The trial of a woman accused of killing her two children and concealing their remains in suitcases has opened in New Zealand, bringing to court a story that has unsettled the country with its grim details and unanswered questions.
The defendant, 44-year-old Hakyung Lee, faces two counts of murder. She has pleaded not guilty. Lee, a New Zealand citizen born in South Korea, was extradited from South Korea in late 2022 after a global Interpol notice led to her arrest in the port city of Ulsan.
The case first came to light in August 2022, when an Auckland family unwittingly purchased the contents of an abandoned storage unit at an online auction. Among the goods were two suitcases. Inside, they made the horrific discovery: the remains of two children. Police quickly ruled the buyers out of any involvement, describing them instead as innocent participants in a tragic chain of events.
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Authorities believe the bodies had been stored for years. Reports suggest the children were between six and ten years old at the time of their deaths. Their identities, however, remain suppressed at the request of relatives, leaving the public to confront the case without the usual names and faces that make victims visible.
Lee’s personal story has drawn attention as well. She was living in Auckland in 2017 when her husband, the children’s father, died of cancer. Not long after, investigators believe, the children themselves died under circumstances that remain unclear. In 2018, Lee left New Zealand for South Korea, where she remained until her arrest four years later.
The case has raised difficult questions about isolation, secrecy, and the unseen corners of family life. Prosecutors are expected to lay out a timeline that connects the father’s death, the children’s disappearance, and Lee’s sudden departure from the country. The defense, meanwhile, has offered no public hint of its strategy.
For now, the courtroom stands as the only place where the fragments of this story may be pieced together. Outside it, the case lingers in the public imagination—a stark reminder that even in ordinary neighborhoods, unimaginable tragedies can remain hidden for years behind locked doors and abandoned storage units.