(ABC News)--A homeless man found dead under a Wyoming overpass last week stood to inherit $19 million from his deceased adopted great aunt, a copper heiress whose $300 million fortune is being disputed by her descendants in New York courts.
The body of Timothy Henry Gray, 60, was found Dec. 27 underneath the
overpass of Union Pacific Railroad in Evanston, Wyo., a small mining
town in the southwest corner of the state, by children who were sledding
nearby. Gray died of hypothermia, according to a coroner's report, and
police said there is no sign of foul play.
"He appeared to have died from exposure," Lt. Bill Jeffers with the
Evanston police told ABCNews.com. "He was just wearing a lighter jacket
and jeans."
Jeffers said that Evanston police had spoken to Gray last winter as part
of a welfare check, and at that point he had an apartment in the area.
Gray said that he appeared to not have a domicile at the time of his
death.
Though Gray, who according to his brother had worked across the region
as a cowboy, died homeless, what exactly happened to him is swathed in
mystery. The Uinta County coroner told ABCNews.com that a wallet found
on him contained un-deposited checks from "a few years back."
"This is not the average situation of a person who's down on their luck," Greg Crandall with the Uinta County Coroner said.
Gray was the adopted great-grandson of former U.S. Sen. William Andrews
Clark and the half-great-nephew of the reclusive New York heiress
Huguette Clark, who died in 2011 at 104. Clark caused a stir with her
will by denying any relatives her fortune, instead opting to bequeath
her $300 million to a nurse, her doctors and charity.
Clark's last will was believed to have been signed in April 2005. Her
private nurse was allocated at least $30 million. However, a will
apparently signed just weeks before mandated Clark's estate be left to
her 20 great-nieces and great-nephews, who are now fighting a legal
battle for the fortune of an aunt they likely never met.
Clark's longtime attorney, Wallace Bock, wrote in an affidavit in 2010
before the heiress' death that his client "has always been a
strong-willed individual with firm convictions about how her life should
be led and who should be privy to her affairs."
Bock said the two nieces and a nephew named in the petition are "very
distant relatives of Ms. Clark, who have only recently appeared on the
scene."
Paul Newell, a historian who is working on a book on Clark and her
family, told ABCNews.com that attorneys seeking Clark's fortune for her
relatives had been trying to contact Gray before his death last week.
"She had no descendents, so the line goes through her father and down
through his descendants," he said. "Some have historic contacts with
her. She was a recluse for the last 50-60 years, and very little contact
with any of that part of family. She chose to isolate herself."
Timothy Gray was adopted into the family by Dr. Gerald Gray and Patricia
Gray when he was 5 years old. His brother Gerry, who is 17 years older
and now lives in Albany, Calif., said that no one in the family had any
contact with Gray for over two decades.
"He was doing ranch work when I last heard from him, but that was 25
years ago," he told ABCNews.com. "He had severe post traumatic stress
symptoms, due to childhood traumas.
"It looks like he also may have lost the ability to manage the most
basic finances--he had a large check un-deposited. His condition must
have deteriorated enormously. It's universally and enormously sad.
Everyone dies but it's not the kind of death anyone in the family would
want to suffer."
Copyright 2012 by ABC News
