Seriously, this has to be the third or fourth strange inheritane story to involve an Australian man but here goes. An Indonesian woman is accused of hiring a murdered to kill her Australian husband and now she claims to be part of a different religion to keep her inheritance. How does what religion she is matter from the point of view of her inheritance? Does the wife of a man who hired a hitman still get an inheritance after her husbands murder?
- Noor Ellis is facing charges carrying the death penalty after she allegedly paid her maid’s boyfriend to kill her sixty year old husband Robert Ellis.
- The succesful businessman’s body was found in a ricy field in Bali in October of 2014.
- Ellis claims she was being abused and that her husband was keeping money from her but reports from those that knew the couple painted a different story.
- The lawyer for the couple’s sons is stating that even though she faces the death penalty Ms. Ellis is making moves to protect her inheritance.
- Ellis is claiming she is Hindu when records have her as a Muslim, but why? Well this is where the story gets interesting.
- Under family law in Indonesia if a Muslim woman kills her husband she gets no inheritance.
- The family has stated they are prepared to counter this and have stated that once she is found guilty of murder the family will take legal steps to ensure she does not benefit from the murder.
Bali is pretty far from South Florida, so does this matter for any one in Palm Beach? Well suffice it to say that if you plan on benefitting from murder the Florida slayer statute may prevent you from doing so but more so theres the family dynamic of inheritance that plagues us all that this case highlights:
- Money is thicker than blood. Is it astounding that a wife would kill her husband for money not really, but its always a bit shocking and a giant tragedy to see how the family is broken from this. Here the sons are quite literally fighting for their own mother to be convicted of murder! Well in Florida money is still thicker than blood and you may find a bloody civil war on your own hands, brother vs brother in deciding who gets Dads condo in Boca and who gets the crappy timeshare in Muncee Indiana!
- International unions still use local law. It may shock you to read that a sizeable majority of marriages in South Florida happened inother countries, but just as Bali family law came into play in this case, Florida Probate law is used as the default rule of law in florida courts unless the will or codicil specificlaly asks that another type of law be applied.