A woman in South Korea has been arrested over the deaths of two children whose bodies were found in suitcases in New Zealand last month, police said.
The 42-year-old woman, whose name was not released, was arrested Thursday by South Korean authorities on a murder arrest warrant at the request of New Zealand police.
The children were found Aug. 11 in Auckland after a family was rifling through the contents of an unclaimed storage locker they had purchased in an online auction the previous week.
Inside suitcases, they found the remains of two “primary school-aged children.”
Police said the children appeared to have been dead “for a number of years,” and had been in the suitcases for some time.
The family who discovered the remains were never suspected of foul play.
A coroner was able to identify the victims but did not disclose their identities.
New Zealand police are working to extradite the suspect back to the country to face murder charges. She will remain in South Korean custody until the application is accepted.
“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 NZ Police Interpol staff,” Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa’amanuia Vaaelua said in a statement.
The woman will remain in custody while awaiting the completion of the extradition process, Vaaelua added. The woman’s identity is being withheld to avoid potentially identifying the children.
South Korean authorities confirmed last month that the woman was born in South Korea and acquired New Zealand citizenship a “long time ago.”
Seoul High Court will now decide within two months whether to extradite the woman to New Zealand.
New Zealand police launched a homicide investigation last month after a family in South Auckland reported finding human remains in suitcases they bought in an online auction from a storage facility.
