Tunstall/Konigk Heir Hunters

Today, the heir hunters are looking into an estate

worth a life-changing £90,000.

Somewhere out there are some long-lost relatives who have

no idea they're in line for a windfall.

Could the heir hunters be knocking at your door?

On today's show, the team are on the hunt for a long-lost brother -

but where is he?

HE KNOCKS

We ain't got nowhere, OK? That's it. That's where we're at.

And a hunt for heirs to a possible £800,000 estate

begins in the English countryside and ends 6,000 miles away.

I was phoning South Africa constantly for the next two days.

Plus, how you may be entitled to inherit an unclaimed estate

held by the Treasury.

Could thousands of pounds be heading your way?

Every year in the UK,

an estimated 300,000 people die without leaving a will.

If no relatives are found,

then any money left behind goes to the Government.

Last year, they made £14 million from unclaimed estates.

That's where the heir hunters come in.

They make it their business to track down missing relatives

and help them claim their inheritance.

Heir hunting is about reuniting people with what's rightfully theirs.

It's 7.00am at the offices of heir-hunting company

Fraser & Fraser and the work's already started.

The Treasury list of people who've died without a will has just

been released and partner Neil and the team are checking through it.

Really I know very little about it.

The surname Tunstall doesn't sound too common a name,

so we may be able to break onto it quite quickly.

If someone dies without leaving a will, with no known next of kin,

and their estate is worth £5,000 or more,

then it will appear on this list.

Couple of things for you.

The company earn their money by taking a percentage of the estate's value.

The team need to establish where the deceased lived.

If he owned his own property, they know the estate will be worth money.

John Barry Tunstall was 78 when he died in Birmingham

on December 7, 2010, without leaving a will.

He lived in these flats, where he became friends with Pearl

and Louis Sega.

-He lived upstairs. Top floor.

-He lived in flat number six.

And it was just sort of gradually we got talking.

We knew the same sort of big bands that he used to like

and I liked them.

From the early '40s - that sort of era. Woody Herman and...

-Louis Armstrong.

-Louis Armstrong and Harry James.

All those sort of bands, really. All the big bands.

But I thought it a very touching sort of gesture really,

he gave me this book.

It's almost like an encyclopaedia of all the jazz greats of the past

and he signed his name in it.

Although they were never introduced, John told them about

his long-term female companion

and when she died, it hit him hard.

Once his lady friend died,

he didn't seem to have anything to live for, really.

-There was no incentive for him.

-There was nothing.

I think they used to go out, maybe -

trips together or something like that.

Or they'd go out to have a meal and things and obviously

when that sort of thing happens, when that person who you're

so close to passes away, it's going to have an effect on you, really.

Yes, really. It was quite sad. Quite sad.

Who's best bet to get to Birmingham, Tone?

Paul Matthews, isn't it?

The heir hunters have already found a date of birth and address

for John Tunstall in Birmingham.

It's a good start.

Tony Pledger is the case manager.

We know the deceased owned the flat that he was of when he died.

So, it does have a definite value to it.

I don't know how much, but it's obviously worthwhile looking at.

With property involved, this could be a lucrative case,

so they need to find the heirs fast, before the competition.

The team makes a start on John's family tree.

From John's birth certificate, they've discovered that his parents

were Alfred Tunstall and Elizabeth Reece, who married in 1930.

Next, they need to establish if the deceased had any children

and if he had any siblings.

-There's no way of knowing, I think.

-There's no way.

They quickly find out that John never married or had children.

But he had a brother Keith, born in 1936.

If he's still alive, he will be the sole heir to his estate.

But it's unusual to find close kin on a case who don't know

their relative has passed away.

There's something a little strange - we shouldn't really be finding

a brother of the deceased as quickly as we have - less than 20 minutes.

There may be something wrong with it.

It may be the brother has passed away.

It may be that it's not actually a brother,

but just a coincidence of surname and mother's maiden name.

But it won't take them long to find out.

-The research team have come up trumps.

