from www.nypost.com – This was no ordinary love triangle.

A grieving Manhattan widow who won a court order preserving her husband’s sperm named his girlfriend to be the surrogate mother of his child, sources told The Post yesterday.

George Kamau, 37, killed himself Monday in the Norwalk, Conn., home of Etaghua Asefa, 35, who identified herself to cops as the dead man’s girlfriend, the sources said.

In court papers filed in Manhattan, Kamau’s wife, Victoria Chege, named Asefa as the “family friend and appointed surrogate” mother who would receive sperm harvested from her late husband’s corpse.

Although Justice Shirley Warner Kornreich almost immediately signed off on Chege’s sperm-preservation request, the grieving widow may have gone to court too late.

Fertility experts say sperm must be taken from a corpse within 36 hours of death for it to be viable. Kamau was dead for at least 60 hours before Kornreich signed the order.

The Sperm and Embryo Bank of New Jersey declined to carry out the procedure without court approval.

Kamau left a suicide note, but its contents have not been revealed. Police do not suspect anything criminal, the sources said.

Kamau dropped Asefa off at her job last Monday at 9:30 a.m., said the sources.

Asefa grew worried after she didn’t hear from him all morning, so she returned to her home at 1:45 p.m. and found him hanging in her living room.

Chege declined to comment at her Harlem apartment yesterday.

“It’s a personal issue and she’s grieving,” said a man at her apartment.

Chege said in court papers that Kamau wanted a family, and would have approved of the surrogacy.

Her lawyer, Troy Griffith, declined yesterday to discuss the case.

“It’s a very sensitive time for my client,” Griffith said.

from www.nydailynews.com – A Manhattan woman went to court for permission to extract sperm from her dead husband so she can raise the family she says he wanted.

After George Kamau committed suicide earlier this week, widow Victoria Chege decided she wanted to freeze his sperm and use it to conceive a child.

In court papers, she said the sperm would be implanted in her best friend, who has agreed to serve as a surrogate.

“It was the intent of George Kamau to conceive a child prior to his untimely death,” Chege wrote in papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

“[He] expressed his desire to have children so that his legacy may continue,” Chege added.

Kamau, 37, hanged himself Monday in Norwalk, Conn., authorities said. No other details were available.

“Time is of the essence,” his widow said in court papers. “The sperm… must be harvested and frozen as soon as possible from the time of his death or it will be useless.”

Chege said the Sperm and Embryo Bank of New Jersey told her she needed a court order before the sperm could be removed and put on ice.

Justice Shirley Kornreich signed an order green-lighting the procedure on Thursday – but it may have come too late.

In previous cases, experts have said sperm must be extracted within 36 hours.

It was unclear why Chege planned to use her friend as a surrogate – and whether she planned to use her own eggs or the surrogate’s eggs to conceive the baby.

Her lawyer said he could not comment on the case, and Chege was not at her Edgecombe Ave. home last night.

“It’s a very sensitive time for her,” lawyer Troy Griffith said.

The request is not that rare.

Judges in several states, including Texas, California and New York, have given permission for sperm to be taken from dead men so their wishes for a family can be met.

Last year, a Bronx judge allowed sperm to be harvested so a dead man’s 2-year-old son could have a sibling, but the sample wasn’t robust enough to artificially inseminate his longtime love.