Woman Charged with Murder of Two Children in New Zealand

Court documents in New Zealand revealed on Friday that a woman on trial admitted to killing her two children, whose bodies were later discovered in suitcases. However, her defence has argued she is not guilty due to insanity.
South Korean national Hakyung Lee admitted administering nortriptyline, an antidepressant, to her children — six-year-old Minu Jo and eight-year-old Yuna Jo — which led to their deaths, prosecutor Natalie Walker told the jury this week.
Police believe the killings occurred in June or July 2018, about a year after Lee’s husband died. Following the incident, she returned to South Korea. The children’s remains were only found more than four years later, when an Auckland family discovered them in an abandoned storage locker. Lee was extradited to New Zealand in November 2022 at the request of police.
Pathologist Simon Stables testified that due to the advanced decomposition of the bodies, it was difficult to conclude whether the antidepressant alone caused the deaths. “It could have been the sole cause, or a factor in combination with something else,” he said, noting it may also have had a sedative effect.
Investigators said the children were found wrapped in plastic inside separate peach-coloured suitcases.
Lee is representing herself in the case, supported by two standby lawyers. During proceedings, defence lawyer Lorraine Smith argued that her client was “not guilty of murder by reason of insanity,” pointing to Lee’s deteriorating mental state after her husband’s death in 2017.
According to Smith, Lee believed at one point that her family should all die together and attempted to administer antidepressants to them. Lee claimed she miscalculated the dosage and awoke to find her children dead.
The trial is expected to run for four weeks.