene in my bothers plans due to the fact that my brother has claimed that he rather die than go back to prison. I don’t know if what he has done is illegal. I guess that is why I am here.

I do not want to confront him because he has also been talking about leaving the country and I fear that he might run if we ask him to give my grandmothers property back.

As you guys can see, I really need advice.