County steps in when family of dead can't be found

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 29, 2006 11:08 PM PST ∞

More than three weeks after the body of Terry Kruse was pulled from the waters on Lake Elsinore, no one in his family knows he died.

That's because no one in Kruse's family can be found.

Kruse, a 49-year-old transient, fell from a boat and drowned on March 5. His body was found the next day.

County officials have spent the last three weeks trying to track down any member of Kruse's family ---- to no avail.

"We have exhausted every avenue we have to find next of kin," Linda Samsom, assistant public administrator for Riverside County said Wednesday.

All of those avenues ended up being dead-end streets.

Kruse had no personal papers in his possession, he had no place to call home and he lived with friend after friend or on the streets.

"There was so little for us to go on," Samsom said.

Friends of Kruse were found, and investigators learned his parents were deceased and he had an estranged sister, but no one knew her last name.

While authorities couldn't find family to tell, they did discover something vitally important about the man.

"We learned he was once in the military ... and that he is eligible for burial at Riverside National Cemetery," Samsom said.

So now arrangements are pending for Kruse's remains to be picked up so he can receive a veteran's burial, including a grave marker.

The public administrator in each California county is mandated to manage estates of the deceased when there is no will, no known heirs or heirs who are incapable of acting as the administrator of the decedent's estate.

The public administrator is managing about 275 estates right now and typically sees about 30 new cases each month, Samsom said.

It is a low percentage of cases that turn out as it has so far for Kruse ---- with no family able to be found.

"But there are times we just can't," she said.

The majority of referrals to the public administrator's office usually come from the coroner's office, hospitals, convalescent homes or mortuaries.

Investigators then use a number of methods to find family members. That includes letters to Social Security Administration, the Veteran's Administration and the state controller's office.

Sometimes, if the deceased receives mail at a specific address, investigators will have mail forwarded to an address monitored by the public administrator's office.

That's with the hope that the deceased will receive mail from a family member or someone whom investigators can contact to find family members.

In most cases, investigators find family members, who then typically step in and handle the estate of the deceased person.

There are times when the deceased may have a will, but the person or persons named are deceased themselves or they are unable to manage the estate.

When the public administrator's office takes over management of an estate, it handles things such as funeral arrangements, the sale of homes or property and liquidation of monies in bank accounts.

Property is sometimes sold at an auction and whatever money is received will go toward paying off outstanding debts, taxes owed or will be distributed to family members, Samsom said.

Larger estates often go to probate court.

In California, any estate valued at more than $100,000 must go through probate court ---- unless a trust has been established for that estate, Samsom said.

"We lay out how to distribute the estate to next of kin and the court approves how it will done," Samsom said of probate cases. "Everything we sell or do like that has to be strictly accounted for; down to the penny.

"We pay close attention to what the family wants to do and do that when we can," she added.

Estates handled by the public administrator's office have a wide range of value.

"They can be like (the Kruse case) where he had just a few dollars in his pocket, or a case we have right now valued at a couple of million dollars," Samsom said.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

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