Mother chastised murder-accused Hakyung Lee over wish to die

Warning: This story includes references to suicide.

The mother of a woman accused of murdering her children and hiding their bodies in suitcases has told jurors her daughter's family looked as if it had no problems.

Hakyung Lee is on trial in the High Court at Auckland, facing charges of murdering her children Minu and Yuna Jo.

Justice Geoffrey Venning is presiding over the trial, which is expected to last four weeks.

The bodies of Minu Jo and Yuna Jo, aged six and eight at the time of their deaths in 2018, were discovered in suitcases almost four years after they were killed, after a family bought the contents of an abandoned storage locker in an online auction.

Lee, who is representing herself in the trial assisted by two standby counsel, admits causing her children's deaths and putting their remains in suitcases in storage, but argues she's not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the killings, following a "descent into madness" after the death of her husband Ian Jo in late 2017.

On Wednesday morning, Lee's mother, Choon Ja Lee, told the court her daughter had a happy family.

Appearing from another room at the High Court in Auckland and assisted by an interpreter, she spoke about her family, how they came to New Zealand in 1993, how Lee's father died five years later, and how Lee had been sitting tests to get into university in Korea at the time of her father's death.

She said she went to South Korea after her husband's funeral, where Lee was studying English.

Lee came back to New Zealand after her second year, Choon Ja Lee said.

She recalled when her daughter met her future husband, Ian Jo, at church. She said the two first lived in an apartment, before moving into a house in West Auckland.

Choon Ja Lee moved to Hamilton, and contact between her and her daughter diminished.

She went back up to Auckland after the birth of Yuna Jo, and helped look after the child for about two weeks, and again a few years later after the birth of Minu Jo.

The family moved into a new house in Papatoetoe after the children were born, Choon Ja Lee said.

"It was a happy family, as far as I've seen and I've heard," she said.

"My son-in-law was a good person, and my daughter has also relied a lot on my son-in-law and loved their kids, and it looked like a family without any problems."

References to death possibly 'a passing phase'

She described her daughter in tears over the phone when she told Choon Ja Lee about her husband's cancer diagnosis.

Choon Ja Lee recalled her daughter saying to her 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."

Choon Ja Lee told her daughter it wasn't the time to think like that.

"I comforted her a lot, saying 'don't have such weak thoughts'," she said.

Choon Ja Lee said she visited her daughter multiple times in the year Jo was diagnosed.

She said Minu Jo did not understand how sick their father was, but Yuna knew "to an extent".

While Jo was in hospice, Choon Ja Lee would look after the children. After he died, Hakyung Lee told her mother she did not want her children to know what happened, and asked her to stay home and look after them on the day of Jo's funeral.

Choon Ja Lee said she tried not to cry in front of her grandchildren, and she visited Jo's grave with them and her daughter.

Shortly after that visit, the family booked a trip to the Gold Coast in Australia, and flew there the next day.

Choon Ja Lee told jurors her daughter spent a lot of money on the trip.

Back in New Zealand, she recalled her daughter saying that she wanted to spend all her money and "die with her children", but thought she said it without intending to.

She was asked by Crown prosecutor Natalie Walker if she remembered telling her daughter to die alone and not to take the children with her.

"I told her if you really want to follow your husband, you go by yourself and I'll look after the kids," Choon Ja Lee said.

"She told me 'you don't even speak English, how can I let you look after the kids,' and then we laughed, we laughed it off."

'Good chemistry'

Choon Ja Lee was questioned by her daughter's standby counsel, Lorraine Smith.

She was asked about the early days of Ian Jo and Hakyung Lee's relationship, how they met at the church, and how Lee had been a Sunday school teacher.

Her mother said Lee had been very happy at church.

"The relationship was very good between them," she said.

Smith asked Choon Ja Lee if she would describe the marriage as perfect.

"I like my daughter too, but I really liked my son-in-law, everyone said that the two had really good chemistry."

She said Lee loved her children, and took an interest in their schooling, something jurors also heard from their former teacher Mary Robertson.

