A New Zealand woman who murdered her two young children and hid their bodies in a suitcase was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday.
Hakyung Lee, a 45-year-old South Korean-born New Zealand national, was convicted earlier this year of murdering his eight- and six-year-old children in 2018, a year after his father died of cancer.
Mother hid children’s bodies in suitcase
During the trial, the court was told that Lee gave the children overdoses of prescription drugs, before wrapping their bodies in plastic bags and putting them in suitcases.
The bodies were discovered in 2022 by a family who purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit at an auction.
By then, Lee had changed her name and fled to South Korea, but was extradited to face trial in New Zealand in late 2022.
At sentencing in Auckland on Wednesday, Lee was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years. He showed little reaction when he was sentenced.
Judge said Lee knew his actions were ‘morally wrong’
Following her confession to the murders, the trial focused on whether she knew her actions were morally wrong.
She argued that she was not guilty by reason of insanity.
However, the prosecution contested this, saying she knew what she was doing, pointing to her efforts to hide the bodies before fleeing the country.
Justice Geoffrey Venning rejected calls for a lesser sentence and ruled that although Lee suffered from depression after her husband’s death, she knew her actions were “morally wrong.”
“You probably can’t afford to have your kids around as constant reminders of your past happy life,” Wenning said.
He ordered that he begin his term in a secure psychiatric facility before returning to prison if deemed mentally healthy.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery