A woman has been found guilty by a New Zealand court of murdering her two young children and hiding their bodies in suitcases for years, until their remains were accidentally discovered.
A jury at the Auckland High Court on Tuesday found Hakyung Lee, 45, guilty of the double murder after just two hours of deliberations, rejecting an insanity defence made by her lawyers.
Lee was found guilty of killing her six-year-old son, Minu Jo, and eight-year-old daughter, Yuna Jo, in June 2018, several months after her husband died from cancer.
Justice Geoffrey Venning ordered that Lee remain in custody until her sentencing on November 26.
Murder carries a mandatory life sentence in New Zealand, with judges required to set a prison term of at least 10 years before an offender can apply for parole.
The New Zealand case garnered international headlines in 2022, when the children’s remains were found inside luggage at a disused storage facility in Auckland, after Lee stopped paying rental fees for the unit due to having run into financial difficulties.
The shocking discovery was made when the contents of the storage unit were auctioned online and the buyer took possession, finding the bodies inside suitcases.
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