Grandma needs Help

[corina01]

My brother in law committed a double murder last year one of the persons being the mother of his son. My questions is should the fathers side of the family be involved in the custody and visitation of the boy? We were not notified of custody hearing neither uncle nor grandmother were aware of anything and can not get any answers as to when she can see him or if she can have visitation. This all happened in Detroit MI.