“In trust” is different than “in a trust”.
If the Aunt intended for the funds to be exclusively used for her education, she could have set it up that way. Sounds like she just left the money to the parents to pay for school. The Aunt is the villain here, possibly unknowingly, but still failed.
The immigrant aunt is a "VILLAIN" for not hiring a big American lawyer to make an expensive document instead of relying on their apparently cultural customs of trusting her sibling to do as she asked to benefit his child? A villain who "failed"? It's her fault that her sibling lied and stole from her niece?
Wow.