-Yes, that's him.

That brother, because he's the only Keith Tunstall born in 1936.

This chap is born...'36.

Ergo, assuming these two are brothers, then that is him.

-That address goes with that.

-It's a real breakthrough.

They think they have the number for the deceased's brother.

If they can get hold of him,

they'll have wrapped the case up in record time.

And it's only eight o'clock!

My name is Tony Pledger of a company in London called Fraser & Fraser.

If you could possibly give me a call back.

It sounds like it's an answerphone that's clicking on

and it sounds like the tape is filled up,

so I've left a message that might come out the other end.

I don't know.

It's frustrating, but researcher Dominic has another lead.

-There's the neighbours for the brother.

-Brilliant.

-How do we know it's the brother?

-We don't.

-Ah!

-Here's the neighbours for the POSSIBLE brother.

-Just checking!

It's time to see if a neighbour's in.

I'm trying to contact a neighbour of yours,

I don't know if you know them - it's the people at number 49.

I assume you do. I think it's Keith Tunstall.

Could you tell me if they're at home or are they on holiday or anything? Oh.

The neighbour is reluctant to give out any information.

I understand.

She's not going to tell a complete stranger that the neighbour

has gone off on holiday, is she?

With no joy on the phone, it's time for a new plan.

I'm going to send someone there now, to have a knock

on the door and see what the actual situation is with that.

While most of the research is done by the office staff,

they rely on frontline investigators like Paul Matthews

to follow their leads, find the heirs and sign them up

before the competition.

If the team's research is right, Paul is on his way to try

and make contact with the brother of the deceased - the sole heir to his £90,000 fortune.

In effect, it's a death message, so I've no idea how close he was

to his brother, so it's not a very pleasant side of the job,

but obviously they didn't keep in touch very much.

So we're going to be breaking bad news, I'm afraid.

Back in the office, they're still getting no answer at Keith's house.

Is he still alive,

or do the competition know something they don't?

It's time to look for other relatives, fast.

What we're doing by doing this is taking away some of the risks and dangers.

We're actually double, triple checking.

We think we've found the beneficiary, but we're actually going to go back

and look for further-removed beneficiaries, in case they end up being entitled.

The team are using the Census to try and find other potential heirs.

The first modern Census was carried out in 1801.

Since then, it has been taken every ten years.

It gives a record of all people and households across the country.

But these records are confidential for 100 years,

so they're relying on information from 1911.

If John's brother is no longer alive, but he had children,

they would be the beneficiaries.

If not, and his parents had siblings,

they, or their children - John's cousins - would be next in line.

The researchers start with the deceased's mother - Elizabeth Reece.

But the Census information is far from clear.

We found her on the 1911 Census, with four siblings.

She is living with her mum and her mum's brother.

Now, her mother's brother is called Frank Reece,

her mother is Mary Ann Reece and they're all called Reece.

This implies they're all illegitimate births,

which is going to make it all a little bit more complicated.

With no father's name listed,

it is impossible to prove that any of the children

living in the house are full blood relatives of the deceased.

Without the facts, the team are wasting valuable time.

Another researcher, Alan,

is looking into the paternal side of John's family tree.

-He's also puzzled.

-It's a Census like I've never seen before.

On the 1911 Census, the head of the household is aged 26,

his wife is 31 and on the Census, everyone who lives in the household

is described in relation to the head of the household.

So this 26-year-old is claiming he has a daughter aged 22,

a brother aged 20 and another sister aged 17 and a daughter aged 11.

They're going round in circles. It's a frustrating search.

Really looking at this, I'd have to say

we'd be hoping that the brother of the deceased is alive and well

and we can contact him, thus making these cousins irrelevant.

Out on the road, Paul is about to find out.

He's arrived in Birmingham, hoping to meet the brother of the deceased.

HE KNOCKS

That's a good start to the day - there's no reply.

So there's no answer on the phone or at the door.

Do the neighbours know where he is?

HE KNOCKS

But Paul is not giving up that easily.

