My Mother’s Friend Refuses To Return A Piece Of Jewelry After Her Death.

Location: South Carolina, USA

My (31f) mother (66f) passed away on Feb 27th this year. She was a double amputee and lived life the way she wanted to. She had an enabler friend who she flew and vacationed with in Florida for 2 months where she accidentally left her large golden dabloon coin (5k-8k) worth at her friend’s house. There is text message proof and 2 witnesses ready to make a statement that she left it there by accident and her friend was going to “fix the clasp” and return the piece. Her phone is locked out (due to her roommates messing with her phone after death) and I can not access it without a sapiena her text message records….

The friend is denying possession of the piece of gold (after my mother died two weeks after she got back from her house) and it is apart of my mother estate where I am sole beneficiary. I know she paid a lot of money throughout the years with trips, expenses, and gifts. I have a letter stating from her friend she didn’t have to pay her back for anything she was doing it out of love. After going through my mother’s iPad to see if I could reach her iCloud the messages were not turned on but I found pictures of her experiencing health issues two weeks into her trip and her friend neglected to take her to the doctor. Her friend also (during the double amputation) almost overdosed her in the hospital with prescription drugs and the hospital had her removed off the property and that indent is documented at the hospital and I can retrieve that as well.

What are my options to get the piece back? I wanted to send her a letter from my Lawfirm but I am afraid of the cost of fighting this? She has denied possession of it from a mutual friend that was going to pay to have it fixed for me and return. This lady is not a nice person and many people told me to just let it go but I just can’t as this was something my mother wanted me to have.

Thank you so much in advance I am grieving hard.