Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia

Re: death of mother with companion of 33 years

I am not sure what things are being removed.

Nothing that belongs to the deceased mother should be removed.

However, it is hard to stop someone from taking their own things.

Technically it is theft to take anything belonging to the deceased without the authority of the executor (administrator of the estate).

Perhaps the best thing to do is to have one of her family get appointed as administrator (executor) by going to the Clerk of the Court in the County where she lived at her death.

The executor would then have the authority over all of those items.

One of the first tasks is to create an INVENTORY of everything that she owned at her death.

I would certanily warn anyone taking things that this cannot be done.