A trial in New Zealand began on Monday for a woman accused of murdering her two children and concealing their bodies in luggage for years before being discovered.
Hakyung Lee is accused of killing Minu Jo, six, and Yuna Jo, eight, in June 2018. She was extradited from South Korea to face the allegations, which she rejects.
The children’s corpses were discovered in luggage at an abandoned storage unit in Auckland in August 2022. Lee, a New Zealand citizen, flew to South Korea and changed her name in 2018, shortly after the children are thought to have died.
She was born in South Korea and went by the name Ji Eun Lee before.
A jury was chosen on Monday for Lee’s trial in Auckland’s High Court, which is anticipated to last four weeks. Prosecutors plan to explain their case on Tuesday and say they will call 40 witnesses.
According to New Zealand news sites, Lee was representing herself, with two lawyers on standby to assist her if necessary.
She did not speak during Monday’s hearing and nodded her head instead of responding through an interpreter when asked how she pled to the charges.
The presiding judge, Justice Geoffrey Venning, entered not guilty pleas.
The children’s cause of death is unknown. According to court filings, they may have been killed by prescription sleeping drug provided to Lee and discovered in their bodies by forensic examiners, but another cause of death has not been ruled out, Radio New Zealand reports.
Lee’s husband died in 2017 following a period of declining health, according to RNZ. According to Stuff, Justice Venning informed the jury on Monday that they will most likely be asked to evaluate Lee’s sanity at the time of the alleged killings.
Venning stated that Lee would be distressed by the trial and has given her permission to watch proceedings from another room in the courthouse, according to Stuff.
The children’s corpses were discovered when Lee stopped paying rent for the Auckland storage container in 2022 due to financial issues, according to RNZ. The locker’s contents were auctioned off online, and the buyers discovered the dead inside.
Lee, who is in her forties, was detained in September 2022 in South Korea and extradited two months later.
She had given written consent to be extradited following New Zealand’s formal request to repatriate her to face trial, South Korean officials claimed at the time.
South Korea’s Justice Ministry stated that it has handed New Zealand with undisclosed “important evidence” in the case.
