A girl in New Zealand who was convicted of murdering her two kids and leaving their our bodies in suitcases for years earlier than they had been found will spend at the least 17 years in jail, a decide dominated Wednesday.
Justice Geoffrey Venning informed Hakyung Lee on the Excessive Court docket listening to within the metropolis of Auckland that she would start her sentence as a affected person in a locked psychiatric facility, beneath New Zealand’s obligatory psychological well being remedy regulation. Lee should return to jail when she is nicely sufficient, the decide mentioned.
A jury in September discovered Lee responsible of the murders of Minu Jo, 6, and Yuna Jo, 8, rejecting a protection of madness. Her attorneys on Wednesday argued for a decreased sentence due to her psychological sickness, saying their shopper felt disgrace for her crimes and had been remoted and threatened in jail.
Hakyung Lee stands within the dock on the Excessive Court docket in Auckland, New Zealand, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025.
Lawrence Smith / AP
The youngsters’s stays had been found after Lee stopped paying rental charges for an Auckland storage unit when she bumped into monetary difficulties in 2022. The locker’s contents had been auctioned on-line and the patrons discovered the our bodies inside.
Lee fled to South Korea after the killings, the place she modified her identify, earlier than being extradited to face trial. She is a New Zealand citizen who was born in South Korea and glided by the identify Ji Eun Lee beforehand.
In the course of the trial, a palliative care counselor mentioned in an announcement learn to the court docket that Lee had mentioned she “wanted it all to be over” and sometimes talked about ending each her and her husband’s life, the Australian nationwide broadcaster ABC reported.
These convicted of homicide in New Zealand routinely obtain a life sentence, with judges setting a minimal interval of at the least 10 years earlier than the defendant can apply for parole. Lee should serve at the least 17 years, Justice Venning dominated.
The youngsters’s uncle, Jimmy Sei Wook Jo, was in court docket, the place a lawyer learn an announcement on his behalf.
A prosecutor learn out an announcement by Lee’s mom, Choon Ja Lee, who spoke of her devastation at studying what had occurred to the kids.
After Wednesday’s listening to, New Zealand’s police acknowledged authorities in South Korea for his or her assist with the investigation.
“Yuna and Minu would have been 16 and 13 today,” Det. Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Va’aelua mentioned in an announcement. “Our thoughts are with the wider family today for the tragic loss of these two young children.”
Police and forensic investigators collect on the scene the place suitcases with the stays of two kids had been discovered, after a household, who will not be linked to the deaths, purchased them at a web based public sale for an unclaimed locker, in Auckland, New Zealand, August 11, 2022 on this nonetheless picture taken from video.
TVNZ/Handout through REUTERS TV
Extra from CBS Information
