Investigate family surrounded by stolen goods with heart of stone (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
look into
'investigate' is the definition.
(I know that investigate is a more specific form of examine)
'family surrounded by stolen goods with heart of stone' is the wordplay.
'family' becomes 'kin' (synonyms).
'surrounded by' is an insertion indicator.
'stolen goods' becomes 'loot' (items which have been looted).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'heart of' says to take the centre.
The centre of 'stone' is 'o'.
'kin' inserted inside 'loot' is 'lookint'.
'lookint'+'o'='LOOK INTO'
(Other definitions for look into that I've seen before include "Enquire about, investigate" , "Investigate - visually?" , "Try to discover the facts" , "Study" , "Investigate, explore" .)