[4][5] Luke Lee (born c. 1963) was a South Korean national who had converted to Christianity at about the time he first entered New Zealand on a student visa in 1994.
On returning to South Korea to "face his past", he served a prison sentence there for fraud and defaulting on military service.
Despite his criminal convictions, in 1999 he was granted another student visa to re-enter New Zealand, where he became a pastor with the Assembly of God and established his own church in Auckland called Lord of All.
[2] Over the next six hours, in the presence of a small group of worshippers, he sat on her chest and abdomen, "bounced" on her body, broke several bones, and finally strangled her with his hands.
[7] Her decomposing body was found by police in Pastor's Lee's home on 15 December, after a visitor to the house raised the alarm.
[5][14] However, as Pastor Lee and most of the surviving witnesses had left New Zealand, Crown prosecutors determined it would be difficult to arrange a retrial.