Another "universality" - culturally at least - in death, is that of the "Deathbed Confession".
If you read any of the Reddit threads (Specifically #7) you might have noticed that many of those in their dying moments were revisited by unpleasant scenes in their past - one poster's father drowned kittens in a sack, then upon his deathbed reported his seeing his bed covered in kittens, another kindly old man reenacted a violent scene, then upon his death was found to have been a Nazi, with gold bars and teeth...and many other such tales.
Not all were of angelic visitations.
But surprisingly there were a lot of confessions - to hospice workers, priests, pastors, you have it - of crimes committed in life, generally violent, specifically rapes & murders. Most of these confessions were unsolicited - women, men confessing to having murdered their spouses, children, random murders, serial killer confessions. Confessions of soldiers at war, forgiven by the country that sent them but never themselves. As if at the last they realized that they didn't want to carry this with them to the grave, as if this final confession was enough to give some atonement.
And in some cases surely their deathbed visitations in all likelihood prompted the confessions.
Now, in those cases of those bound by marriage a great number of these murders probably went undetected. It's a simple thing to arrange an "accident" or "poison" ones spouse - and the law generally doesn't look too much into it.
In those cases where the crimes were known - missing people, and the dying attempted to expatiate upon the circumstances of the crime, disposal of the remains, etc - you wonder, how many of these are still open on the books - priests, pastors, clergy being bound to take confession and never speak of them - yet - once dead, who is hurt?
Only the living.
I mean, this knowledge could - not heal, but perhaps close a lot of wounds, and if you don't think this a common theme I'd suggest you read through the threads. I took a few hours and read through thousands. It happens a lot more often than you think.
And notice how the Catholic Church has formalized the process - Confession, Anointing of the Sick (formerly extreme unction) and final reception of holy Communion (Viaticum) - a process far older than the Church itself, the confession meant to lighten the soul, the communion to provide sustenance for the journey. In Judaism it's Vidui, in Islam Tawbah, certain Buddhist sects have Vajrasattva, all these are equivalents for Confession, and serve to put the dying at rest. But - judging from a great many of the confessions on the thread, it seems to be a deeper need, religion has merely formalized it.