Original press photo of Aiko Koo from the San Francisco Examiner from September 19, 1972, which was used on the front page of the newspaper on April 26, 1973, following Ed Kemper’s arrest. Kemper had just confessed to his crimes and the police had recovered a human head in the backyard of the home where Kemper murdered his mother and her friend. It was believed (and later confirmed) to be Cynthia Schall’s head.
Aiko Koo had been missing since September 14, 1972. Police planned to question Kemper about her disappearance.
It came as no surprise to Mrs. Skaidrite Rubene-Koo when Berkeley police told her that her 15-year-old daughter may have been murdered by Edmund Emil Kemper III.
“I never believed she ran away, not even that night when she didn’t come home. I have always said she was kidnaped.”
“I had a premonition all last summer that something was going to happen to change our lives. She had started hitchhiking – you know we had no car.”
“I didn’t want her to go (to a San Francisco ballet dancing lesson) that night. I’m not psychic but I was afraid for her. She was so beautiful that night. But I told her she could go if she took the bus, if she didn’t hitch a ride. I knew she had been hitchhiking rides.”
Source: “Kemper Yard Yields Another Head,” Front page of the San Francisco Examiner, April 26, 1973
I always feel so bad for Aiko’s mama. Every photo I have seen she is distraught with grief. You can sense just how much she loved and missed her baby. Do you happen to know when Aiko’s mother passed away?
Aiko’s mother, Skaidrite Rubene, passed away in 2020 at the age of 93.