A 42-year-old woman suspected of murdering two children whose remains were found in suitcases in New Zealand has been arrested in South Korea, South Korean police said on Thursday.
The woman, who is believed to be the mother of the two dead children, has been arrested on a murder charge in South Korea at the request of New Zealand, police in both countries said. She will be the subject of extradition proceedings, they added.
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“Police arrested the suspect at an apartment in Ulsan on Thursday after monitoring her whereabouts and CCTV footage,” the Seoul National Police Agency said in a statement. “The suspect is accused by New Zealand Police of murdering two of her children, aged seven and 10 in the Auckland area around 2018,” the statement said, adding, “She arrived in South Korea after the crime and since then I’ve been hiding there.”
Yonhap News Agency said she is a New Zealand citizen who was born in South Korea. The macabre discovery came last month. The suitcases were part of a trailer loaded with items bought by an unsuspecting family at an abandoned property auction in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. According to an Auckland Police officer, Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa’amanuia Vaaelua, there are still a number of inquiries to be made both in New Zealand and abroad in this “very difficult investigation”.