Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Arizona

Stepmother skipped out with the will

Wow! What a mess! However, almost all messes can be cleaned up eventually. The Bar Association in the area where your father lived may be able to help find your father's lawyer. And you should be able to find your father's real estate by checking the courthouse records in any county where you think he might have had property. You probably will need to start an intestate (i.e., no will can be found) proceeding in the county where he lived at the time of his death. And they will have to send paperwork to other counties/states where he owned real estate. Unless you have a lot of time on your hands, I don't see how you are going to be able to do all of this without hiring an estate attorney near where your father lived at his death. And you will not be happy to learn that, if you were in my state (NC), the stepmother will be entitled to share in the estate unless she follows certain procedures to disclaim it! So she may actually get MORE from the estate than she would if the will could be found! So it's a kind of catch-22, I'm afraid. Talk with a good estate lawyer in the area where your father lived at his death. It ain't going to be easy!