Any Recourse For Convincing Elderly To Change Will Right Before They Died?

Location: Kentucky

My dad’s parents both died this year, my grandmother in May and my grandfather in Oct. My grandfather is technically my step-grandfather, as my dad and his siblings are all from my grandmother’s first marriage, but they were married for like 50 years or more. He has no biological descendants.

A completely unrelated guy from my hometown convinced my grandfather in the last year to change his will to leave him EVERYTHING with some made up sob story about having a disabled son. They had a decent amount of money, 2 houses, and a ton of antiques. This guy changed the locks of their houses as soon as my grandfather died and is not even giving the family access to their personal belongings.

Come to find out, my grandfather is the THIRD person this guy has done this to!

I really don’t care about the money (although just on principle I don’t think this snake of a human should get it), but I do care about the personal items. Family has asked if we can retrieve them and he has refused.

I’ve spoken with a lawyer and was told that unless we could prove our grandfather had dementia (he didn’t) or he was basically threatened into changing it (he wasn’t), there’s nothing we can do. But is there really no legal recourse? I don’t understand how someone like this is allowed to do this.

Is there any kind of possible criminal charge for defrauding the elderly? This man is clearly preying on elderly people just to get their money.