As Hakyung “Jasmine” Lee’s husband was dying in hospice care, the former Sunday school teacher revealed to a palliative care counsellor that she was having a “crisis of faith” and suicidal ideation.
Seven months later, the widow would end up killing her two young children: Yuna Jo, 8, and Minu Jo, 6.
“Jasmine spoke about her anger with God, how her prayers for a happy family had not been answered, and now she did not know where God was in her life,” registered nurse and counsellor Susan Rishworth said in a written statement read aloud to jurors in the High Court at Auckland today as the first week of Lee’s double-murder trial came to a close.
" ... She described herself as a negative person, whereas Ian [Jo, her husband] was the positive one. She wonders what she has done for God to treat her like this.”
Rishworth recalled meeting with Lee four times in November 2017, during the last week of her husband’s life.
Lee was referred to the counsellor the day after her husband fled the hospice – to take his own life, it was feared. In a text to her husband pleading for him to return, Lee had indicated that if he died, she and their children would die with him.
In the first interview, Lee spoke of trying to obtain a euthanasia pill from overseas.
“Jasmine talked of not wanting to live, of her head being full of thoughts of dying,” the counsellor said, noting that she got Lee to agree to see two mental health nurses.
“I was concerned about her mental health because she could not guarantee her safety at the time.”
But at the second session two days later, Lee walked back some of her earlier concerning statements, Rishworth recalled.
“Jasmine denied having suicidal ideation at this time,” she said. “She explained that her threat to suicide last week was a very ‘Korean’ response to a difficult situation – suggesting there was a cultural aspect on how she responded to things.”
Lee said she had met with a Korean mental health nurse, and the counsellor noted she seemed to be “coping a lot better”.
At their next session, on the same day her husband would later die, the counsellor gave Lee a book with advice on how to discuss the situation with her children.
“I encouraged her to bring the children in to see their father,” she said. “She did not wish to bring her children in, and she did not believe Ian wanted this either. I noted that her main concern was how her children would cope.”
Lee hadn’t yet told her children’s school that their father was dying, which the counsellor described as “very uncommon”.
“I noted that Jasmine had very rigid beliefs in the need to protect her children from sadness and pain,” the counsellor said. “I believe much of this was formed from her own experience when she lost her father when she was 19 years old ... I encouraged her to do things differently for her children.”
The two met for a final time the next day when Lee returned to the hospice to thank staff with flowers and donations. Rishworth noted “sadness and relief”.
“She spoke about her experience with Ian just before he died, when she was able to tell him to go and she would be okay,” Rishworth said. “This is a huge comfort to her.”
But the counsellor was concerned that Lee still hadn’t told the children their father had died and had sent them to school that day, “which is unusual”.
Lee said she wanted to tell them later that day or the next day. She mentioned a Gold Coast holiday they’d soon be leaving for.
“I advised and encouraged Jasmine to talk to her children and their school as soon as possible, and Jasmine declined my offer to phone or visit her prior to going away on holiday,” Rishworth said.
“I noted that Jamine had a very strong belief in how she must manage her children and herself at this time ... The way she was managing her children was concerning because it was in such a contrast to what I perceived as a healthy way of preparing children for a potential death.”
But the counsellor also had self-doubt.
“My lack of experience of counselling Korean people gave her the benefit of the doubt on how much this is Korean culture,” she said.
Rishworth recalled trying to call Lee six more times over the next two-and-a-half months to offer follow-up bereavement counselling, even though her standard practice was to make only three attempts.
“I made this family a priority because of the age of the children, and the fact that the last time I spoke to Jasmine she hadn’t told her children their father had died,” she said.
Jurors have earlier heard that after the Gold Coast holiday and a trip to South Korea, Lee never re-enrolled her children in school.
In June 2018, she divvied up a sleeping medication between herself and her children and was surprised when her children died but not her, standby lawyer Lorraine Smith told jurors at the start of the trial this week. She suggested jurors should find Lee not guilty by reason of insanity.
Prosecutors, however, have said her actions after the deaths show she didn’t meet the legal definition of insanity – in which a person doesn’t know what they’re doing is wrong.
Lee admitted she wrapped the children’s bodies in several layers of plastic and duct tape, then placed them in suitcases and hired a shed at a storage facility. In the meantime, Crown solicitor Natalie Walker said, she changed her identity and made a permanent move overseas.
Jurors were also read statements from several movers and Safe Storage employees. One month after Lee killed the children, she had hired two movers to put the rest of her household belongings in the storage shed.
But three years later, in 2021, the contents had to be moved to a different storage shed because of construction on the premises. Employee Grant Glasse recalled cutting the lock, with the client’s consent, because she was overseas and couldn’t attend to it herself.
He recalled seeing the unit covered in dust, with lots of household items inside, including a kid’s push tricycle and two suitcases.
“I remember these items because I thought it was unusual that someone would keep hold of these items for many years,” he said. “To me, all the items looked like old junk.
“I also remember the suitcases quite vividly because one of the movers complained that they smelled like rotten food. I cannot remember what this suitcase looked like, but I remember this conversation because it was unusual.”
The mover who made the comment was Simon Song Luo, who gave a statement in Chinese Mandarin that was transcribed and translated for jurors.
“As we moved most of the property into the truck, we came across two big suitcases ...” he said. “I remember the suitcase was placed far inside the storage unit covered by some black rubbish bags ...
“As I removed the rubbish bags and observed the suitcases, the rotten smell was getting stronger.”
As he went to move the suitcases, he realised they were “quite heavy” and he needed help from his employee, nephew Guandong Wang.
“I was joking to Guandon, ‘There shouldn’t be bodies inside,’” he recalled.
But the property was transferred without incident, and the children’s bodies wouldn’t be discovered until a year later, after the defendant stopped making payments and the contents were auctioned off on Trade Me.
Justice Geoffrey Venning sent jurors home just after midday. They’ll return for week two on Monday.
The trial was initially expected to take four weeks, but the judge told jurors today that the Crown should finish calling witnesses by Wednesday, with the trial now likely to conclude by the end of week three.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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