A 42-year-old woman was arrested after two children’s bodies were found in suitcases in New Zealand
(Picture: YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images)A woman has been arrested in South Korea after two bodies of long-deceased children were discovered last month in abandoned suitcases in New Zealand.
New Zealand police had previously told their South Korean counterparts that the children’s mother may be living in the country. Authorities did not reveal the identity of the 42-year-old suspect.
The children’s bodies were found last month after an unconnected New Zealand family bought abandoned goods from the storage unit in Auckland in an online auction.
The children were between 5 and 10 years old, had been dead for a number of years, and the suitcases had been in storage for at least three or four years, police said.
South Korean police said they detained the woman in the southeastern port city of Ulsan, based on a South Korean court warrant issued after New Zealand requested her extradition.
She will undergo a review at the Seoul High Court over whether she should be extradited, said Park Seung-hoon, an official at the National Police Agency.
A date has not yet been set but the review must take place within two months.
New Zealand police said the warrant was in connection with two charges of murder, and they have asked South Korean authorities to keep the woman in jail until she is extradited.
“To have someone in custody overseas within such a short period of time has all been down to the assistance of the Korean authorities and the coordination by our New Zealand Police Interpol staff," Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa'amanuia Vaaelua said in a statement.
He said the investigation had been “very challenging" and that inquiries were continuing both in New Zealand and abroad.
Mr Vaaelua said police weren't going to comment further as the matter was now before the courts.
South Korean police said the woman was born in South Korea and later moved to New Zealand, where she gained citizenship. She returned to South Korea in 2018, according to immigration records.
