South Korean police said Thursday they had arrested a woman accused of murdering her two children, whose remains were found in suitcases in New Zealand last month.
The 42-year-old – reportedly a South Korean-born New Zealand national – was arrested in the southeastern city of Ulsan, police said, and was taken to the capital Seoul to face an extradition process.
“Police arrested the suspect at an apartment in Ulsan on Thursday after providing clues as to her whereabouts and surveillance camera footage,” South Korea’s National Police Agency said in a statement.
“The suspect is accused by New Zealand police of murdering her two children – then aged seven and 10 – in the Auckland area around 2018.”
“It was determined that she arrived in South Korea after the crime and has been in hiding ever since,” she added.
Images in local media showed the woman, who was not identified by police in South Korea or New Zealand, being led out of a police station in Ulsan by plainclothes investigators, covering her head with a large brown coat.
The woman, who was wearing ripped jeans and sandals, was asked by local media if she would confess to the killings.
“I didn’t do it,” the woman said repeatedly as she was taken away and placed in a police vehicle.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said the woman is a South Korean-born New Zealand citizen.
She added that since this year she has been living in an acquaintance’s apartment in Ulsan, having previously stayed in Seoul.
The suspect arrived at the Seoul Central District Attorney’s Office on Thursday afternoon, AFP reporters saw, and was driven into the building’s underground parking lot in a police vehicle with tinted windows and flashing red and blue lights.
– Gruesome Discovery –
The remains of the two children were discovered in August after an unsuspecting family bought a trailerload of items – including the suitcases – at an abandoned goods auction near Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.
New Zealand police said the bodies were likely stored for several years, complicating investigations.
Authorities have repeatedly stressed that the family who found the bodies had nothing to do with the killings and were given support in dealing with the trauma.
Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa’amanuia Vaaelua in Auckland on Thursday said the case was “a very challenging investigation”.
“The fact that someone was taken into custody overseas in such a short time was thanks to the support of the Korean authorities and the coordination of our New Zealand police-Interpol agents,” the detective said.
