Hakyung Lee is accused of killing her children in 2018. Their bodies were found discovered in a suitcase in a storage unit in 2022 after the items were bought at auction
A woman accused of killing her children after their bodies were found stuffed inside a suitcase has pleaded not guilty.
Hakyung Lee appeared in court in Auckland, New Zealand today and was charged with killing her children Minu Jo, 6, and Yuna Jo, 8, in 2018. The 44-year-old was asked in court by the judge for her plea today, and she lowered her head and shook it.
“I’ll give you directions… on the law and you’ll have to apply those directions. But ultimately it’s for you to decide on the facts, in light of those directions, whether Ms Lee is guilty or not guilty of the charges she faces,” Justice Geoffrey Venning told jurors according to RNZ.
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The bodies of Lee’s children were found in suitcases in 2022. It is believed they were stored there for years and were only found when a family purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit in Auckland.
The items were bought at an auction, with local media reports saying the sale was part of an effort to clear abandoned items when Lee stopped paying the rental fees. The buyers did not have any connection to the deaths.
The trial is expected to last up to four weeks, with opening arguments on Tuesday. Lee is set to represent herself in court, with two court-appointed lawyers there to act as stand-by council, the BBC reported.
The case is a high-profile one and the jury was told Ms Lee’s guilt or innocence must be based on factors. Jurors were also told that it is likely the case will determine if “whether, at the time the children were killed, Ms Lee was insane”.
“In this case it’s likely you’ll also need to determine whether, at the time the children were killed, Ms Lee was insane, as that is defined in our Crimes Act,” he continued. Lee is a New Zealand citizen who was born in South Korea. She returned to the country of her birth in 2018 after several years living in New Zealand.
The children’s father, Lee’s husband, died the year before of cancer. The children both died some time after that, but it is not known when. It is alleged that before the man’s death, Lee threatened to kill herself and her children if he died.
The children’s cause of death remains unknown. Court documents said they might have been killed by prescription sleeping medication prescribed to Lee and detected in their bodies by forensic investigators, but another cause of death hasn’t been ruled out, according to Radio New Zealand.
Official documents said: “After murdering the deceased, the defendant wrapped each of their bodies in plastic bags and plastic wrap… “The defendant placed each body into a separate suitcase and put them into black plastic bags to conceal them.”
A global red notice for Lee’s arrest was issued by Interpol. She was then arrested in Ulsan, South Korea in September 2022. South Korea’s Justice Ministry said it had provided New Zealand with unspecified “important evidence” in the case.