BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A man who is accused of bringing his wife from Mountain View to Taiwan so he could kill her has filed a motion in court to prevent her family from suggesting that he also killed his previous wife.
“There is no place in trial for innuendo, conjecture or rumor,” attorney Chuck Smith said in a motion filed on Thursday for his client, Harald Herchen.
Herchen, 66, of Los Altos, is headed for a civil trial against the family of Alice Ku, an escort-turned-tutor who disappeared after sightseeing at Taroko Gorge in Taiwan on Nov. 29, 2019.
Li Tsong Su, a detective for Taiwan’s National Police Agency, said he is investigating Ku’s disappearance as a homicide and has issued a warrant for Herchen’s arrest. “Herchen is the primary suspect due to his suspicious behavior, failure to cooperate and the conflicting information he conveyed to the Ku family,” Su said in a court declaration.
In response, Herchen said Ku is still alive. She likely ran off with their driver to return to her life as an escort and wants to hide her behavior from her family, he said in a court declaration.
“We were happily married and her disappearance continues to cause me great heartache,” Herchen said.
Herchen said he met Ku online in 2013 or 2014 and hired her as an escort for $400.
His second wife, Melissa Yu, died from sleep apnea in Los Altos on June 3, 2017. She was 54.
Unexplained injuries
Attorney Andrew Watters, representing Ku’s family, said the autopsy report showed Yu “had several unexplained injuries on her body,” and that neighbors believe Herchen killed her.
Ku and Herchen married four months later on Oct. 6, 2017.
Ku never told her family about the wedding or that she was living with Herchen in a Mountain View apartment at 1725 Wright Ave., Herchen said.
Herchen worked as an inventor and engineer at Bloom Energy while Ku ran a tutoring business, making $140,000 a year, Herchen said.
Ku was 37 when she disappeared and would be 42 now.
Ku’s brother and parents sued Herchen in Santa Clara County Superior Court in January 2021 for wrongful death, negligence and impersonation.
Herchen allegedly sent an email from Ku’s account after she disappeared to make it look like she was alive and visiting her parents.
Judge Socrates Manoukian signed an order on March 6, 2024, agreeing with Taiwanese police that Ku is dead.
Smith filed a motion on Thursday asking Manoukian to block Ku’s family from referencing Yu. He said Herchen’s two previous marriages have “absolutely no relevance” to the Ku case.
A two-week trial is scheduled to begin on July 7.
