Thanks, everyone. I’m trying to avoid as much identifying information about this, but I probably need to add more detail about the other people in the story. The people involved (relations in Title Case are with respect to the dead guy):
- dead guy, who committed suicide for reasons unknown
- dead guy’s Older Son, his only child in contact with him
- dead guy’s Younger Son
- dead guy’s Niece and Nephew, my sister and me
Ginormous caveat: All of the information I have comes from (1) a conversation between Younger Son and Niece that I mostly overheard because Niece’s phone is loud, and (2) later conversations with Niece about the call. I don’t have Younger Son’s contact info, and Niece no longer wants to talk about it. This is what I remember Younger Son saying [my notes in brackets]:
Older Son was cleaning out Dead Guy’s house and found a bunch of Post-Its scatter around, presumably to hide the onset of Dead Guy’s dementia. [Nobody on our side of the family was aware of the dementia.]
One of the nots told him to delete some computer files/folders. Older Son got on Dead Guy’s PC and found files/folders in the Recycle Bin, neatly organized by subject name. He found CSAM of one of Dead Guy’s granddaughters, but not of Niece’s child – just a folder with hundreds of pictures of her devoted to pictures of the latter, including pictures of her in a bikini. [Are all the pictures shots of a roughly 5-year-old in a bikini? That was the impression I had (and probably was supposed to have), but I don’t know for sure.]
Older Son “went to” the police and told them about it. [I don’t remember the verb he used; it might have been “called.”] The police said, “Stop looking. You’re going to see something you can’t unsee.” [Big question: Could they have already had a copy of the drives from the suicide investigation? If so, would they have left the computer behind?]
My impression of the call is definitely colored by Younger Son flat-out calling Dead Guy a pedophile several times, so keep that in mind.
Timeline of communication:
- Dead Guy dies
- Older Son calls Brother (my father) to let him know
- Older Son calls Brother and tells him there was some troubling stuff on Dead Guy’s PC (specifically in the Recycle Bin) – I forget the exact words, but it didn’t hint at CSAM
- Younger Son calls Niece, also mentioning some other files with presumably consensual sex/drug stuff we hadn’t heard of before
- Older Son doesn’t return Brother’s calls – Younger Son had mentioned that Older Son was going through some stuff (injuries, kid problems) and Older Son wouldn’t reply
My big question, which definitely veers into IMHO territory: How likely is it that Dead Guy’s sons are just lying to us to defame their father? Younger Son had had a huge falling out with Dead Guy, but Older Son seemed to be on good terms with him. I was hoping there would be some sort of contradiction in or confirmation of Younger Son’s story, but it doesn’t seem like it.
(Apologies if this is too much of a mess to read.)