Just Found Out My Dad Passed Away In January And His Friend Donated His Body Without Notifying Us That He'd Passed (florida)

Hi, I'm in shock as I'm writing this but my dad's ex from years ago contacted me today saying "sorry to hear of your dad's passing" because she just got a debt related letter from his attorney saying he passed in January.

My dad has bipolar so it's normal for him to go a couple of months without contacting us. I'm living abroad at the moment so asked his siblings what was going on and they were just as shocked and confused as I was.

We called his lawyer and he confirmed that he did pass in January and his body was donated to some tissue related organization. He was appalled that my dad's "girlfriend" (who treated him very poorly, and was listed as FRIEND only on his documents) didn't notify anyone. I tried calling her to ask how he died at least but she hung up immediately when I introduced myself, which is bizarre because she was always overly nice to us when we visited.

We have no idea what was in my dad's will, if he wanted his body to be donated or if he even had a will. I know he's in extreme debt so my sister and I never expected anything when he passed but we would at least like to know if he left any sentimental possessions to us, or had any last wishes for his funeral etc. but we've been robbed of that.

I'm really in a huge amount of shock and feel like I'm in over my head with how to go about this. Do I have any legal recourse here? How do I find out if he had a will or what's happened to his possessions/assets? How do I find out how he died? Why were his next of kin never notified of his death and why was a "friend" allowed to donate his body? Last I heard when I talked to him was that he had moved out of her house because her sons were abusing him, so I'm baffled why she was allowed to do that.

The rest of the family always got a bad feeling from her, his health deteriorated extremely rapidly after they started dating and she wouldn't let him live in the house they bought together (had him move into a dingy apartment) despite him being disabled, immobile, suffering from Parkinson's and unable to care for himself. Some family members had even said they suspect she was causing his health decline deliberately even before we found out she never notified us of his death.

Any advice on next steps would be greatly appreciated. I understand it's possible he made her executor of his will but surely his daughters have a right to know how he died and what his last wishes were and a say on what happens with his estate as next of kin if she's not on the will. Thank you.