‘Dateline’ Airs Episode on Silicon Valley Woman Who Went Missing In Taiwan In 2019

A new episode of NBC’s Dateline covers the case of Mountain View resident Alice Ku who disappeared while traveling in Taiwan in 2019 with her husband — the prime suspect, but loopholes surrounding his Canadian citizenship enabled him to avoid trial in the US and extradition to Taiwan.

Six and a half years following the disappearance of 36-year-old Alice Ku, a Mountain View tutor with students throughout Silicon Valley, her body has never been found and the case remains unresolved. As the Mountain View Voice reports, Ku is now the subject of the latest episode of Dateline on NBC.

In 2023, a Santa Clara Judge determined that Ku died in Taiwan's Taroko National Park while traveling with her husband, 62-year-old German-born Canadian citizen Harald Herchen. Herchen, a prominent Silicon Valley engineer, was in Taiwan on a business trip, per the Voice.

While Herchen is the primary suspect, prosecutors cannot charge him with homicide in the US because the federal statute covering killings abroad applies only to American citizens, according to Redwood City-based attorney Andrew Watters, who represents Ku's family.

However, following a civil trial last summer, the Santa Clara DA filed perjury charges against Herchen in September due to inconsistencies in his depositions, and he is currently awaiting trial in that case.

Herchen had claimed Ku had gone to visit her parents who live in Taiwan, but her parents said they were unaware she was in the country. They were also reportedly unaware who Herchen was and that she had gotten married.

Herchen said in court depositions that he dropped Ku off at the train station in the city of Hualien to visit her parents at their home near Taipei on the morning of November 29, 2019. But Ku’s parents said she hadn’t been to their new home before and wasn’t familiar with the area, according to Palo Alto Online.

In the days after Alice Ku was reported missing, her family hired Watters, along with San Jose attorney Todd Davis, who quickly uncovered details about her life that had been unknown to them, including her marriage to Herchen and that she had moved to Mountain View from her previous home in Sunnyvale without telling them.

Neighbors in Mountain View reportedly said Ku and Herchen frequently argued about money and a possible pregnancy. Herchen also lived primarily at a different residence in Palo Alto.

Additionally, Herchen was reportedly still married to his second wife, Melissa Yu, when he first met Ku. Yu died from cardiac arrest due to obstructive sleep apnea in 2017, with the medical examiner noting that there were multiple bruises on Yu’s body, but there was no mention of the cause of the bruises.

Per PA Online, investigators with Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau said records from hotel logs, surveillance footage, phone data, and internet activity contradict Herchen’s account of events. Authorities said Ku’s phone showed activity in Hualien but not near the train station where he claimed to have dropped her off, and Ku’s email activity stopped abruptly on November 29, breaking from her normal usage.

Lead investigator Li Tsung Su concluded she was killed on or before that date and identified Herchen as a homicide suspect, citing “critical inconsistencies” in his statements, as PA Online reports. Officials issued an arrest warrant in December 2020, which remains active, with assistance from the FBI and the American Institute in Taiwan, though they’ve been unable to extradite Herchen due to the lack of formal diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Taiwan.

“We have determined, based on our investigation including the above-referenced facts, that: Alice Ku is dead and is the victim of a homicide; that Alice Ku was killed on or before November 29, 2019, and that Defendant Harald Herchen is a suspect in that homicide,” said Yang Chi Lee, director of international criminal affairs for the agency.

Last summer, a Santa Clara County jury awarded more than $23 million last summer to Ku’s family in a wrongful death case filed in 2021, as the Voice reports.

Testimony from that civil trial led the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to pursue perjury charges against Herchen, citing inconsistencies in his depositions. Herchen was arrested at his Los Altos home last September and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, according to Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker.

Herchen’s defense has denied the allegations and said he plans to plead not guilty.

Information was added to this post after publishing explaining how Herchen can't be prosecuted in the US because he's a Canadian citizen, which was unintentionally omited.

The post was updated with additional information about the death of Herchen's second wife.

Image: Alice Ku's Family