Korean city of SEOUL Two months after being detained after the bodies of two long-dead children were found in abandoned suitcases, South Korea extradited a 42-year-old woman to New Zealand.The woman, according to New Zealand police, arrived at Auckland Airport on Tuesday after three officers were dispatched to South Korea to bring her back.
Suspect in the New Zealand suitcase murders is extradited from South Korea.
She will reportedly spend the night in jail and make her court appearance on Wednesday in Manukau District Court, where she will be charged with two murders.After the children’s bodies were found in August when an Auckland family purchased abandoned items, including two suitcases, from a storage unit in an online auction, the case horrified many people in New Zealand.
Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa’amanuia Vaaelua said in a statement, “The investigation team would like to acknowledge the assistance from agencies both in New Zealand and South Korea, which has meant we have been able to put an alleged offender before the court.”The unnamed woman, according to South Korea’s Justice Ministry, was turned over to New Zealand authorities on Monday night at the Incheon international airport outside of Seoul.
Suspect in the New Zealand suitcase murders is extradited from South Korea.
The ministry claimed that it also gave New Zealand unnamed “important evidence” relevant to the case.It said in a statement that it hoped with the extradition, “the truth of the case, which has attracted worldwide attention, will be revealed through the fair and strict judicial process of New Zealand.”This month, the woman’s extradition was ordered by South Korean Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon.
She gave written consent to being returned to New Zealand, and the Seoul High Court earlier authorised her extradition.On the basis of a domestic court warrant issued after New Zealand requested her provisional arrest, South Korean police detained the woman in September at a port city in the country’s south. The South Korean ministry received a formal request for her extradition from New Zealand’s Justice Ministry.
Suspect in the New Zealand suitcase murders is extradited from South Korea.
The suspect was wanted by South Korean authorities, according to New Zealand police, on two murder charges.According to New Zealand police, the suitcases had been in storage in Auckland for at least three or four years and the children, who were between the ages of 5 and 10, had been dead for years.The woman, according to South Korean police, was born there before relocating to New Zealand, where she obtained citizenship. According to immigration records, she went back to South Korea in 2018.
She may be the mother of the two victims, according to South Korean police, as the storage facility where the victims’ suitcases were kept was registered to her previous address in New Zealand. A temporary injunction prohibiting the two victims’ names from being made public has been issued by a New Zealand coroner.