SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A woman was arrested on Thursday in South Korea on two counts of murder from New Zealand, where the bodies of two long-dead children were found in abandoned suitcases last month, authorities said.
Authorities did not immediately say whether the 42-year-old suspect was the mother of the dead children. The New Zealand police had previously informed their South Korean counterparts that the mother may be living in South Korea.
South Korean police arrested the woman in the South Korean port city of Ulsan based on a South Korean court order issued after New Zealand requested her provisional arrest as part of an extradition process, according to South Korea’s National Police Agency and Ministry of Justice.
The unidentified woman covered her face with the hood of her coat as officers escorted her from an Ulsan police station and put her into a car bound for the capital, Seoul, where she was scheduled to be questioned by prosecutors.
The New Zealand authorities must submit the formal extradition request to the South Korean Ministry of Justice within 45 days. The ministry will then decide whether to conduct an extradition review at the Seoul High Court to decide whether to send her to New Zealand.
New Zealand police said the South Korean arrest warrant was related to two murder allegations and they have asked South Korean authorities to keep the woman in jail pending extradition.
“The fact that someone was taken into custody overseas in such a short period of time was all due to the support of the Korean authorities and the coordination of our New Zealand Police Interpol staff,” Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa’amanuia Vaaelua said in a statement.
He said the inquiry had been “very challenging” and investigations were continuing both in New Zealand and abroad.
Vaaelua said police would not comment further as the matter is now before the court. Authorities in New Zealand generally remain silent on pending court cases to avoid the possibility of influencing the outcome.
The children’s bodies were discovered last month after a New Zealand family bought abandoned goods, including two suitcases, from an Auckland storage unit in an online auction. Police said the New Zealand family had nothing to do with the deaths.
The children were between 5 and 10 years old, had been dead for several years, and the suitcases had been in storage for at least three or four years, according to police.
South Korean police say the woman was born in South Korea and later moved to New Zealand, where she obtained citizenship. According to immigration records, she returned to South Korea in 2018.
South Korean police say it was suspected she could be the mother of the two victims as their previous address in New Zealand was registered in the storage unit where the suitcases were kept for years.
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Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand.