Take for example, someone with a lot of steem dies without anyone knowing his or her password, what happens to his/her steem ?
There is nothing anyone can do. Sometimes in order to be safe, we have to pay some price and be in the dark.
The steem can only be withdrawn if a family member or friend knows about their activities on steemit and have access to their login details. Aside that, nothing can be done.
It is a similar case to sending steem to a wrong account. It is gone forever.