New Zealand
The court sent the mother to a long prison because of the children’s bodies in the suitcase
The discovery of two children’s bodies in a suitcase shocked many people outside New Zealand. After the mother was found guilty, the sentence has now been determined.
After the shocking discovery of the children’s bodies in a suitcase in New Zealand, the mother was sentenced to life in prison. Judge Geoffrey Venning imposed a minimum prison sentence of 17 years without the possibility of early release. Jurors found the 45-year-old woman guilty at the High Court in Auckland in September of killing her two children, aged eight and six, and then hiding their bodies in a suitcase.
The case made headlines around the world in 2022: A husband and wife bought the two suitcases at an auction south of Auckland on New Zealand’s North Island – and found the remains of a girl and her younger brother inside. Both had been dead for about four years at this point. The suitcases had been kept in storage the entire time.
Mother has left New Zealand
The mother, who is from South Korea, admitted in court that she drugged and killed her children after her husband’s death and then flew home. Several weeks after his discovery, he was arrested in South Korea and later extradited to the Pacific nation.
After the guilty verdict in September, the judge ordered further psychiatric reports prepared before the sentence was announced. When reading the sentence, Venning explained that the defendant’s mental health was a central factor in this case. That’s why he had to start his sentence as a “special patient” in a psychiatric facility.
The mother was overwhelmed by being alone with her two children
Venning stressed that she killed her children because she could no longer bear the “responsibility and burden of care” after her husband died of cancer in 2017 and described the case as “tragic”. The woman could not bear the constant reminder of her former happy life, which had been cruelly taken from her.
“However, the jury found in their verdict that you intended to kill your children and also that – although you were suffering from a depressive illness at the time – you knew your actions were morally wrong,” Venning added.
