Kelly Brock Koike’s body found stuffed in duffel bag at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park
A woman’s body was found stuffed inside a duffel bag Sunday in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park by a local dog walker, according to officials and the woman’s grieving mother.
The remains of Kelly Brock Koike, 37, were discovered about a mile from where thousands of people were gathered at the Outside Lands Music Festival, KGO reported.
Koike’s mother, Roya Koike, told the outlet that the grisly discovery was made by a dog walker off a walkway.
The San Francisco Police Department said in an official statement that it was investigating her death as a homicide.
Roya said her daughter suffered from mental health issues but described her as a “good girl.”
“I know deep, deep down in her, without this part here [indicating her head], she’s a good girl. She has a messed-up here [indicating her head]. But she got killed?” the grief-stricken mom said.
The department did not immediately return The Post’s request for an update on Wednesday.
“Very sad, it’s so sad. … She was knockout gorgeous. I mean, she was beautiful,” Roya told KGO.
“‘Was.’ I can’t believe it. Was.”
Her daughter had a passion for makeup and graduated from culinary school before working as a concierge in San Francisco, Roya said.
However, mental health challenges that started in Kelly’s teens subsumed the rest of her life and she was living on the streets before she died.
Roya heartbreakingly admitted she feared both for her daughter when she was on the streets and for herself when she was home and off her medication.
The mom addressed the media from the Castro Valley house where she said Kelly grew up and lived until four years ago.
“Being homeless in the city, I knew something bad would happen,” Roya said.
Kelly was half-Asian, though her mother noted that she thinks her death is related to her mental illness as opposed to race.
“I don’t think it’s a hate crime. I do know she would go to extremes from nothing … I think that’s most likely what happened,” she told NBC.
Michele Hunnewell, who lives just a few steps from where Kelly’s body was found, called the discovery “horrifying.”
“It’s a very sad, sad circumstance,” she told ABC7 News.
“And, our neighbors … Everybody came out of the house because the officers were there. They had it all taped off. And people were just aghast. I mean, shocked!” she continued, adding, “This isn’t that kind of neighborhood normally.”
Another neighbor, Megan Hiatt, only found out about the gruesome discovery when ABC7 approached her on her morning jog.
“I have a 12-year-old that I would normally be happy to let them wander through the park by themselves. So yeah, completely horrifying,” Hiatt said.