HE KNOCKS

Will it be fourth time lucky for Paul?

HE KNOCKS ON THE DOOR

Back at the office, they've put together an enormous family tree.

But with commission on £90,000 at stake,

they need to be sure the information is correct.

Jesus Christ.

So obviously, judging by the size of this,

we really do hope that the brother turns out to be...

There it is. Anywhere between four and ten siblings on the paternal side.

Because the Census is again really wobbly,

because they're living with the grandparents and nieces and nephews,

rather than sons and daughters and it's all a bit muddled.

Tony is not a happy man.

We ain't got nowhere, OK? That's it.

That's where we're at.

Coming up, will the heir hunters track down the elusive Keith Tunstall?

We'll only know he's alive when we've seen him.

And will he turn out to be the true heir to John's £90,000 estate?

In 2009, the heir hunters began looking into the case

of a retired accountant from Oxfordshire.

Little did they know, their hunt for beneficiaries would take them

on an exciting journey from the sleepy English countryside

all the way to 19th-century South Africa.

Philip Konigk died in a small Oxfordshire village in February 2009, without leaving a will.

He left an estate worth a whopping £800,000.

Charlie Hall first met Philip when they were both in their 20s,

working at the Inland Revenue in Oxfordshire.

Phil would breeze into our management meetings

with his collar loosened and his shirt sleeves rolled up,

totally unprepared, yet he'd always get away with it - people liked him.

He seemed to have a new, flashy sports car every week.

And a new, very beautiful girlfriend every other week.

As his career took off, Philip chose to stay

and make his home in the Oxfordshire countryside.

He joined a local firm of accountants.

I knew that firm very well, so I met up with him a few times -

he was a partner in that firm - and I met up with him a few times after that.

He had the same old style, same breezy confidence.

Nothing seemed to trouble him.

Philip Konigk was born in South Africa in 1949.

Phil, from Celtic Research, was also South African,

so he was the perfect heir hunter to take on the case.

The first step was to check for immediate family.

He did marry, but had no children from his first marriage.

He then never married again.

Philip did however have a common-law partner,

who shared a home with him for many years.

But the inheritance laws are very different for married

and unmarried couples, so she is not immediately entitled.

Lots of people talk about a common-law partner -

a common-law wife or husband -

and it's worth saying very clearly that that term has no legal meaning.

Now, in terms of a partner leaving no will,

dies intestate, as we say,

a cohabitant doesn't haven't any automatic inheritance rights at all.

The intestacy rules don't provide for that partner.

Without a will,

married couples still automatically inherit from their husband or wife,

but cohabiting couples have to argue their case.

He or she can apply to the court

for what's known as family provision,

under the Inheritance Act, 1975,

if someone is willing to go to court, if they have the resources

to do so and if they can stand the emotional pain of doing so -

an awful lot of people can't.

My advice to everyone is make a will.

Philip Konigk's partner co-owned their property

and is pursuing her own claim to the enormous £800,000 estate.

But it's likely that it will be shared with his surviving heirs.

To find them, Phil began trying to piece together Philip's family tree.

He discovered that Philip's mother, Doris Bint,

had travelled from her home in England to South Africa

in the late 1930s and married his father, Philip Konigk -

a South African.

They only had one child.

She had returned to the UK in 1950, we believe on holiday.

Most probably to show her new child off to the family over in the UK.

But the father died in 1953.

After his death, she decided to stay in the UK.

As Philip had no siblings,

Phil needed to search back through previous generations for heirs.

From his office in Wales, he began his research.

The deceased's rare surname was a great help.

Kooer-neck is the way it's pronounced.

It's K-O-N-I-G-K. It isn't necessarily a South African name.

But if it was, it would be unusual, even in South Africa,

on that spelling.

On the initial research that I did, using my own resources, I found

possible brothers and sisters of his father, which I couldn't prove.

Phil called one of his own family in South Africa

and he had a lucky break.

