A friend of ours asked us if we wanted a 4WD that a friend of his had that had broken down. He'd just left it on the side of the road and the council told him he had to get rid of it. It was unregistered, so we took the car trailer and picked it up. We had never met the original owner but liaised through our friend, who got the keys from the bloke who wanted to get rid of the vehicle. Anyway, we brought it home, my partner fixed it (it was a minor fix, battery terminal from memory) and we used it for about 5 years on our property to move stuff around. About 2 months ago, our other car broke down and it was going to be off the road for a couple of weeks repairing it (plus it was an expensive fix). We went to the Road & Maritime Authority to get it registered and were told we couldn't registered it as we didn't have a receipt of sale. After explaining the circumstances, they said we could bring in a stat dec, explaining the circumstances of how the vehicle came into our possession. So we went home, did a stat dec and went back to the Roads & Maritime office, only to be told, we were given the wrong information and it would have to be reviewed by the Manager, who wasn't on duty on a Saturday - and then it was at their discretion if they allowed us to register it. Anyway, the bloke was very nice and understanding, and as we weren't told we couldn't get it done that day, he decided to register it for us on the spot. In the meantime, we managed to get the name and phone number of the original owner, phoned him, but he didn't return our call until about 2 weeks after the car was re-registered. There was nothing really wrong with the vehicle, and we now use it on a regular basis as our second car. However, to the original owner, it was obviously just too much of a headache and he couldn't be bothered to get it fixed and just wanted rid of it to get the council off his back.
So, what I'm getting at (in a round about way) is that it's not difficult to re-register a vehicle (in the case of Karlie's vehicle) as whoever had the vehicle after her demise would have her details to write out a dodgy receipt for the Roads & Maritime, plus it does happen that people just want to get rid of cars, for whatever reason.