New Zealand suitcase murders: Mother who killed her children, stuffed their bodies in storage sentenced to life imprisonment

A New Zealand court has sentenced the mother who killed her two children and hid their bodies in suitcases to life behind bars. High Court judge Geoffrey Venning sentenced Hakyung Lee, a New Zealander of Korean origin, to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years, in a case that shocked the country and became known as the suitcase murders. Lee was earlier convicted of killing her son and daughter in 2018, then storing their remains inside suitcases in a rented storage unit. The bodies went unnoticed for four years until 2022, when a family that bought the contents of the abandoned locker at auction opened it and made the grim discovery.

Guilty of killing "particularly vulnerable" children

On Wednesday (Nov 26), High Court judge Geoffrey Venning handed down the sentence, ordering that Lee must serve at least 17 years before she can apply for parole. He described the victims, Minu and Yuna, aged six and eight, as "particularly vulnerable". In court, the 45-year-old murderer appeared calm and silent, listening through a translator as her fate was read out.

Lee admitted early on that she gave the children a fatal overdose of prescription medication. She later left New Zealand, changed her name, and lived in South Korea until authorities tracked her down and extradited her to stand trial.

Depressive episode or homicidal tendencies

The sentencing hearing focused less on what happened and more on why. Lee’s legal team argued she was not in her right mind, saying her husband’s death in 2017 sent her into a deep depression and left her suicidal. A forensic psychiatrist testified that Lee believed she was sparing her children from suffering and thought killing them was the only way forward.

Prosecutors pushed back, telling the court that her attempts to conceal the bodies and flee overseas showed she understood the gravity of her actions. The jury sided with the prosecution.

Lee’s mother, Choon Ja Lee, questioned, "If she wanted to die why didn't she die alone? Why did she take the innocent children with her?". Her brother-in-law Sei Wook Cho, said the kid's other grandmother, battling cancer, still does not know what happened and that his "daily existence is a time bomb of fear" that she could find out at any moment.