Mother who killed children, hid bodies in suitcases jailed

Hakyung Lee, the mother guilty of killing her two children and hiding their bodies in suitcases, has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years in court today.

She was also ordered to be treated as a special patient under the Criminal Procedure Mentally Impaired Persons Act.

While sentencing Lee, Justice Geoffrey Venning said: "Even though you were suffering from a serious depression, the steps you took immediately prior to killing the children on 27 June, the method of killing them, and the steps you took immediately after showed a clearly measured approach to killing the children and then to cover up your actions so that you could leave New Zealand and establish a new life in Korea."

Today's hearing at the Auckland High Court marked the end of a case that garnered international attention, following the harrowing discovery of the remains of Lee's two young children in a storage locker.

Prosecutors argued for life in prison with a minimum parole period of 21 to 23 years, saying Lee's actions in the wake of the murders showed intent. It was argued that she perhaps wanted to relieve herself of the burden of raising the children, so she killed them.

The defence argued for a finite term of imprisonment, saying she was suffering from mental health issues stemming from the death of her husband when she murdered the children.

Justice Venning concluded, "You killed your children because you could not cope with the responsibility or burden of caring for them without the support of your husband.

"You had relied heavily on him during your marriage; you could not cope when he became seriously unwell, and perhaps you could not bear to have the children around you as a constant reminder of your former happy life, which had been cruelly taken from you."

The murder investigation into the deaths of Yuna, 8, and Minu Jo, 6, was launched four years after they died in 2018. Their bodies were discovered compacted into suitcases at a facility in Auckland's Clendon Park on August 11, 2022.

The remains were found by a family who had bought the contents of the abandoned locker in an online auction. Just over a month later, Lee was arrested by the authorities in South Korea and later extradited to New Zealand to face murder charges.

Lee defended herself at trial, but did not speak in court. Her counsel argued the murder of her children was the culmination of a "descent into madness" that began with the death of her husband from cancer in 2017.

Suitcase killings: The desperately sad evidence that brought the jury to tears

She admitted to killing her children and hiding the bodies, but argued she was insane at the time.

Her counsel said Lee had fallen into a deep depression after her husband's death, becoming isolated and suicidal. Lee believed it was best if the whole family died together. Using the antidepressant Nortriptyline, Lee attempted to kill herself and the children. She was prescribed the drug in 2017 after her husband's death.

Lee had got the dose wrong and woke up to find her children dead. She wrapped and hid their bodies in suitcases and left them in a storage locker. She changed her name and left New Zealand for South Korea.

After years of no contact with Lee or the children, she reappeared at a psychiatric ward in 2022, where her mother found her via a Hamilton-based pastor.

Months later, the bodies were found, and Lee was extradited.

Prosecutors argued Lee's actions in the wake of her children's deaths showed she knew what she was doing, and that it was wrong.

The jury found Lee guilty of the murders in September this year.

In a written victim impact statement, Lee’s mother and grandmother to the children said she had given up looking for her daughter and grandchildren after they first vanished in 2018, believing they were living well in Australia.

When she found out what really happened to Minu Jo and Yuna Jo, “I was so shocked at the time that I couldn’t believe it”.

“I cried every night and could not sleep, so I had to drink alcohol just to be able to fall asleep,” she wrote.

“Before falling asleep, I repeatedly said to myself, if she wanted to die, why didn’t she die alone, why did she take the innocent children with her?”

Despite support from a councillor, she said the emotional pain “did not subside easily”, and she suffered for months with “no one to lean on”.

After the bodies were found, she said she tried to attend church but was met with “unexpectedly cold” treatment.

“They did not welcome me, avoided me, and I was met only with glances that showed they did not wish to speak with me.”

She wrote that in the eyes of her fellow churchgoers, she was simply the “mother of a murderer”.

“I felt uncomfortable going to the church. My husband passed away, my son moved to Australia, and I had no contact information for him, and my daughter was imprisoned.”

With “no one to rely on”, she became suicidal, burdened by what happened.

She said she “deeply” regretted not taking her daughter to a counsellor she had been connected with, “especially when my daughter told me after I spent all the money, I would die with the children”.

“I do not know when this pain and suffering will heal, but I often think that I may carry it with me until the day I die.”

She said her feelings about her daughter were “complicated”.

“The actions my daughter committed were horrific, cruel and terrifying. There is no dispute in that.

“I believe that when a crime is committed, it is only right that the person be held accountable and face the consequences.”

She did say, however, that she was worried she would not be alive when or if Lee was released from prison.

Lee's brother-in-law also wrote a statement that was read in court.

He said the truth of what happened to his niece and nephew “shattered our family”.

“That moment of discovery introduced a second seismic trauma that tore away our last sliver of hope”.

He said he could not bring himself to tell his mother that her grandchildren had been murdered. She was undergoing cancer treatment in Korea and said she still asks to see them.

“I live in constant fear that a news headline, or a sensational media report, will be the cause of her finding out, which could lead to a devastating health crisis.”

He also said he and his wife had not yet told their own children about what happened to their cousins.

“We are still grappling with the unimaginable loss and are not ready to inflict that level of pain and trauma upon them.”

He too said he carried a “heavy, agonising guilt” and felt he failed to look after his niece and nephew after his brother died.

“It was my late brother's will that I would care for them. I feel like a terrible brother, and I ask him for forgiveness.”