Hakyung-Lee, the mother of Minu Jo, 6, and Yuna Jo, 8, is charged with their murders.
Photo: Lawrence Smith/ Stuff Pool
Warning: This story contains graphic and disturbing content.
The trial for a woman accused of murdering her two children and leaving their remains in suitcases has begun in Auckland.
Hakyung-Lee has been charged with the murder of her children, aged eight and six, in 2018.
The children were found in suitcases in Auckland in 2022 after a family bought the contents of an abandoned storage locker in an online auction.
Lee, who was born Ji Eun Lee, is a New Zealand citizen, and was taken into custody in South Korea in September 2022.
She was extradited to New Zealand two months later.
Lee had pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, and has maintained her innocence throughout her lengthy journey to trial.
In the High Court at Auckland on Monday, Lee sat with her head lowered for the jury selection, not looking at those called to sit in the jury box.
Lee will be representing herself in court, assisted by two lawyers acting as stand-by counsel.
Justice Geoffrey Venning was presiding over the trial, which was expected to last up to four weeks.
He told jurors it was up to them to determine Lee’s guilt or innocence based on the facts.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
When asked to enter a plea, Lee stood silent in the dock despite prompting from her interpreter.
She shook her head slightly at the first charge of murder as Justice Venning recorded not guilty pleas on her behalf.
Crown lawyers are expected to open their case tomorrow.
The case was originally set for 2024, but was adjourned.
She had name suppression until 2023, after the Court of Appeal dismissed her application for it to continue until the end of her trial.
Court documents obtained by RNZ revealed Lee’s husband died in 2017.
Prior to his death, documents said Lee threatened to kill herself and her children if her husband passed.
The court documents revealed the method of murder was unknown, but was believed to be related to medication prescribed to Lee for sleeping issues following her husband’s deteriorating health.
She was alleged to have murdered the children between late June and late July 2018.
“After murdering the deceased, the defendant wrapped each of their bodies in plastic bags and plastic wrap,” documents said.
“The defendant placed each body into a separate suitcase and put them into black plastic bags to conceal them.”
Lee rented a storage unit in Papatoetoe where she took the suitcases, and stored them among other household items.
She changed her name and left the country for Seoul, South Korea under her new identity as Hakyung Lee.
Lee continued to pay for storage, until she ran into financial issues in April 2022, documents said.
In August that year, the storage unit was auctioned off, with the auction winners taking the suitcases to their home in Clendon Park.
They opened the bags to find the children’s remains.
A post mortem on both victims was carried out, with forensic pathologist Dr Simon Stables finding they died by unspecified means, associated with the prescribed medication.
The drug was not approved for use in children.
“It is possible that the child has died directly related to the [medication], but it is also possible that the [medication] has sufficiently incapacitated this child that death by another means has been able to be inflicted e.g. strangulation/neck compression, suffocation, drowning, or a head injury,” Stables said.
“On the basis of the post-mortem evidence alone I am unable to exclude any of these possible scenarios.”
The trial is expected to get under way in the High Court at Auckland on Monday.
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