Hakyung Lee Sentenced for Suitcase Murders

Murders of Yuna and Minu Jo, a New Zealand citizen born in South Korea, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for the murders of her two children, Murders of Yuna and Minu Jo (six) and Yuna Jo (eight), in 2018. Lee killed her children by giving them antidepressant drugs and then concealed their bodies in suitcases, which were discovered in an Auckland storage unit in 2022 after she failed to pay rent. Following the murders, Murders of Yuna and Minu Jo fled to South Korea and changed her name, but was later arrested and extradited to New Zealand. During the trial, her legal team argued for a reduced sentence due to mental illness, stating she felt remorse and had suffered from depression after her husband's death in 2017. However, Justice Geoffrey Venning ruled her actions were 'deliberate and calculated', though he approved compulsory treatment at a secure psychiatric facility before her return to prison. The case, widely known as the 'suitcase murders', has deeply affected the families of Murders of Yuna and Minu Jo and her late husband.