SEOUL: Police in South Korea apprehended a woman on Thursday on suspicion of murdering two kids who were believed to be hers and whose remains were found in bags in New Zealand last month.
Strangers who bought the suitcases from an Auckland storage facility made the shocking discovery of the deaths, which stunned the entire nation.
The bodies had been kept in storage for many years. According to Korean police, the victims were between the ages of 7 and 10.
Suspect’s extradition
New Zealand has made a request for the woman’s extradition from South Korea. After claiming earlier this month that they thought the woman in her 40s was in South Korea, police claimed they had been actively searching for her together with South Korean officials for the past three weeks.
They managed to identify the small children, whose names had not been released, and then they focused on her.
Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa’amanuia Vaaelua said, “To have someone in prison overseas in such a short length of time has all been due to the help of the Korean authorities and the coordination by our NZ Police Interpol staff.”
The woman, who is of Korean origin, was discovered Thursday morning by undercover officers in residence in Ulsan. She was the subject of an international Interpol arrest warrant.
As she was being brought from a police station in the city of Ulsan in the southeast, she told reporters, “I did not do it.”
According to the Ministry of Justice, New Zealand must formally request the suspect’s extradition within 45 days for a South Korean court to decide whether or not to send her back.
The suspect is reportedly thought to be linked to the kids, according to the local media. They said that the children’s father had passed away before their deaths and that the family had spent a few years residing in Auckland.
In early August, the family that discovered the victims visited the storage facility and bought a trailer’s worth of belongings, which included the luggage, according to the police.
Officers stated that this family had gone through considerable distress after the finding despite having no link to the deaths.
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