Hakyung Lee: New Zealand Mother Convicted After She Murdered Her Kids, Left Them inside a Suitcase in a Storage Unit
Hakyung Lee was found guilty on September 23, 2025, of killing her two young children and hiding their bodies in suitcases.
This case from New Zealand is chilling not only because of the children’s tragic deaths but also because of the shocking way their remains were discovered years later.
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| Hakyung Lee |
In 2006, Hakyung Lee got married to Ian Jo after they met in church, and together they had two children: Yuna Jo, born in 2009, and Minu Jo, born in 2012.
The children were described by teachers as "well-behaved and polite," and neighbors remembered Lee and Ian as attentive parents.
But in November 2017, Ian died of cancer, and Lee was left devastated. Those close to her noticed she started withdrawing from others, and they also said she never told her children about their father’s death.
According to police, Lee told her mother she wanted everyone—herself and her children—to die with her husband, a statement that raised serious concerns about her mental health at the time.
Between late 2017 and mid-2018, Lee’s behavior grew increasingly unusual as she spent lavishly on luxury hotels and overseas trips with her children.
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| Yuna and Minu |
Relatives said they last saw Yuna and Minu alive around June 2018 and it was around this time that prosecutors said Lee did something unthinkable.
Lee reportedly mixed the antidepressant Nortriptyline into juice and gave it to her children, and tragically the children slept never woke up.
Instead of reporting what happened, she wrapped her children’s bodies, placed them inside two suitcases, left them in a storage unit in Auckland, and relocated to South Korea.
Lee admitted she also tried to kill herself but survived, as per BBC.
Fast forward to August 11, 2022—a family purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit in Auckland during an auction, and among the items were two large suitcases.
When the family brought the suitcases home and opened them, they made a horrifying discovery—the remains of Yuna and Minu.
The bodies had been hidden in that storage unit for nearly four years. The family quickly contacted local police, and an investigation was launched.
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| The Storage unit |
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| Hakyung Lee in court |
Investigators later confirmed that the children may have been dead for as long as four years, and they also made it clear the family who bought the suitcases had no connection to the case.
Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa’amanuia Vaaelua described the discovery as ‘deeply tragic for the family involved and deeply disturbing for the community.’
Even though Pathologists ruled the death a homicide, the exact cause could not be determined due to the state of the remains.
After an extensive investigation, detectives confirmed that Lee was the children’s mother. By then, she was living in South Korea, and on September 15, 2022, police in Ulsan arrested her .
A few months later, on November 29, 2022, South Korea approved her extradition to New Zealand to face two murder charges.
During Lee’s trial, her defense claimed she was mentally unstable. They argued that the grief over her husband’s death had driven her to believe the family should die together.
Her lawyers insisted she was “not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, ” but prosecutors disagreed.
They argued that Lee acted deliberately—pointing to her efforts to hide the bodies, change her name, and start a new life in South Korea.
“This was a selfish act to free herself from the burden of parenting alone,” the prosecution said.
After two weeks of testimony, the jury took just three hours to find Hakyung Lee guilty of murder.
Lee sat silently in court, her head bowed, as the verdict was read. She is scheduled to be sentenced in November 2025 and faces life in prison.
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