NZ Woman Sentenced to Life for Killing Daughters

A New Zealand woman convicted of murdering her two young daughters and concealing their bodies in suitcases for over three years was sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday, with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years. Hakyung Lee, 45, a New Zealand citizen born in South Korea, killed eight-year-old Yuna Jo and six-year-old Minu Jo in Auckland in 2018, shortly after the death of her husband from esophageal cancer the previous year.

Justice Geoffrey Venning delivered the sentence at the High Court in Auckland, ruling that Lee would begin serving it in a locked psychiatric facility under the country's compulsory mental health treatment laws before transferring to prison once deemed mentally fit. The judge noted Lee's severe depression at the time but emphasized that her actions were deliberate and calculated. "You relied heavily on him during your marriage, you could not cope when he became seriously unwell, and perhaps you could not bear to have the children around you as a constant reminder of your former happy life, which had been cruelly taken from you," Venning told Lee, according to court proceedings.

Evidence presented at trial showed Lee administered a fatal dose of...