I got hold of a cousin in Johannesburg who checked some

details out for me there and we found a name of a person who had put in

a paper while doing his university studies and had the name Konigk.

He had an e-mail address and telephone number, so I contacted him.

Amazingly, he turned out to be a relative

and he had some very useful information.

He told me that the Pretoria University had done

the history of the Konigk family, so he gave me the link to

the University website where it was published and I downloaded that.

It was in Afrikaans, but I managed to translate it and work out the tree.

It was a major breakthrough.

The normal way would have been to find the birth, the deaths,

the marriages, if it was in the UK, get a certificate, find out

whether you've got the right people.

In South Africa, you can't do that.

To order a birth certificate or marriage certificate

will literally take you four to six months.

The University study revealed that the Konigks had been

a prominent family in South Africa, with a fascinating story.

Philip's great-grandfather,

Johann Ernst Konigk, was born in Breslau, Prussia, in 1859.

He became a minister in the Lutheran Church

and a member of the Berlin Missionary Society.

The Berlin Missionary Society that Johann Ernst Konigk was from

was really the largest

and most prestigious in a way in the late 19th century.

Johann travelled to South Africa as a missionary in the 1880s.

What they were eager to do was to spread the Christian Gospel

and to convert the heathen.

Konigk arrives at a time when the Berlin Mission is really expanding,

setting up a number of stations and Lutherans as a whole are

providing something like half the missionaries across South Africa.

As well as converting Africans to Christianity,

the missionaries also provided pastoral care for German settlers.

There were in fact 40,000 Germans who immigrated to South Africa

in the 19th century, particularly to this area that Konigk ended up in.

Johann Konigk, Philip's great-grandfather, decided to make

South Africa his home and worked as a minister for many years.

He married a local German girl who had been born in the Eastern Cape

and then moved later to work with a German-speaking congregation in Johannesburg.

So he certainly became one of the lifelong figures in the German community.

Phil discovered that the deceased's great-grandparents had a son -

Johann Ernst Herman Konigk.

He and his wife had four children - Yvonne, Raymond, Reinhold

and Philip - the father of the deceased.

The aunts and uncles would no longer be alive, but if they had children,

they would be Philip's cousins and beneficiaries of his estate.

Phil got a number for one of them.

At first, they thought it was some sort of scam.

I then explained to him what we do etc,

and he said all right,

he'll make some enquiries and he'll come back to me.

Within about an hour, he phoned me back. He was Afrikaans,

so I was speaking to him in Afrikaans, at the time.

He then came to like what I was saying and respected what

I was saying and put me in touch with these brothers and sisters.

There were ten cousins in total.

Phil was going to have his work cut out.

I was phoning South Africa constantly for the next two days,

into the evening, late into the evening as well as early mornings.

Despite relying on the phone rather than face-to-face chats,

Phil was fairly sure the cousins would sign with him.

A couple of them had actually gone to school in the same area where

I'd gone to school, they had grown up in the same area that I grew up in

and so we had commonality and a link

and they felt comfortable with me.

But then there was a snag.

By the second day, I'd say,

we realised we were in competition with another heir-hunting firm.

Coming up, would Phil seal the deal?

They'd had a phone call from this other firm

and a chap was on his way to see them.

Or was a rival researcher in South Africa going to beat him to it?

Heir hunters solve thousands of cases a year and millions of pounds

are paid out to rightful heirs, but not every case can be cracked.

The Treasury has a list of over 2,000 estates that have baffled

heir hunters and remain unsolved.

Could you be the heir they've been searching for?

Could you be in line for a windfall worth hundreds, thousands,

or even millions of pounds?

Estates stay on the list for up to 30 years and today,

we're focusing on three names.

Are they relatives of yours?

George Batho died in Macclesfield, Cheshire in July 2004.

The name Batho originates in Wales,

but the highest concentration is in Shrewsbury.

Do you remember him? Did he live on your street?

Graham Sansom-Piggins died in Bournemouth, Dorset in July 2009.

This is a distinctive double-barrelled name.

Does that name mean anything to you? Could you be related?

