Overview

• An Auckland High Court jury returned a guilty verdict on Tuesday after a weeks-long trial centered on criminal responsibility versus insanity.
• Lee had admitted giving her children medication in 2018 and later hiding their bodies in suitcases placed in a Papatoetoe storage unit.
• The children, aged eight and six, were discovered in 2022 when a storage unit’s contents were sold at auction, triggering an international investigation.
• Prosecutors argued her actions after the deaths, including wrapping the bodies, sealing and storing the suitcases, changing her name, and flying to South Korea, showed planning and awareness of wrongdoing.
• Forensic psychiatrist Dr Erik Monasterio testified there was no evidence of psychosis or a disease of the mind, and under New Zealand law the burden to prove insanity rested with Lee.