A buyer’s call to Oregon police ultimately connected concealed human remains to the 2024 disappearance of Meihong “Kiki” He.
THE DALLES, Ore. — The contents of an unpaid storage locker appeared at first to be another private collection changing hands, but a suspicious plastic container found inside it would revive a year-old disappearance and lead authorities to a murder case across the Columbia River.
Police were called July 29, 2025, to a storage facility on West Sixth Street after the person who obtained the unit encountered a container believed to hold human remains. Officers sealed the area while members of a regional major-crimes team sought a search warrant. By that evening, investigators working with the Oregon State Police crime laboratory had recovered the remains. The discovery offered no immediate public explanation of who the person was, when the death occurred or how the container had reached the facility.
The identification came weeks later. The Dalles Police Department said the remains belonged to Meihong “Kiki” He, a woman originally from China who had lived in the Mid-Columbia area and had also been associated with Butte, Montana. She had last been seen in Glenwood, Washington, on May 25, 2024. Early reports contained conflicting information about her age, so a precise age is not included here. Police said her next of kin had been informed.
He’s identity transformed the storage-unit inquiry into a multistate investigation. Her relatives had been unable to contact her since the day she disappeared, and her sister had reported that their last conversation occurred on May 25. He had been staying with her fiancé, Richard Michael Robinson, in rural Klickitat County. They were reportedly preparing to marry five days later. Investigators began comparing Robinson’s earlier statements with the physical evidence recovered more than a year afterward.
Robinson, 59, now faces second-degree murder in Washington and second-degree abuse of a corpse in Oregon. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge July 9 in Klickitat County Superior Court. The court appointed public defender Lori Hoctor, who declined to comment after the hearing, according to local reporting. A not-guilty plea is not evidence that a crime did or did not occur; it requires the prosecution to prove its allegations in court.
The storage facility’s role in the case was created by an ordinary business event. Robinson allegedly stopped paying for the locker, and another person took possession of its contents under the facility’s process for a delinquent unit. Authorities have not accused that buyer or the storage company of wrongdoing. The person’s decision to contact police gave investigators access to evidence that had allegedly remained out of view for more than a year.
Witnesses at the facility described investigators wearing protective equipment, photographing the scene and removing evidence in bags. Police initially urged the public not to speculate about the identity of the remains or the circumstances of the death. That caution was significant because investigators still needed an autopsy and other forensic work before making a public identification. The early response involved officers and investigators from several Oregon counties, the state crime laboratory and agencies in neighboring Washington.
Once He was identified, detectives focused on the explanation Robinson had offered when she vanished. A missing-person notice said her fiancé claimed he dropped her off to fish with friends near Underwood, Washington, along state Route 14. Accounts of a later probable-cause affidavit say Robinson changed his story when investigators pressed for details. He allegedly suggested at different times that He was involved in sex work or that a Chinese criminal organization was pursuing her. No evidence supporting those claims has been publicly reported.
Investigators also reviewed an incident that occurred nine days after He was last seen. On June 3, 2024, someone reported a man using a backhoe to dig deep holes on property outside Glenwood. Authorities identified the man as Robinson. He allegedly said the holes were intended for a septic system, but the owners said they did not know him and had not authorized the work. Investigators reportedly found nothing inside the holes. Prosecutors may use the episode as circumstantial evidence, though the defense can dispute its meaning and relevance.
The affidavit describes a more direct allegation involving the trailer where Robinson and He had been staying. After Robinson was eventually arrested, investigators say he acknowledged being present when He died and said she was strangled inside the trailer. A medical examiner concluded that He died from asphyxiation, according to reports based on the affidavit. Authorities further allege she was still alive when she was placed in a 77-gallon tote, an assertion that has not been established at trial.
The condition of the container is central to the concealment allegation. Investigators say He’s body had been wrapped in plastic and secured with ratchet straps and zip ties. Charcoal briquettes were allegedly packed with the remains in an attempt to reduce the odor. The description is disturbing, but it also has an evidentiary purpose: Prosecutors may argue that the packaging and storage show deliberate efforts to prevent discovery. The defense has not publicly responded to that interpretation.
Authorities allege Robinson did not immediately take the tote to the Oregon locker. According to the affidavit, he kept it in his truck and drove with it for several days. He allegedly attended his daughter’s birthday gathering during that period and indicated to her that he had done something wrong without describing it. Public reporting does not say that she saw the container’s contents or knew what had happened. Investigators later traced the tote to the storage unit in The Dalles.
The alleged movement of the remains divided the legal case across state lines. Washington prosecutors say the killing occurred near Glenwood and have charged Robinson with second-degree murder. Oregon prosecutors are addressing what allegedly happened after the death, when the remains were transported and concealed in Wasco County. An Oregon grand jury indicted Robinson in August 2025 on second-degree abuse of a corpse, a Class C felony under state law.
Finding Robinson required another multistate effort. Police said detectives followed information in California, Washington, Utah, Nevada and Colorado. U.S. marshals arrested him in Colorado on Aug. 25, 2025, initially on a warrant accusing him of failing to register as a sex offender. He was held for transfer to Oregon while police publicly described him as a person of interest in He’s death. The murder charge in Washington followed as the investigation continued.
During an interview after his Colorado arrest, Robinson allegedly gave detectives another version of events. The probable-cause affidavit says he claimed that two masked men of Asian descent attacked him and He inside the trailer. Investigators say he later admitted he was present when she died. Reports do not provide the full interview, identify every question asked or explain whether prosecutors have recordings that place the statements in context. Those details could be examined through pretrial motions.
The case now depends on more than the shocking circumstances of the storage-unit discovery. Prosecutors must connect the forensic findings, Robinson’s alleged statements, the missing-person timeline, the trailer and the movement of the container. The defense may challenge the reliability of statements, the interpretation of circumstantial evidence, the handling of physical evidence or the prosecution’s ability to prove who caused He’s death. None of the allegations in an arrest affidavit carries the weight of a conviction.
Robinson was being held in Klickitat County after his July arraignment. Public reporting listed an Aug. 18 proceeding in the Oregon case, although hearing dates are subject to change. No Washington trial date was identified in the reviewed material. As both prosecutions continue, the person who opened the delinquent locker remains the point at which a long disappearance became an active homicide investigation.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 2, 2026.