Florence Esther Keir died in Epsom, Surrey in March 1991.

This name derives from the village of Keir in Stirlingshire, Scotland.

If no heirs are found, her money will go to the Government.

If the names George Batho, Graham Sansom-Piggins

or Florence Keir mean anything to you or someone you know,

you could have a fortune coming your way.

In 2010, Phil from Celtic Research

was looking into the case of Oxfordshire accountant Philip Konigk,

who had died without leaving a will.

From his office in the UK, he had traced Philip's South African family

and found ten cousins who all had claim to his estate.

He had spoken to them on the phone

and was hopeful they would sign his agreement.

But then, a rival firm in South Africa threatened to steal

the job from him.

-All Phil could do was cross his fingers.

-It was a tense wait.

I have had assurances in the past on other cases, by people

when I've spoken to them on the phone and they've totally done a U-turn.

Finally, Phil's main contact, a cousin of the deceased,

got in touch.

By the third day, I think it was, I had a call from the eldest of

the cousins and said that the family has decided they're going with me

and when this guy arrives,

they'll let him know that his services aren't needed.

Phil's hard work had paid off and ten heirs on the father's side

had been found in South Africa.

But one cousin wanted to find out more about his English relatives.

Quentin phoned me up out of the blue and introduced himself.

We had a long chat.

He then said he's coming over to see his grandson,

who recently arrived, and he would like to meet up.

After meeting his new grandson in London, Quentin is looking forward

to finding out more about his cousin's past.

I never over the years - as a child growing up, or in my adult life -

did I know that there were any family members living in the UK.

I would really like to find out more about him.

It would give us an insight into other family members,

how he lived and where he lived and what he did.

Quentin is hoping that heir hunter Phil can give him some answers.

-I take it you must be Quentin.

-Yes.

-Nice to see you at last.

-Nice to meet you.

-Find it all right?

-No problem.

-Shall we go in?

Wonderful, thank you. I'll follow you.

Quentin stands to inherit part of his cousin's estate,

which he'll share with nine other heirs.

He's keen to find out as much as possible about his life.

I found that Philip, his father, Doris, his mother and him as a child

-of one year old, were travelling from Durban...

-South Africa.

..on the... Part of the Union-Castle Line,

-actually travelling on the Stirling Castle.

-OK.

There she is, departing Durban, South Africa,

and she arrives in Southampton on 3 March, 1950.

That shows Philip, the husband, as well as Philip the son.

Three years later, the father died and I believe from other

family members that I spoke to, he died of some sort of cancer.

Doris didn't settle in South Africa,

so she came back to England with her son, Philip.

There were uncles that kept in touch with her. Once they died off

and she died, then the link sort of faded away.

Do you have any information on what Philip actually did?

I actually have his death certificate here.

-We can see he was born 10 July, 1949. He was an accountant.

-Oh, OK.

Having learned more about his English cousin, Quentin

and his wife Shannon are doing some research of their own.

They're exploring the Oxfordshire community where Philip Konigk

lived and worked.

-Everything is laid out so well.

-Yes. It's very nice.

Around every corner is a new surprise.

Just driving through the little winding roads, you just see

the beautiful green trees and the fields and the sheep grazing -

it's the kind of place you would move into and never want to leave.

He must have been blessed.

Who wants to move from a little piece of heaven?

They have discovered that Philip's maternal grandfather

-ran a pub in the village of Standlake.

-It's incredible to...

The history involved here, to think back through the generations

that somebody that Quentin didn't know has actually been

involved in this whole community and owned this pub.

-Totally.

-Quite interesting. Quite fascinating.

And for Quentin, his trip has made him feel

a little closer to the cousin he never knew.

If I'd known about this in previous years,

we'd have tried to visit sooner than we did.

It would have been nice to meet the man, get to know him.

But there is a bond, I think.

There is a feeling of knowing somebody that was family.

In the end, nine of Philip's ten cousins from South Africa

signed with Phil.

