San Francisco police are investigating the death of a 37-year-old woman, found dead in a duffle bag at Golden Gate Park Sunday evening.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified her as Kelly Koike, who was homeless and suffered from mental illness, her mother told KGO.
“I know deep deep down in her, without this part here (pointing to her head), she’s a good girl,” Roya Koike said. “She has a messed up here (pointing to her head), but she got killed?”
Police have termed the death “suspicious.” A dog walker found the duffle bag with Koike’s body inside just outside the grounds of the Outside Lands music festival, which was wrapping up Sunday night.
Roya Koike said she worried about her daughter constantly and wished she’d be more open to treatment.
“Being homeless in the city, I knew something bad would happen,” she said.
Kelly Koike graduated from culinary school, she said, but her mental issues gradually took over.
The medical examiner has not yet determined a cause of death. Her mother hopes for more answers when an autopsy is complete and wishes for better mental health treatment, especially for homeless people. But, she said, she knows that a difficult ask.
“But again, if you don’t want to participate, you don’t think there’s something wrong with you, then you can’t hold them,” she told KNTV.
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[Featured image: Kelly Koike/KGO screenshot]