Interesting case.
REVOCATION.
The disappearing of a will is probably the act of revoking it.
Legally valid revocation of a will renders it null and void.
Wills can be revoked by several methods one of which is destruction.
For a will to be revoked validly by destruction that act MUST be accompanied by the intention to revoke.
(See Cheese -v- Lovejoy 1877 for an illustration of the act of destruction and the intention to destroy both being required for a valid revocation)
Who can revoke by destruction ?
The testatrix [OP's aunt].
Someone else can destroy it for her BUT only on her specific directions and probably in her presence.
Otherwise, nobody else has authority to purloin or destroy or make a will disappear.
STATUTORY POSITION.
The principal act is the Succession Act 1965.
LINK
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1965/act/27/enacted/en/html
Part VII deals with wills.
S.85 covers revocation (as do some other sections).
COPY WILL.
To say that one has a copy of a will may mean something or nothing.
If you have a bare draft that is probably of no probative value.
If you have a photocopy [or certified true copy] of the legally executed will that is helpful but not definitive for the reasons set out above by Feemar5 namely that it might not be the last will.
If you have a copy of the executed will it should identify the witnesses to the will who will be important as litigation is likely here.
EFFECT OF REVOCATION.
In this case revocation of a will turns the aunt from a person with a will (died testate) to a person without a will (died intestate).
Does it matter ?
Yes.
Why ?
If aunty is deemed to have died intestate the estate will be administered / distributed according to the rules on intestacy.
See Part VI of the act - distribution on intestacy.
That probably means that aunty's children will share equally according to the per stirpes rule and anyone outside this degree of relationship to aunty has no entitlement to inherit.
If aunty left only a daughter she gets the entire estate. If other children exist they all share the estate equally if aunty is deemed to have died intestate.
WHAT TO DO ?
At this stage you are entitled to have your conspiracy whiskers twitching.
Get thee hence to a solicitor to get a grip on this and stop Uncle Cruiser and or your cousin(s) pulling a fast one by getting letters of administration and, "disappearing" - for which read dissipating - the estate as well .
GARDAI.
Depending on what your solicitor turns up you may have to consider reporting this to the Gardaí as if Uncle Cruiser deliberately disposed of the will without legal authority he may well be guilty of fraud and theft offences given the consequences that flow from that act.
GENERAL WARNING.
Disputes involving estates can easily turn in to punitive expeditions whereby the legal costs involved can swallow up any gain.
Consider the value of what is at stake as against the legal costs risk.
P.S. This is the definitive version of my post - some draft versions escaped in to the wild as final versions so ignore them