English beneficiaries on the mother's side

signed with another company in this complicated case.

A settlement on the estimated £800,000 estate

isn't expected until 2015.

Heir hunters Fraser & Fraser

are investigating the case of John Barry Tunstall.

He died in Birmingham in 2010, without a will,

leaving an estate thought to be worth around £90,000.

Amazingly, in less than 20 minutes, the team made an unusual discovery.

There's something a little strange -

we shouldn't really be finding a brother of the deceased

as quickly as we have.

Was he really John's brother? And was he still alive?

Tracking him down was proving difficult.

KNOCKING

John Tunstall left school at 15.

In the early 1950s, he went to work at Gaskell & Chambers,

one of Birmingham's oldest manufacturing companies.

It made fixtures and fittings for pubs and bars.

In the '50s, Gaskell & Chambers would have been a hive of activity.

They were not only busy manufacturing products for the UK,

they had a lot of overseas business.

The company's archives reveal that it prided itself on entertaining its workforce.

The social side of the business was just as important as the work side.

They took their employees to seaside breaks for the day.

They held sort of major annual sports days

and those events would actually draw celebrities of the day.

Still in his teens, John enjoyed the social side of work,

particularly the sport.

I found reference to a Johnnie Tunstall

in a social magazine from 1951.

It would appear that he was quite a demon bowler.

There is mention of him actually taking five wickets in one innings.

Back on the hunt for John's brother Keith,

researcher Paul has had a breakthrough.

We eventually got a neighbour who has answered the door,

about six doors away.

Yes, he does know Mr Tunstall.

He knows he's retired,

no idea whether he's home or not, or gone away.

He does know Keith's son, Neil.

He told me where he works, so that might be the next port of call.

So he is alive. The office will be very pleased with this news.

I know he's got a son, I know where Neil works.

-'See him at work then, can you?'

-I'll tell you if I get to see him,

cos he works for a roofing company, but I'll give it a try.

-'You never know.'

-You never know. I'm on my bike.

-'OK, bye.'

At least we've got somewhere to go to try and track down, if nothing else,

find out if his dad is going to be available later on

and he'll hopefully have a mobile for his dad where we can chase him up.

Obviously, we don't want to be hanging around all day

and the longer it takes to get him, there's more opportunity for our competition.

The chase is on. Paul hotfoots it over to the son's place of work.

Been to where Mr Tunstall's son works.

His son is out and about at the moment, no surprise there.

I've now got his business card and his mobile number, so I'll go

back to the car and give him a call and hopefully track down his dad.

He wastes no time and gets straight on the phone to son Neil.

I'm trying to get hold of your dad.

I've been round to his house, but they're out at the moment.

Oh, right, I'll go there!

Basically, I need to speak to your dad.

It's a family member somewhere who's passed away,

but have you got a contact phone number for your dad?

So it's another setback. Keith is out of the country.

His son Neil will ask him to call the office.

-OK, that's great. Thank you very much, Neil.

-'Thank you, Paul.'

-OK, cheers - thank you.

-'Bye-bye.'

-Bye.

Only when the office speak to him will they know

if they've been hunting the right man.

They didn't have to wait long.

I've had a telephone conversation with the brother.

I told him who it is, I've told him it's his brother

that's passed away, which obviously saddened him quite a bit.

Tony calls Paul to tell him the news.

'Had a nice little chat with him.'

And he explained that he'll be back in England I think next week.

He confirmed that as far as he is aware, the deceased hadn't married or anything.

Yes.

So hopefully, it will all come together

and he will be the only person entitled.

One week later, Keith Tunstall, younger brother

and sole living heir to John's £90,000 estate, returned to the UK.

I had a phone call saying that we believe you could be

the brother of John Barry Tunstall.

Sorry to have to tell you that your brother passed away in November.

Keith and his brother were virtual strangers.

Following their parents' divorce, they were separated

as young children and only saw each other rarely.

I was three, four, at the time.

My recollection is that my mother went to Worcester with John.

I stayed with my father.

