Mother sentenced to life in prison for New Zealand's 'suitcase murders'

A mother who murdered her two children and stuffed them into suitcases stashed inside a storage locker has been sentenced to life imprisonment in New Zealand.

Hakyung Lee, a New Zealand citizen originally from South Korea, was found guilty in September of killing her children — eight-year-old Yuna Jo and six-year-old Minu Jo — in a grisly crime dubbed the country's "suitcase murders".

Justice Geoffrey Venning sentenced Lee to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years, but ordered that she be treated as a special patient under the Criminal Procedure Mentally Impaired Persons Act.

Justice Venning went through Lee's background and the timeline leading up to the children's death.

He said Lee's mental health played a major role.

An updated psychiatric report had been carried out before sentencing, which indicated Lee was likely suffering from an atypical depression and prolonged grief reaction at the time of the murders.

Justice Venning concluded Lee killed her children because she could not cope with the burden and responsibility of caring for them after her husband's death, influenced by her depression.

"You 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," he said. On Wednesday, Lee sat in the dock, silent, with her head hung low, as she had done throughout her trial.

Lee represented herself in court during the trial, but the 45-year-old watched it unfold from a separate courtroom at the High Court at Auckland, aided by her interpreter.

She gave Yuna and Minu orange juice laced with prescription medicine in mid-2018, before placing their bodies, clothed and in plastic bags, inside two suitcases.

Lee then moved the suitcases, along with her belongings, into a rented storage unit in Auckland, changed her name and left for South Korea.

Their remains were discovered four years later, in August 2022, when payments to the facility lapsed, and the items inside were auctioned off.

Original story link https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-26/mother-sentenced-life-in-prison-new-zealand-suitcase-murders/106053690