Korean Woman Sentenced to Life for Killing and Abandoning Her Children in New Zealand
Court: "Killed Vulnerable Children... Heavily Dependent on Deceased Husband"
Claimed "Diminished Mental Capacity" but Not Accepted as Defense
A Korean mother who was charged with killing her young son and daughter in New Zealand seven years ago, placing their bodies in a suitcase, and abandoning them in a storage unit, has been sentenced to life in prison.
According to reports from Australia's ABC and AFP on November 26 (local time), the Auckland High Court in New Zealand sentenced Lee (44), a Korean national charged with murder and other offenses, to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
The court found that Lee committed the crime because she was unable to care for her children after her husband died, stating that she "killed children who were physically and mentally vulnerable." The court further noted, "During her marriage, the defendant was heavily dependent on her husband and was unable to cope when he became seriously ill," adding, "It must have been unbearable for her to have the children, who constantly reminded her of the brutally lost happiness of her past, by her side."
During the trial, Lee admitted to giving antidepressants to her young son and daughter at the time of the incident in 2018. However, she claimed, "After my husband died of cancer in 2017, I was in shock and developed depression," and argued that she was not guilty of murder due to diminished mental capacity at the time of the crime, but this defense was not accepted.
Lee's husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2017 and died in November of that year. After his diagnosis and during his treatment, he reportedly told several people that if he died, his wife would kill herself and the children. Lee's mother stated that after her husband died, her daughter lost the will to live and stopped eating. In court, Lee's mother testified, "I told my daughter, 'If you want to follow your husband, go alone. I will take the children.'"
Lee was arrested and charged with killing her nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son in New Zealand between June and July 2018 by giving them juice laced with antidepressants. She put their bodies in a suitcase, abandoned it in a storage unit in Auckland, and then fled to South Korea. In 2022, facing financial difficulties in South Korea, Lee was unable to pay the storage unit fees, and the items stored there were auctioned online.
In August 2022, a New Zealander who won the auction discovered the siblings' bodies in the suitcase and reported it to the police. Lee, identified as the prime suspect, was arrested in Ulsan, South Korea, in September that year and extradited to New Zealand.
Lee, who was born in South Korea, had previously immigrated to New Zealand and obtained local citizenship. After fleeing to South Korea following the crime, she also changed her name.
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