And why did their families not object? Payoff?
Fear, implied or otherwise, I don't know.
It's just truly odd that the bodies were ordered cremated.
Weird.
If they were payed off, there might be a record of some type out there.
I'm not a finance type by nature, so I'm useless in chasing that idea down, I wouldn't know where or how to look for the info much less what it would look like.
But if they were quietly payed off, there would be some odd record of it somewhere.