'I've lost my better half' - Husband asking for help to bring his wife back to Ghana after deadly crash

A husband is in mourning and is asking the public for help and support for his family during this difficult time.

"I've lost my better half," Clement Essilfie said.

Essilfie lost his wife, 53-year-old Edith Obeng, after she was hit by a driver in Florence on Friday night.

We reported on the crash that night, as Florence police offered updates on the situation.

At 7:56 p.m., officers responded to the scene on Turfway Road west of Drexel Avenue.

A driver in a Chevrolet Cruze had collided with a pedestrian in the right westbound lane, police told us. After the vehicle struck the woman, the driver stopped and stayed at the scene, police said.

Essilfie described the moment when officers delivered him the news about his wife's death.

"They said, Clement, you are the one we're looking for. So, they took me outside and it was there and then that I was told my wife wouldn't make it," Essilfie said.

Essilfie told me his wife was heading to her usual bus stop to go to work at the Florence Walmart, and he realized something might be wrong when she didn't update him on her trip to work like she always did.

"I was totally devastated," Essilfie said.

Essilfie and his wife are immigrants from Ghana. He told me that he moved to the United States in 2010. He said he married Obeng in 2018, and she moved to Kentucky to join him in 2023.

Now, he is trying to find a way to bring his wife's body back to Ghana to be laid to rest, but he is asking for the public to help.

Family friend Abigail Danquah started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help Essilfie and his family bring his wife's body back to Ghana.

"It is a very difficult situation for us. The wife is so nice. Like, ask Monsignor, if you meet her, you love her," Ben Danquah, a close family friend, said.

Essilfie's priest, Monsignor Dominic Fosu, explained the process of bringing a deceased across the globe.

"We need about four to five, six weeks to put things together because documentations have to be ready. And we need to contact the Ghanaian embassy for a letter," Fosu said.

"I can't leave her here because at long last, I'll go back to Ghana. So preferably, I would like her to have been taken home," Essilfie said.

His close friends all joined him for our interview and expressed their message to the community in their time of need.

"The family would be very grateful if we can mobilize and be able to bring Edith's body to Ghana, so that she could get a fitting burial," Terry Oppong said.

The driver of the Chevrolet Cruze was not injured in the crash and has cooperated with the investigation. Florence police said it does not anticipate filing criminal charges against the driver.