This changed, she said, after Ian Jo became sick.

"After the situation, my daughter struggled to take care of the kids and take care of her husband, she was struggling so once in a while she would call me for help," Choon Ja said.

She said, after Jo's diagnosis, her daughter would call and talk for a while. Lee would cry thoughout the calls, and Choon Ja Lee would try to comfort her.

Lee never used to cry like she did after her husband died, Choon Ja said.

She was shocked by her daughter saying she wanted to die if her husband did, and said she would pray for her.

Choon Ja Lee said Lee would skip meals and became very skinny after her husband's diagnosis.

She spoke about the change in her daughter's mental state after Jo fell ill.

"She used to smile a lot and she was very positive, but afterwards her face [was] full of woe, and her fatigue grew."

She became more irritable after her husband's death, and would yell at her and, on an occasion, the children.

"It felt like a different person, I felt that she was different from the daughter that I knew," Choon Ja Lee said.

Her behaviour changed so much, the children could feel the difference, with Yuna once saying to her Lee was acting "weird."

Choon Ja Lee spoke about growing more concerned for her daughter's wellbeing after she made comments about wanting to die. It reached the point where she threw away gardening chemicals from the shed at their Auckland home, out of fear her daughter would harm herself.

"There were a lot of chemicals for the garden in there, so I threw away all I could grab, just in case," she said.

Pastor suspects scam over phone call

Earlier, the court heard from Choon Ja Lee's pastor, who said she asked him to pray for Ian Jo while he was ill.

After Jo's death, the pastor said Choon Ja Lee told him her daughter had asked her to leave her house, and that she had lost contact with her daughter.

Some time later, he was called by a doctor in South Korea, who said someone at his hospital was claiming to be Choon Ja Lee's daughter. The doctor said she was trying to get in contact with her mother.

The pastor was originally sceptical, thinking the call could be a scam, but later came to confirm the call and information were genuine.

He said he was surprised by the call, and was able to speak to Lee over the phone directly.

He asked after Lee's children. Lee's mother had told him about comments her daughter made while Ian Jo was ill, saying she would kill herself and her children.

Lee told the pastor she had no children, which he considered serious.

He later called Lee's mother to confirm the call he received wasn't a scam.

"She was joyous that she had found her daughter and she wished to go to Korea," he said.

The pastor said Choon Ja Lee was hopeful her grandchildren would be with Lee's in-laws.

Choon Ja Lee says she lost contact with daughter

Choon Ja Lee told jurors, she lost contact with her daughter shortly before she took the children on a trip to Korea. She would get updates from Ian Jo's brother Jimmy Sei Wook Jo, who gave evidence at the trial on Tuesday.

He told Choon Ja Lee he thought the family had moved, after he visited the family home and found they weren't there, which worried Choon Ja Lee.

She tried to find her daughter, going to the Korean Consulate and Police, before later hearing Lee had left the country.

"I hadn't heard anything, and it was nerve-wracking at the time."

It wasn't until 13 June 2022 when she was called by her former pastor to tell her he had been contacted by a doctor in South Korea, saying he had someone in hospital claiming to be her daughter.

Choon Ja Lee spoke to her daughter on the phone, asking what happened to her children.

"She has replied 'Mum I don't have kids," Choon Ja Lee said.

"I heard that she was at a mental hospital, the psychiatric ward, so I thought 'oh she must be really unwell'".

Choon Ja Lee's church raised money for her to travel to Korea and see her daughter. When she did, the doctor urged her not ask Lee questions that may provoke her.

She stayed in South Korea with her daughter once she was released from hospital, in a hotel, and Lee asked her mother to buy things like contact lenses, clothes and a phones for her.

When Choon Ja Lee left Korea, she had hoped Lee would get better, she said.

"I saw a small hope."

About two days after she got back to New Zealand, Choon Ja Lee was at the GP when we was picked up by police and learned of the discovery of her grandchildren's remains.

Where to get help:

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• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463
• Aoake te Rā bereaved by suicide service: or call 0800 000 053

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