Intriguing online romance becomes a legal mystery as a $2 million will names a non-existent partner
An online romance ends in a courtroom mystery. William Ian Southey, 73, died on October 11, 2022, leaving a will made two months earlier that named his online ‘partner’, Kyle Stuart Jackson, as executor. Under the will, Ms Moseley was left $100,000, while the residue of the estate, including Southey’s home in the upmarket eastern Melbourne suburb of Kew, was left to Jackson. The home was eventually sold for $2.5 million. The deceased made his will in contemplation of his possible marriage to Mr Jackson, albeit he did not ever meet him in person, Associate Judge Caroline Anne Goulden said in her findings.
The will named Kyle Stuart Jackson as executor — the supposed partner who never met the deceased
The day after Mr Southey’s death, his ex-wife, her solicitors at KHQ Lawyers, and Southey’s former solicitor, Christina Jones, tried to contact Jackson. Ms Jones reached Jackson using an email address Mr Southey had provided prior to his death and phoned him a week later. "The person purporting to be Mr Jackson said he had never been to Australia or met the deceased in person," the court noted. "He said he was upset about the news of the deceased's passing and could not continue the call." When Ms Jones sent an email seeking to confirm his identity with a Zoom invitation for a video call, she did not receive a response. But the following day, the solicitor received an email from Jackson foregoing his position as recipient of Mr Southey's estate, the court heard. "I want to respectfully excuse myself as a beneficiary of William's estate. I don't want it, I don't deserve it," the email read, according to court documents. In March 2023, solicitors at KHQ contacted Jackson's email address to ask if he wished to administer Mr Southey's estate. The email user declined but did so with a demanding caveat, the court heard. "I must be informed of every step of the process of execution as well as entitled to 15 per cent of his estate's value and I will decide whom or what charity to send my share to," the email read, court documents reveal. "It is not too much to ask. I will also be happy to directly communicate with Kaye Moseley... I will not be picking [up] calls from anyone except her. 'My relationship with William was special and I am yet to recover from his demise.'" A postscript added: "I will only be willing to share private information with Kaye about the nature of our relationship." At the request of KHQ solicitors later that month, Jackson provided an image of what purported to be a US passport for a man named 'Kyle Jackson', born October 18, 1984. The date of issue was January 9, 2018, and the date of expiration was October 18, 2024. But the solicitors found - through the help of a private detective - that Jackson was not a real person, Victoria's Supreme Court heard. The email included an address in Pennsylvania, and he said he would not meet anyone via video call and that any communication would be by email only, the court noted.
Court finds the ‘Kyle Jackson’ does not exist and Moseley inherits the estate
In April 2023, after the solicitors sent documentation to the address, a man named Jeremy Snyder rang to say no one by the name of Mr Jackson had lived there. Months later, in December, a person claiming to be Jackson responded to the lawyers, saying he had been involved in an accident and had only just recovered. "Is it too late to fill the forms?" they wrote, according to court documents. After being told Ms Moseley had been granted probate but that he was welcome to submit the completed documents, the court heard that the person responded angrily. "I am sure Will is rolling in his grave now. You guys went behind my back and made this happen all because of the love for money," they wrote. "He always wanted to help his people back in Fiji and help the needy, sadly, this will never be actualised." Ms Moseley's lawyers worked to verify the identity of Jackson throughout 2024, including employing a private detective based in the United States. The court heard that in July 2024, the detective concluded the passport was fraudulent and that Jackson was not a real person. As a result, the solicitors made an application in October last year to the Supreme Court in Melbourne regarding the handling of the will. "The plaintiff commenced this application in circumstances where Mr Jackson’s identity has not been able to be verified and where there is considerable uncertainty as to whether or not Mr Jackson exists in the manner understood by the deceased, or at all," the court noted. In December, Judge Goulden found Ms Moseley was entitled to distribute her ex-husband's estate without further regard for Jackson's interest. "I am satisfied that the person named [in the will] as Kyle Stuart Jackson does not exist in the manner understood by the deceased, or at all," the judge found. Ms Moseley was also entitled to distribute the residue of the estate to herself in accordance with the will's terms.
