TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A court in Santa Clara County, California, ordered the husband of a woman who went missing in Taiwan’s Taroko National Park in 2019 to pay US$23.6 million (NT$694.5 million) in a wrongful death suit brought by her family.
The Taiwanese woman, Alice Ku (古雅芳), was 37 years old when she traveled with her Canadian husband, Harald Herchen, to Taiwan in late November 2019 to visit family, according to previous reports. The couple took a sightseeing trip to Taiwan’s Taroko National Park, and Ku was never heard from again.
On July 19, after two weeks of testimony, the jury determined that the husband was involved in the death of Ku and attempted a cover-up, reported Mercury News. A key piece of evidence in the trial was an email sent from Ku’s account, allegedly written by Herchen, several days after she went missing, to throw off the investigation into her death.
The 66-year-old Herchen alleged that he and Ku separated at Hualien Train Station after touring Taroko Gorge. He claimed that Ku left with an unnamed tour guide and that they had planned to meet again in Taipei.
Ku’s parents did not believe Herchen’s account of events and reported their daughter’s disappearance to the police on Dec. 2, 2019. Herchen had already left for the US by himself on Dec. 1 before police began their search for Ku.
Police in Hualien County conducted a two-day search for Ku, but her body was never found. After reviewing surveillance footage, police found no evidence that she ever returned to Hualien Train Station or met with any tour guide.
Although Herchen has an outstanding warrant in Taiwan, a lack of an extradition treaty, and Herchen’s Canadian citizenship have complicated attempts to summon him from the US. Despite this, Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau provided critical information in the case to Ku’s family for the civil suit.
One Taiwanese police officer also made the trip to California to serve as a key witness in the case against Herchen. A physician also testified that Herchen suffered a broken bone in his hand around the date he was last known to be with Ku, reported Palo Alto Daily.
Alice Ku grew up in California and later became a resident of Mountain View in Santa Clara County, where Ku met Herchen through an online dating site. She married Herchen in 2017, four months after the death of his previous wife, per Mercury News.
Herchen continues to maintain his innocence. His attorney was quoted in reports as saying that his client may seek an appeal of the verdict.
