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Trial begins for New Zealand woman accused of murdering her two children
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on September 8, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on September 8, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
A New Zealand woman is on trial for allegedly murdering her children, found in suitcases. She pleads not guilty in Auckland's High Court.
SYDNEY (Reuters) -A Korean-born New Zealand woman went on trial on Monday in Auckland charged with murdering her two children, whose bodies were discovered in suitcases in an abandoned storage locker after an online auction.
Hakyung-Lee, 44, has pleaded not guilty.
She allegedly killed her children, aged eight and six, in 2018, New Zealand media reported. Their father died of cancer in 2017, reports said, citing court filings.
Lee relocated to South Korea in 2018 and was extradited to New Zealand in November 2022.
New Zealand media reported that she sat with her head lowered for the jury selection in the High Court and did not look at those called to sit in the jury box.
She will be representing herself in court, assisted by two lawyers, reports said.
New Zealand police launched a homicide inquiry after the remains of the children were found in 2022 by a family going through the contents of a storage locker they had purchased. The family who found the bodies was not connected to the deaths.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
A homicide inquiry is an investigation conducted by law enforcement to determine the circumstances surrounding a death that is suspected to be caused by unlawful actions.
Extradition is the legal process by which one country surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another country, typically where the crime was committed.
A not guilty plea is a formal statement made by a defendant in a criminal case, indicating that they deny the charges against them and will contest the case in court.
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