A New Zealand woman has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her two young children, whose bodies were found in suitcases after being stored for four years.

Hakyung Lee, aged 43, appeared in the High Court in Auckland on Wednesday, following her conviction in September for the murder of her children.

This sentencing marks more than seven years since the tragic deaths of the children and almost three years since their remains were uncovered.

In June 2018, Lee administered a lethal dose of prescription medication to her eight-year-old daughter, Yuna Jo, and six-year-old son, Minu Jo.

She subsequently placed their bodies in two suitcases and left them in a storage unit in Auckland, abandoning them there.

The children’s remains were found inside the luggage in August 2022.

Lee, who is a New Zealand citizen, travelled to South Korea and changed her name in 2018, shortly after the children are believed to have been killed.

Justice Geoffrey Venning sentenced Lee to life imprisonment on Wednesday, which will begin as a special patient under the Mental Health Act. 

Lee, who kept her head down during the hearing, her long hair covering her face, must serve a minimum of 17 years in jail before she is eligible for parole.

Justice Venning said that while Lee suffered from severe depression, the murders were ‘deliberate and calculated’, and she understood the moral wrongfulness of her actions.

He rejected Lee’s claim that she acted impulsively, and said her organised actions, including changing her name, buying a suitcase, tidying up affairs and sitting a driver’s test, were clear evidence of planning.

Lee’s mother and brother-in-law gave victim impact statements during the sentencing hearing, New Zealand website Stuff reports.

Grieving grandmother Choon Ja Lee said she had been labelled the ‘mother of a murderer’ by members of her church.

She added that she ‘deeply regretted’ not taking her daughter to a counsellor after returning from a trip to Australia in 2017.

‘If I had taken her at that time this tragedy might have been prevented,’ Choon Ja Lee said.

‘It felt like a pain that cut through my bones or as if someone was gouging out my chest. I wanted to be free from suffering but had no one to lean on.’ 

In a separate statement, Sei Wook – Jimmy-Cho, described his sister-in-law’s cruel deception and how it had devastated his family.

‘We genuinely believed she was moving to start a fresh life away from New Zealand. Instead of a reassuring call… the truth shattered our family,’ he said.

‘I carry a heavy agonising guilt…I feel like I failed to look after my niece and nephew.’

The bodies of Yuna and Minu were discovered after Lee stopped paying rental fees for the Auckland storage unit when she ran into financial difficulties in 2022.

The locker’s contents were auctioned online and, when the buyers took the suitcases home, they found the bodies inside.

The court heard both children were fully clothed and individually wrapped in multiple layers of plastic bags.

Evidence showed Lee changed her name, moved belongings into storage, including the suitcases, and fled to South Korea in 2018.

Cutting contact with friends and family, Lee was later found by her mother at a hospital after being admitted for mental health treatment in 2022.

She was arrested in September 2022 in South Korea and extradited to New Zealand following a formal request that she return to the country to face court.

During the subsequent trial, Lee’s defence team argued the mother-of-two was afraid she would take her own life and her children would find her inside their home.

The trial hinged not on whether Lee had murdered her children – which she had confessed to – but whether she knew her actions were morally wrong. 

Her lawyers had argued she was not guilty by reason of insanity and that the death of her husband in 2017 sent her into a depressive spiral. 

Lee’s husband, Ian Jo, died more than six months before Lee murdered their two children, following his cancer diagnosis in 2017.

After her husband’s diagnosis and throughout his treatment, Lee told several people she would kill herself and her children if he died. 

Lee’s mother said her daughter stopped eating after his death and had ‘no will to live’.

‘I told her, “if you really want to follow your husband, go by yourself and I’ll take the kids”,’ Choon Ja Lee told the court. 

‘If she wanted to die, why didn’t she die alone?.. Why did she take the innocent children with her?’

The defence argued Lee’s mental health was fragile, which pushed her to ‘descend into madness’ and kill her children. 

A forensic psychiatrist testified for the defence about Lee’s mental state – describing depression, suicidal thoughts, guilt, and a belief that killing her children was the right thing to do. 

However, Crown Prosecutor Natalie Walker told the court the steps Lee took after killing her children were consistent with wanting a new life on her own.

She said ‘the thought of a life parenting her children alone’ may have been too much for Lee.

Lee confessed that in April 2018 she dosed her children with nortriptyline by mixing it into their juice. 

‘Lee said she gave the children the medication,’ Ms Walker said, referencing testimony by defence witness Yvette Kelly.

‘The children drank the juice and then they became drowsy from the medication and they toddled off to their own beds … and went to sleep there and then.’

Her GP had prescribed the medication the year earlier when Lee reported problems with her sleep. 

‘The Crown suggests that when she gave her two young children nortriptyline, it was a selfish act to free herself from the burden of parenting alone,’ Ms Walker said.

‘It was not the altruistic act of a mother who had lost her mind and believed it was the right thing to do; it was the opposite.’ 

Following a more than two-week trial and about three hours of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous verdict, and Lee was found guilty on both counts of murder. 

On Wednesday, Ms Walker argued for a sentence of life imprisonment after saying there was no evidence of Lee’s suicidal thoughts and attempts apart from her own reports.

‘Her most likely diagnosis was that she suffered from a major depressive disorder or grief disorder,’ she said.

Lawyers Lorraine Smith and Chris Wilkinson-Smith, who assisted Lee as she represented herself, claimed she lives in a world of shame in prison, which they claimed increased her suicide risk.

Mr Wilkinson-Smith argued against life imprisonment, requesting Lee be sentenced to some time in a secure facility initially to support her mental health.

‘Now she is a convicted murderer the risk of suicide increases,’ he said.

Justice Venning ruled in favour of the prosecution and rejected that Lee tried to kill herself.

‘Your actions were organised and considered over a number of days,’ he said.

From a starting point of 22 years, Justice Venning reduced the term by five years to account for her isolation and difficulties in prison.