Joanna Lee

Joanna Lee (also known as Keum Ok Lee; 1963 – 9 December 2000) (The majority of sources accept her date of death as 9 December, although one states 10 December.) In 2001, Pastor Lee was convicted of her manslaughter. In 2006, his conviction was overturned by New Zealand's Court of Appeal and a retrial ordered but, by that time, he had already been deported to South Korea. Lee's church was estimated to have about 30-50 members.

Fatal exorcism In early December 2000, Pastor Lee determined that Joanna Lee was possessed by "at least 20 demons". On 8 December, Pastor Lee began an exorcism at a hall rented by his church in Auckland. The following day the exorcism moved to his rental home in the suburb of Mount Roskill. Pastor Lee later said he was "not sure" that Joanna had died, and instructed his followers to videotape her corpse to document her expected resuscitation. 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. She had been dead for one week, leading the worshippers to clean her body with alcohol in an attempt to remove the odour of decomposition.

No friends or relatives could be contacted to claim Lee's body or make funeral arrangements. He represented himself in court and took little part in the trial, speaking only to deliver a closing message. In December 2001 he was found guilty and sentenced to six years imprisonment. The Court stated that Joanna Lee's possible consent to the exorcism had not been properly considered during the first trial. 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. A bench warrant was issued for Lee's arrest should he return to New Zealand, at which point a retrial may take place.