A South Korean woman Hakyung Lee is on trial for the murder of her two children, whose remains were discovered in suitcases years after their deaths.
She was has admitted to administering an antidepressant that contributed to their deaths, court records revealed on Friday.
Lee is facing murder charges for the deaths of her children, Minu Jo, 6, and Yuna Jo, 8. Prosecutors allege the children were killed sometime in June or July of 2018, roughly a year after the death of Lee’s husband. Following the children’s deaths, Lee reportedly returned to South Korea, where she remained until her extradition to New Zealand in November 2022.
During the trial, state prosecutor Natalie Walker told jurors that Lee “accepted that she gave her children nortriptyline, which led to their deaths.” Nortriptyline is a commonly prescribed antidepressant. However, the exact cause of death remains unclear due to the condition of the bodies at the time of discovery.
The children’s remains were found more than four years later by an Auckland family who had purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit. Each
child had been concealed in a separate peach-coloured suitcase and wrapped in plastic.Pathologist Simon Stables, who testified in court, noted the difficulty in pinpointing the drug as the sole cause of death. “One could argue that it is the cause of death, or you could say that it’s in combination with something else,” Stables said. “It could also have subdued the child,” he added, citing the advanced decomposition that complicated the autopsy findings.
Lee, who is representing herself in court with the support of standby counsel, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Her defence lawyer, Lorraine Smith, told the court that Lee’s mental health had severely deteriorated following the loss of her husband in 2017. “At one point, Lee thought it would be best if the whole family died and they all took antidepressants,” Smith said, according to trial footage aired by Australian broadcaster ABC. “But she got the dose wrong, and when she woke up, the children were dead,” Smith added.
The trial continues as the court hears further evidence surrounding the tragic deaths and the mental state of the accused at the time of the incident.
