A Mother's Crime and a 17-Year Minimum Sentence
A New Zealand woman, Hakyung Lee, has been handed a life sentence for the murder of her two young children, whose bodies she stored in suitcases for years before their grim discovery. Justice Geoffrey Venning ruled at the High Court in Auckland that Lee must serve a minimum of 17 years in prison before being eligible for parole.
The judge ordered that Lee will begin her sentence as a patient in a secure psychiatric facility under New Zealand's compulsory mental health treatment laws. She will be transferred to prison once she is deemed well enough.
The Tragic Discovery and a Failed Defence
The case, which has horrified the nation, came to light in 2022 when Lee stopped paying for a storage unit in Auckland due to financial difficulties. The contents of the unit were sold in an online auction, where the unsuspecting buyers made the terrible discovery of the remains of Yuna Jo, 8, and her brother Minu Jo, 6.
Lee had fled to South Korea after the killings in 2018, where she changed her name before eventually being extradited back to New Zealand to stand trial. In September, a jury found her guilty of both murders, rejecting her legal team's defence of insanity. Under New Zealand law, a successful insanity defence requires proving the defendant was incapable of understanding their actions or that they were wrong.
During the trial, her lawyers conceded she killed the children by giving them an antidepressant medication. They argued that Lee, a New Zealand citizen born in South Korea, had "descended into madness" following the death of her husband and had always been a "fragile" person.
A Family's Unimaginable Grief
The court heard powerful victim impact statements that laid bare the family's enduring pain. A statement from the children's uncle, Jimmy Sei Wook Jo, expressed his profound sense of loss and failure. "I never imagined such a profound tragedy would ever befall our family," the statement read. "I feel like I failed to look after my niece and nephew."
A statement from Lee's own mother, Choon Ja Lee, was also read aloud, describing her devastation. She said learning what happened felt "like a pain that cut through my bones, or as if someone was gouging out my chest," adding she may carry the suffering until she dies.
Following the sentencing, New Zealand police acknowledged the assistance of South Korean authorities. Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Va’aelua noted the poignant ages the children would be today, stating, "Yuna and Minu would have been 16 and 13 today. Our thoughts are with the wider family today for the tragic loss of these two young children."
