A woman, believed to be the mother of two children whose remains were found in suitcases in New Zealand last month, is transported to prosecutors' office, in Ulsan, South Korea, on Sept. 15.YONHAP NEWS AGENCY/Reuters
South Korean police arrested a woman on Thursday charged with murdering what is believed to be her two children whose remains were found in suitcases in New Zealand last month.
The 42-year-old Korean-born New Zealand woman is suspected of fleeing to South Korea in 2018 after allegedly killing her then 7-year-old and 10-year-old children in Auckland, authorities said.
The woman, who denied the murder allegations, was arrested after global police agency Interpol issued a red notice, the Korean National Police Agency said.
“I did not do it,” she told reporters as she was escorted from a police station in the southeastern city of Ulsan.
New Zealand has to formally seek extradition of the suspect within 45 days for a South Korean court to review whether to send her back, the Ministry of Justice said.
New Zealand police launched a homicide inquiry in Auckland after the remains of the children were found by a family going through the contents of a storage locker they had purchased unseen.
The family who found the bodies were not connected to the deaths.