With no documentation, you can’t really claim a non-business bad debt on your return.
Among other things, you must be able to show the debt was legally enforceable, and that you exhausted all reasonable means of recovering the debt.
You’d need to show a documented effort on your part to collect the money – that is, you’d need to be able to reflect that you’ve sent letters or invoices to the relative, or made phone calls trying to collect the money.
Just based on what you say, it doesn’t sound like you have any of this.
Please see the TurboTax Help article How to Report Non-Business Bad Debt on a Tax Return for more information.
@jc1128
