Episode 40:
Korean Mother Who Killed 2 Children and Hid Them in Storage for 4 Year

In August 2022, a couple in Auckland, New Zealand won an online auction for the contents of an abandoned storage unit. They expected old furniture, bags, and maybe a few valuable items they could resell.

But when they opened two tightly wrapped suitcases, they discovered something horrifying. Inside were the severely decomposed bodies of two children.

The Children In The Suitcases

Police traced the storage unit to a 42-year-old Korean woman named Hakyung Lee. Investigators soon suspected the bodies were her two children, Minwoo and Yoonah.

The bodies were so decomposed that the autopsy could not immediately determine exactly when or how they had died. But toxicology testing revealed a key clue.

Nortriptyline, a strong antidepressant that can be dangerous in overdose, was detected. The question became simple and terrifying: who had given that medication to the children?

The Digital Footprint

Because the victims were children, investigators could not track their final movements through phone records or bank accounts. Then police noticed a PlayStation among the items from the storage unit.

The console still held login and play records. Those records showed the children's last activity had occurred on June 27, 2018.

Police then checked Hakyung's movements from that same day. Her supermarket records showed she had purchased duct tape and black garbage bags.

The tape and bags matched the materials used to wrap the children's bodies. Soon after, she changed her name, obtained a new driver's license, rented the storage unit, and left New Zealand for Korea.

A Mother Who Disappeared

Hakyung had once lived what appeared to be an ordinary life in New Zealand. She had married Ian Cho, an airport supervisor, and raised two children with him.

But after her son's medical condition, her husband's cancer diagnosis, and his death in 2017, her mental health deteriorated severely. She reportedly told others she could not live without her husband.

In 2022, Korean police arrested her in Ulsan after New Zealand requested international cooperation. She was later extradited back to New Zealand.

DNA testing confirmed the bodies were Minwoo and Yoonah. After initially denying the accusations, Hakyung admitted she had dissolved her depression medication in fruit juice and given it to the children.

Suspicious

At trial, the defense argued that Hakyung had been suffering from severe depression and could not properly judge right from wrong at the time of the killings.

The prosecution argued the opposite. They pointed to her name change, new driver's license, rented storage unit, and flight to Korea as evidence that she understood what she had done and tried to conceal it.

The jury ultimately found her guilty of murdering her children.

Final Thoughts

Hakyung Lee was sentenced to at least 17 years in prison without parole, with the court ordering her to begin her sentence in a high-security psychiatric hospital.

Her life had been marked by immigration hardship, family loss, her son's illness, her husband's cancer, and severe depression. But none of that gave her the right to decide her children's lives for them.

The most painful part of this case is that Minwoo and Yoonah were not treated as children who needed protection. They became part of their mother's attempt to escape her own pain.