Ghanaian woman in supreme court for late husband’s DNA to prove kid’s paternity

DNA Test

A Ghanaian woman in Bronx  wants to harvest DNA from her husband’s corpse so she can prove her daughter’s paternity.

The baby girl was born a week after Daniel Osei was killed in a July water skiing accident on Long Island, and mother Edith Oteng claims in court papers the child has been ignored by her purported father’s family. She fears the child will be denied Social Security and other benefits if paternity isn’t established.

“I’m just worried about my baby,” said Oteng, who said she met Osei, 35, at church in 2015. She was thrilled when he proposed, and they were married less than a year later in a religious ceremony, said Oteng, 37.

“Oh my God, we just met, and we do everything together. When he told me he wanted to marry me, I was so happy. He’s a good guy,” she recalled.

A video of their joyous nuptials in March 2016 made the rounds throughout their Ghanian community, but the two never cemented the marriage in court, Oteng said.

Shortly after the July 29 accident that killed Osei, Oteng claims his family swooped in and took all of his belongings.

“Everything we had, the family took. They don’t even consider the baby,” she said. “I don’t know what they are doing.”

Oteng had been staying at her mother’s house, on doctor-ordered bed rest throughout much of her pregnancy because of a history of miscarriage, while Osei worked two jobs.

Despite the separation, the doting dad-to-be, who worked at Costco and at a hospital, stopped by regularly to see Oteng and take her shopping, she said.

He never got to see their now 8-week-old daughter, Danielle.

Oteng went to Bronx Supreme Court on Sept. 20, claiming Osei’s family had “abandoned” her and the child and seeking permission to conduct a paternity test on her husband’s remains before his body was shipped to Ghana for burial, according to court papers.

She believes Osei’s family is rejecting her because the couple didn’t legally marry.

“They think that because we didn’t do that they have the upper hand,” she said. “I have done nothing wrong [to] them.”

 

Source: New York Post