A successful investigation to trace the heirs of a Mansfield woman who left a £100,000 estate is to be featured in a television programme.

Jean Crow, 86, who died in 2016, had no known next of kin and no will.

With the estate at risk of going to the Crown, probate genealogist firm, Finders International, took on the case to find relatives as part of the BBC’s Heir Hunters programme.

The team discovered that Jean had never married and had no children or siblings.

An artist and children’s book illustrator, her father had died in a car accident when she was young and her mother lost touch with the younger members of the family.

With no luck finding heirs on the paternal side of Jean’s family, the team focused their research on maternal aunts and uncles.

Jean’s mother, Winifred, was one of six children — her twin brother, Wilfred, plus Alice, Dorothy, Joseph and Florence.

Joseph, Jean’s uncle, was a travelling photographer, who would lead Finders to an heir to the estate.

Joseph had two children, Edna, who died aged 19, and Phyllis Phyllis’s daughter, Judith Hooley, was identified as an heir to Jean’s estate.

Judith, of Nantwich, said: “It was a complete surprise.

“Though I had heard my mother mention Winifred, I never even knew of any distant family, so I certainly never expected to be inheriting anything.”

Danny Curran, of Finders International, said: “A lot of research was done.

“We are glad Judith and a further ten other heirs were signed as beneficiaries to the estate.”

The story is part of the latest Heir Hunters series on BBC One and will be aired on Tuesday, 17th July.