Q: What if the previous owner is dead?

I am in the same boat.  I didn't purchase it, but we had a death in the family and we can't find our grandmother's apple id and password anywhere.  I've tried to restore it and I can see an email none of us know at yahoo. I guess it is useless to us now?  This really is stupid, Apple.  I get deterring thieves but I didn't steal this Ipad.  Death happens. 

And you don't have the receipt for it?

Ask for your money back, you were sold an IOS device that you can not use, sounds like fraud to me.

According to Apple:

“You may not rent, lease, lend, sell, transfer redistribute, or sublicense the Licensed Application and, if you sell your Apple Device to a third party, you must remove the Licensed Application from the Apple Device before doing so.”

http://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/us/terms.html

So, you should ask your money back.

I am in the same situation. My grandmother passed away last week and I inherited her iPod 5th gen and it has all her recipes on it and I can not activate it. Apple should help out people. Now I have an expensive paperweight. Go Android you get better help that is what I did