Romeo, oh Romeo . . . wherefore art thou WIFE?

I am really getting to understand why people say that truth is stranger than fiction.  You can't make this crap up.
 
(Preface:  This post is the Reader's Digest version of several solid days filled with dozens of phone calls, emails, and faxes between these parties, the VA, the coroner, private investigators on several sides, and us.  Obviously names have been changed.)

Romeo died last week.  We are contacted by Wife Letha.  We get docs out to Letha for signature, since she is the next-of-kin.  We get a call from Sister - she wants to make arrangements for her brother's funeral - coroner told her that Romeo was in our care.  She is paying, but she is out of state, tells us to contact her sister in law, Romeo's widow Ethel, for any signatures required of next-of-kin.  We say, "Who the heck is Ethel? Letha is the wife!"  Sister says, "No, Romeo's current wife is Ethel, not Letha."  We tell Letha what we've learned.  She said she has proof that Romeo divorced his first wife and sends a copy of the Dissolution of Marriage between Romeo and - - - Mabel.  We say, "Who the heck is Mabel?"  We ask Sister.  Turns out that Mabel is wife #1, Ethel is wife #2, and Letha is wife #3 (who thought she was wife #2). But actually, Letha is not legally Romeo's wife, since Romeo and Ethel never divorced, so any marriage that Letha thinks took place is null and void. 

Romeo & Mabel = less than 10 years = married and divorced
Romeo & Ethel = 10-15 years = married, not divorced
Romeo & Letha = less than 5 years = never legally married

YEAH.  Letha is now completely out of the picture to get any of Romeo's estate unless she is specifically named (via social security number) as a beneficiary.  No social security, no insurance, no say at all in any final arrangements, etc.  To make things even murkier, Sister is not convinced that Letha is an innocent victim of her forgetful and lazy brother (who had to be prodded by Mabel to divorce her since she wanted to remarry a few years after they split up). Luckily, none of that matters to us - we just had to determine who was the legal next of kin and therefore responsible and eligible to authorize final disposition of Romeo.

Just to add more fun to the mix, MY COWORKER had to break it to Letha that she was NOT the next of kin and she had NO legal right to make any decision regarding Romeo's final arrangements.  GOOD TIMES.

Moving on to the next post from today . . .