A New Zealand jury found Hakyung Lee guilty on Tuesday of killing her two young children after she gave them drugs and hid their bodies in suitcases. The 45-year-old mother was found guilty of two murder charges at Auckland High Court after a three-week trial.
Lee, who also used the name Jasmine, killed her daughter Yuna Jo, 8, and son Minu Jo, 6, in June 2018. Their bodies were found four years later in August 2022 when a family bought items from an old storage unit at an online sale in Auckland.
According to The New York Times, at the trial, prosecutor Natalie Walker said Lee admitted she caused her children’s deaths by giving them nortriptyline, a drug used to treat depression, in 2018. Lee also said she wrapped the children in three layers of plastic bags then put them into suitcases, which she wrapped in more plastic bags and sealed with tape. Doctors could not say exactly when or how the children died.
Defense team claims insanity
Lee’s lawyers said she was not guilty because she was mentally ill. They said her mental health got much worse after her husband Ian Jo died from cancer in 2017. Defense lawyer Lorraine Smith told the court that Lee had gone crazy and thought it would be best if the whole family died together. She said Lee took drugs to kill herself and her children but took the wrong amount and woke up to find the children were dead.
A New Zealand woman is convicted of murdering her 2 children and leaving their bodies in suitcases https://t.co/SFiPe6TiXa pic.twitter.com/tNC2rFFof8
— The Independent (@Independent) September 23, 2025
But prosecutors did not believe the mental illness defense. They said Lee’s actions after the killings showed she knew what she was doing. Walker said Lee’s behavior showed cold planning and that she killed her children because she was selfish and wanted to be free from taking care of them alone. The prosecution showed evidence that Lee rented a storage unit, changed her name from Ji Eun Lee to Hakyung Lee, and flew to South Korea on an expensive flight in July 2018.
The jury of six men and six women took less than four hours to decide she was guilty. In New Zealand, people are thought to be mentally well unless proven otherwise, and the defense could not prove that Lee did not understand her actions were wrong. This case is like other shocking times when parents have been charged with crimes for hurting their children, showing how terrible it is when those who should protect children become the ones who hurt them.
Lee stood quietly with her head down as Justice Geoffrey Venning read the verdict. She will stay in jail and will be sentenced on November 26. Murder has a life sentence in New Zealand, with judges required to set at least 10 years before someone can ask to get out of prison. Lee was brought back from South Korea in November 2022 after being arrested when New Zealand asked for her. The case adds to the growing list of disturbing crime stories about family violence that continue to shock people around the world.
