They are indeed stupid. This story made local and national news, and the heirs to the owner of the money got wind of the story and intervened in the lawsuit, claiming that they were the rightful owners of the money.
If these two would have kept their mouths shut and just divided the money instead of posing for pictures and getting on the news, they both would have had a lot more money to spend.
Even if she had done the smart thing and piad the contractor a small finder's fee before immediately putting it in a safety deposit box and then never discussing it with anyone except her tax attorney - it looks like she still had $1.9 million in debts.
Say the $186,000 consisted entirely of collectable-quality 1000 dollar bills and she sold them on the collector's market: it would only have amounted to a third of her total debt.
Clearly she hadn't been managing her affairs well before this.
Did this woman buy the house from the original owner and there were no other owners in between? If not, how do you determine who the heirs are?