As far as finances go, I deal with dozens of contractors and their modus operandi is almost always the same. They usually are living on the profits of the job they haven't completed and have to keep getting draws to stay ahead. Not all are that way but the ones I deal with are almost completely. They usually live beyond their means, have larger houses than they can afford, are in debt tremendously, and are literally one job from a total collapse of their entire situation. It's sort of an ego thing it seems like. Most of my clients thrive on having the biggest and newest vehicles, the biggest house, and the most toys for men. They tend to make more money than they report because believe it or not, there are still a lot of cash deals being done. It would not surprise me if he was tremendously leveraged. When the real estate and mortgage industries collapsed in the 2005-2008 years, many contractors were caught in a bad situation with subs unpaid or holding spec houses that could not be sold and their little world crashed resulting in fewer contractors for a while, some filing bankruptcy, and some taking other jobs.
Usually, barring accidental death, deaths of this nature seem to involve one or two common threads - money or other women. In this case, I'm suspecting both. Maybe the woman is just laying low and eventually she might have her "Amber Frey moment" and reveal herself. Has anyone looked into bankruptcy records for him to see if he has ever filed? They tend to file sometimes more than once so maybe this was to prevent a second filing.
And you know what...this is all my own opinion.
