children’s deaths were associated with the antidepressant drug nortriptyline<\/a>, which was prescribed to Lee when she told a GP she had problems with sleeping in 2017.<\/p>\nThe court earlier heard from a pathologist that there was no evidence of blunt force trauma on the children, but he also could not be certain whether the children had died from nortriptyline alone, or were killed by other means after being incapacitated by the drug.<\/p>\n
A forensic toxicologist told the High Court that it was almost impossible to know the actual levels of the antidepressant drug in the bodies of the children at the time of their deaths, due to the passing of time.<\/p>\n
Helen Poulsen, who works for the Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science (previously known as ESR), told the court nortriptyline was the only drug found in the bodies of Minu and Yuna in toxicology tests of their chest cavity fluids and liver samples.<\/p>\n
Poulsen said the drug could be prescribed as an antidepressant, but could also be used to help people sleep due to its sedative properties.<\/p>\n
Having received the samples in August 2022, nearly four years after the children’s deaths, Poulsen said the levels of nortriptyline detected in both children were relatively low, but not reflective of the actual levels of the drug in them at the time.<\/p>\n
“We don’t know how nortriptyline has moved around the body as its decomposed, it’s basically impossible to say how this level would relate to what was present in the body at the time of death,” she said.<\/p>\n
Poulsen said children could not be prescribed the drugs.<\/p>\n
She added that nortriptyline had a narrow therapeutic margin, meaning there was a small margin between what was a therapeutic dose and what would be a dose that could cause toxic effects.<\/p>\n
Family’s GP: Lee never mentioned any issues with her mental health<\/p>\n
The former family doctor of a practice, where Lee’s entire family was enrolled, told the court that he was not aware of Lee having any issues in relation to suicidal thoughts or depression \u2013 prior to being informed by a letter from Counties Manukau Health in November 2017, that Lee intended to kill herself and her children after her husband’s death.<\/p>\n
Doctor Rama Velalagan, from the Papatoetoe Medical Centre, said he last saw Lee on August 1, 2017, when she came with complaints of dizziness and issues with sleeping.<\/p>\n
Under questioning by one of the lawyers assisting Lee, Chris Wilkinson-Smith, Dr Velalagan said Lee never opened up to him about her being under pressure.<\/p>\n
Dr Velalagan said during the August consult, Lee said her husband was doing well and that was not the reason for her period of difficulty with sleeping.<\/p>\n
He had prescribed her with 60 Nortriptyline tablets to help with her sleep, and iron tablets for her dizziness.<\/p>\n
Dr Velalagan said the letter from Counties Manukau Health’s acute assessment team on November 26, 2017, was the first time her suicidal intention was brought to his attention.<\/p>\n
Jurors taken through Lee’s husband’s time at hospice<\/p>\n
Jurors were taken through evidence from nurses present during Lee’s husband, Ian Jo’s, time at T\u014dtara Hospice.<\/p>\n
While at hospice in 2017, Ian Jo took his wife’s car and left the hospice. Staff were worried he would take his own life.<\/p>\n
Nurse Lin Ni said she was working the afternoon shift, and read to the jury the notes she made that day.<\/p>\n
“[Hakyung Lee] was in lots of tears while trying to contact Ian by texting and phoning,” Ni said.<\/p>\n
“She said she texted Ian ‘if you die, I will die with our two kids’ which had Ian contact her back. She looked very tired and distressed.”<\/p>\n
Ian Jo was found and transferred to Middlemore Hospital before returning to the hospice.<\/p>\n
![\"Where](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/wtgh-suicide-helplines-depression-youthline-lifeline-YK3FYBB7YRARHNMP7FBPDKUXFA.png\")
<\/p>\n
Where to get help. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Another nurse, Kayleen Palatchie, said Jo appeared more sick in the days after. She said Lee was aware her husband was approaching death, saying she was fearful about being alone with him when he died.<\/p>\n
A mental health nurse who assessed Lee after her husband drove off from the hospice said Lee told her the text message of suicidal intent she had sent to her husband was an irrational reaction to his disappearance, and that she no longer had suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n
Natalie Woodward, who worked for the crisis team at the hospital, said she had discussed with Lee about her threats to harm herself and her children.<\/p>\n
She said Lee told her she had felt great fear and pain when her husband disappeared and that had prompted her “irrational” text message.<\/p>\n
Woodward said Lee told her that her children were not her possessions, and she could not take their lives.<\/p>\n
She said Lee also claimed to be no longer suicidal.<\/p>\n
Woodward told the court she noticed Lee was distressed at the time, and felt she had to take care of everything and could not ask for help.<\/p>\n
By Finn Blackwell and Lucy Xia for rnz.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A teacher giving evidence at the trial of the woman accused of murdering her two children and leaving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-13235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-auckland","9":"tag-crime-and-justice","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/the-bodies-of-minu-and-yuna-jo-were-placed-in-suitcases-insi-4H66ZCQGNVCNTCP76ZXO7JTVZU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n