Kochi: Hakyung Lee, 44, was convicted by New Zealand’s Auckland High Court for killing her two children and hiding the bodies in suitcases, BBC reported.
Lee is set to be sentenced in November.
Hakyung Lee fled to South Korea after the killings before being extradited for trial. Lee was arrested in Ulsan, South Korea, in September 2022 and extradited to New Zealand later that year.
Lee was charged with killing Minu Jo, 6, and Yuna Jo, 8, in June 2018. The children’s remains were found inside luggage at an abandoned storage unit in Auckland in August 2022.
A citizen of New Zealand, Lee traveled to South Korea and changed her name in 2018, shortly after the children are believed to have been killed. Born in South Korea, her name was Ji Eun Lee.
The 45-year-old woman was extradited from South Korea in November 2022. She denied the charges, with her lawyers arguing that she was insane at the time of the murders.
During the two week long trial, she pleaded innocence by arguing that she was insane at the time of the killing, which happened months after her husband died of cancer.
The defence claimed Lee’s mental health deteriorated after her husband’s death and came to believe it was best if she and her children died together leading to her consuming antidepressant herself along with children. But she got the dose wrong – when her children were dead. While she did kill her children, she was “not guilty of murder by reason of insanity,” her lawyer said.
Rejecting defence arguments, the prosecutors argued that her actions were calculated. Medical tests found that the children died by homicide by unspecified means by consuming antidepressants like Nortriptyline, the prosecution said.
The court heard that Lee picked up her prescription for the drug from a pharmacy in August 2017 after her husband was diagnosed with cancer.
The remains of her children were discovered in 2022 by a family who had purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit at an auction in Auckland.
The bodies were believed to have been stored there for several years.
The court heard that Lee picked up her prescription for the drug from a pharmacy in August 2017 – five months after her husband, Ian Jo, was diagnosed with cancer.
Photo: X
