Owner of Distressed Property is Deceased

[Zach Ballou]

I was recently driving for dollars and came across a single family home in a great area that appears to be in distressed condition. Further checks of the homie show that the property belongs to a man and a quick google search showed he had passed away in a motorcycle accident last year. According to records he paid the mortgage off in 1987. A side note -I know this is pretty morbid and feel horrible about actually looking into all this so please don’t judge. After reading his obituary he is only survived by 3 nieces and a facebook search was unsuccessful. We think we may have found his nieces, but they live out of state. Should I just take a shot and try to contact them?? Or say he never had any will made up who would the property go to at the time of his death? Would it go to family members by default? Any help would be appreciated especially with the sensitivity of the situation.