Mother in New Zealand suitcase murders found guilty

Hakyung Lee stands in the dock at the High Court in Auckland, New Zealand, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. (Lawrence Smith/Stuff Pool Photo via AP, File)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- A mother in New Zealand was found guilty on Tuesday of killing her two children and stashing their bodies in suitcases, in a high-profile case that drew international attention.

Hakyung Lee, a New Zealand citizen originally from South Korea, was extradited from Seoul in 2022 after the remains of her children were discovered in suitcases left at a storage unit in south Auckland.

Yuna Jo and Minu Jo were aged eight and six at the time of their murders, and they had been dead for three to four years before their bodies were found.

Lee’s trial had hinged not on whether she had murdered her children -- which she had confessed to -- but whether she knew her actions were morally wrong when she did it.

Under New Zealand law the presumption is that a defendant is sane unless proven otherwise, and it is up to the defence to establish insanity.

Her lawyers had argued she was not guilty by reason of insanity and that the death of her husband in 2017 sent her into a depressive spiral.

A forensic psychiatrist testified for the defence about Lee’s mental state -- describing depression, suicidal thoughts, guilt, and a belief that she was doing the morally right thing by ending her children’s lives.

But the prosecution had argued she knew what she was doing, pointing to Lee’s attempt to conceal the bodies and fleeing the country as proof.

“Ms. Lee deliberately, and in sound mind, deliberately murdered Minu and Yuna and the right verdict is guilty of murder,” prosecutor Natalie Walker said in her summary.

‘Sympathy for the defendant’

They also pointed to evidence that Lee had taken deliberate steps to distance herself from her past -- including changing her name and cutting ties with her New Zealand life before returning to South Korea.

The jury at the Auckland High Court found her guilty after just two hours of deliberations.

In his summary, Justice Geoffrey Venning told them: “It’s natural to feel sympathy for the young children who were killed. It’s also natural to feel someone should be held responsible for their deaths.”

“On the other hand, some of you may feel sympathy for the defendant,” he added, urging them to come to their verdicts on the basis of the evidence they had heard.

Lee, 45, may be detained in a mental health facility under a compulsory treatment order before she’s moved to prison.

She now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with a non-parole period of at least a decade under New Zealand law.

She will be sentenced in November.

Throughout the three-week trial, Lee sat between a translator and a security guard with her head bowed, and her hair obscuring her face.

Although she technically represented herself in court, she never asked a question or spoke for the duration of the trial.

By Sharon Fergusson