My fiancé recently passed away. We were together for 8 years before he asked me to marry him, but were not living together yet. Both of our sets of parents passed before we met and I have no family of my own but was very close with his, until recently. He was the middle child of three, and both of his siblings are married with children.
I don't want to go into too much detail here but we had a stupid argument and were taking some time to cool down when I got a call from the police one day. They told me they had found him in his home after a neighbor called them and he had been deceased for a few days. Devastated doesn't even begin to describe my reaction. I was so upset and in shock over the news that I didn't even ask how he'd died.
My fiancé and his siblings had a huge falling out over a private matter about 18 months ago. It did not involve me and I was trying to get them to talk to one another in the hopes they could repair things, but that never happened. The week following his death, my fiancé's brother and sister who are very religious and attend church regularly with their families, learned that their brother and I were atheist and were planning on going to another state by ourselves to be married. They immediately cut off all communication with me, changed the locks on his house, refused to give me any of his items and have refused to interact with me since.
I have no idea how he died. The day the police called me, they said he was being taken to the medical examiner's office. Since then, I have called the medical examiner and they say they never got the body. All I know is that he was cremated, which I know he wanted. I have called the police a few times too, but they won't tell me anything, even though I was the first person they contacted when they found him.
My understanding is that in Virginia, only family members can obtain a copy of a death certificate. I'm not family and no one will speak to me. I never thought I would have to go through something like this. I miss him so much and feel so guilty, helpless and alone. Is there anything I can do to find out the cause of death so I can get some closure?
Location: Virginia