A mother accused of murdering her two children and hiding their bodies in suitcases for four years has been found guilty.
The remains of Hakyung “Jasmine” Lee’s two children, Yuna, aged 8, and Minu, aged 6, were found at an Auckland storage locker in August 2022 after the contents were purchased in an online auction.
Police witnesses told her trial that they believed the children were killed in July 2018 after Lee gave them an overdose of prescription medicine.
The 45-year-old, who represented herself in court, watched the trial from a separate courtroom at the High Court in Auckland. She was assisted by an interpreter and two counsels.
She admitted to the killing but entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Lawyer Lorraine Smith argued she was insane at the time, which was seven months after her husband Ian Jo died of cancer.
She said losing her husband had caused a “deep descent” into mental illness and that she believed killing Yuna and Minu was the “morally right” thing to do at the time.
The Crown’s position was that Lee understood what she was doing and knew it was wrong, and Prosecutor Natalie Walker described Lee’s actions following the deaths—hiding the bodies, changing her name, and moving to Korea—as calculated.
Onus on Accused to Prove They Were Insane
Under New Zealand law, a person is presumed to be sane until proven otherwise. Walker said the defence had failed to do so.“It was a selfish act to free herself from the burden of parenting alone,” Walker said. “It was not the altruistic act of a mother who had lost her mind and believed it was the morally right thing to do; it was the opposite.”
Forensic accountant Andrew Yoon earlier gave evidence that Lee’s total credit card spending went up by 1,397 percent—from about $800 (US$467) a month in the approximately 10 months beforehand, to $11,992 a month in the eight months after, excluding funeral costs.
“From the credit cards, they have purchased a lot of international flights and five-star hotels overseas, and lots of expenses and shopping overseas,” Yonn said.
That included taking the children and her mother to the Gold Coast in Australia. In total, Yoon calculated that after Jo’s passing, Lee spent $33,593—more than $4,000 a month—on holidays and travel alone.
She also made payments totalling $16,330 to Safe Store, where the children’s bodies were kept, between July 2018 and April 2022, moving money between different bank accounts to make sure the storage payments were up-to-date when the balance of her primary account got low.
When she left New Zealand after the deaths of the children, she transferred $152,900 (US$89,417) to her Korean bank account, Yoon said.
Lee’s mother, Choon Ja Lee, told the court her daughter had a happy family. Choon Ja Lee, her husband, and Hakyung Lee had moved to New Zealand in 1993. Her daughter met her husband at church.
Grandmother Offered to Care for the Children
After Jo’s cancer diagnosis, Choon Ja Lee recalled her daughter saying that if her husband died, she would too.
“For the first few times, I thought it was just a passing phase,” she said.
“But after hearing it a couple of times again, I was a bit nervous just in case.
“I comforted her a lot, saying, ‘Don’t have such weak thoughts.’”
After the Gold Coast trip, she recalled her daughter saying that she wanted to spend all her money and “die with her children,” but didn’t think she was serious.
“I told her if you really want to follow your husband, you go by yourself, and I'll look after the kids,” she said.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Yvette Kelly was the only witness called by the defence.
“Due to her depression, [Lee] wanted to [commit] suicide and believed her children would suffer a fate worse than death if they had to live without both their parents, or if they discovered her dead body.”
Kelly added Lee’s “delusional beliefs” left her unable to ask for help or to believe she could be helped.
“She subsequently felt the morally right thing to do was to kill the children before she suicided … believing the children would be reunited with their father in death,” Kelly said.
“I’m providing an opinion that Ms Lee meets criteria to be found not criminally responsible on account of insanity.”
Before sending the jury of six men and six women to consider their verdict, Justice Geoffrey Venning told them it was up to the Crown to prove that Lee was guilty beyond reasonable doubt for the murders. If they did, then the onus was on Lee to show on the balance of probability (it was more likely than not) that she was insane at the time.“The balance of probability is a lower standard than beyond reasonable doubt,” Venning explained.
After just over two weeks of trial, the jury deliberated for around three hours before returning a guilty verdict on both counts of murder.
Lee stood with her head down and gave no reaction as the verdict was delivered.
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