Woman Who Stuffed Her Kids’ Bodies in Suitcases After Poisoning Them Learns Her Fate

A New Zealand woman convicted of murdering her two children and hiding their remains inside suitcases has been given a life sentence.

Hakyung Lee, a New Zealand national originally from South Korea, received life imprisonment with a minimum term of 17 years before eligibility for parole, ABC AU reported.

Justice Geoffrey Venning of the High Court handed down the sentence on Tuesday, Nov. 25, noting that the 43-year-old killed her children at a time when they were "particularly vulnerable," per The Guardian.

PEOPLE has contacted the High Court of Auckland for further information. The remains of Lee’s children, 6-year-old Minu Jo and 8-year-old Yuna Jo, were located four years after their deaths in a case that drew national attention as "the suitcase murders."

According to The Guardian, Lee fatally poisoned the children in 2018 using an excessive amount of a prescription medication.

ABC AU reported that she mixed a deadly dose of nortriptyline into orange juice.

After the killings, Lee concealed the bodies in suitcases and placed them in a storage unit before fleeing to South Korea under a new identity, The Guardian stated.

The children’s remains were discovered by a family who purchased the contents of the abandoned storage locker at auction. Lee was later extradited back to New Zealand in 2022 to stand trial. The killings occurred in the family’s house in Auckland’s Papatoetoe area, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Defense attorneys Lorraine Smith and Chris Wilkinson-Smith argued the case involved a failed murder-suicide, but prosecutors countered with evidence that Lee was preparing to escape before the children were killed.

In the days preceding the murders, she reportedly purchased a lottery ticket, spent $900 on salon services, and booked a business-class flight to Korea, according to the outlet.

The deaths happened a year after Lee’s husband, Ian Jo, succumbed to esophageal cancer. Prosecutors said Lee’s mother told authorities that her daughter had expressed suicidal ideation both before and after her husband’s passing.

"The Crown suggests that when she gave her two young children nortriptyline, it was a selfish act to free herself from the burden of parenting alone," Crown prosecutor Natalie Walker said in court, via ABC AU.

"If she wanted to die, why didn't she die alone?" Lee's mother, Choon Ja Lee, said in a statement read to the court, the outlet reports. "Why did she take the innocent children with her?"