Aeri, a member of some random town that was unfortunate enough to fall victim to a Dragon attack, decided that she was upset that I stole some of her goods after promptly plucking the key from her corpse. I know she was upset because some Hired Thugs decided to find me to rough me up a bit, and after dispatching them, I found a note from Aeri on one of their bodies.

Last time I checked, dead people don't care much about their possessions. Just asking if Bethesda can either fix the issue of dead people sending hired thugs after me, or sever the ownership of things after one is dead, at least for a short amount of time before someone else moves into the house, if that's what Radiant AI/Story entail.