There is no recollection of me playing with my brother when we were children.

In the late 1940s, when John was a teenager,

he did come and live with Keith and their father for a few years.

My father came back with John and it was almost a case

of introducing one another - "this is your brother" type of thing.

Um, and we got on quite well, John and I.

We never argued or as brothers do, fight.

Um, we got on quite well.

But... A lot of years had elapsed.

After a short time together as brothers,

John left home at 18 to join the RAF and he and Keith lost touch again.

In the years that followed, despite living close to one another

in the Birmingham area, they met occasionally, but only by chance.

Got married in 1958, January '58.

Pat and I acquired a flat and lo and behold, my brother John,

who I hadn't really had much contact with, had got a shop

which was about half a mile from where my wife and I lived.

Periodically I'd see him in the shop - I'd go in and say hello, how're things.

Then I really didn't have much to do with my brother John

in the sense that we had a drink together or whatever,

until 1993, at my father's funeral.

Unfortunately, I didn't see him again after that.

Keith admits he now has some regrets that he and his brother weren't closer.

It was just circumstances, you know.

You're busy building your own life and...

..battling to buy a house, pay the bills, raise children.

It's sad and it shouldn't happen.

To try and find more about John's recent past,

Keith is meeting up with his friends Louis and Pearl.

I'm looking forward to meeting them,

because it will help to fill in many years, actually.

1993 was the last time I seen John.

Of course, apparently these people have been friends of John's

and so there will be many things that will fill in some gaps, I hope.

-You must be Lou.

-Yes. And you must be Keith.

-I'm Keith, John's brother.

-And this must be Pearl, my wife!

-Very nice to meet you.

-I've been looking forward to meeting you.

-I've heard so much about you.

-You're nothing like him though, to look at.

-I know.

-I'm very much like my father.

-John was very tall and slim.

-John was over six foot, yes. I'm five foot nine and chunky.

-Yeah.

We were brothers, but we were brothers separated by mothers

and fathers going different ways, the war.

-If I get a little bit emotional...

-No, of course. I would expect that.

-It's natural, yes.

-It's because, um...

It's such a waste... Of years and years.

There wasn't any particular reason why you stopped seeing,

-just life, really.

-You just drifted.

-I mean, I've got a family now. I've got grandchildren.

-Yes.

-I've had a lovely life, you know. I'm going to get upset here, now.

-Yes.

-Because...

-I just...hoped he was happy, you know.

-I think he was.

-Oh, I think he was.

When Keith received the news about his brother's death, he decided

not to sign with the heir hunters, but to deal with the estate himself.

He began by finding out how John had died.

He phoned the doctor on the morning, feeling not very well.

Said to the doctor, I'll leave the door on the latch

so you can gain access, then when the doctor got there,

at midday-ish, one o'clock, John had died.

So that was a comfort to me, to think that he hadn't died,

or been left, if you like, for any period of time.

So the actual funeral itself, were there many people there?

-About 12, 14 neighbours, wasn't there?

-From the flats, yes.

-And was the service a nice service?

-It was lovely.

-Beautiful service.

-The guy spoke of John?

-Very well.

-He did.

-He gave a beautiful sermon about him.

-Oh, good.

Having missed his brother's send-off, Keith plans to go

and pay his last respects to John privately.

I've found out now where he was cremated, I've established that.

We found out where his ashes were scattered.

I shall go up...

..and leave him some flowers,

wish him all the best and...see you soon, mate.

You know...

That's it.

But Keith hopes his brother would approve of how his money will be spent.

I'm going to give it to the children. I've told them that.

My son runs his own business - a roofing business.

Like all businesses at the moment, they're having a lean, lean time.

My daughter has just finished putting her daughter through university.

Anyone who's done that knows it's not cheap.

So whatever money accrues from this, Pat and I will treat ourselves,

I don't know to what, but I'll give them a sizeable piece

and say, you do what you like with it.

I think John would be delighted if he felt

I was giving any benefits that accrue from this to my children.

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