Sunny Park feared being killed, newly released video shows

A coroner's inquest has released a videotape of a terrified woman from Oak Bay, B.C., warning police that her estranged husband would kill her and her family if she divorced him.

"He would kill everything," Sunny Park said of her husband, Victoria restaurant owner Peter Kyun Joon Lee, in the interview videotaped by police on July 31.

Park was among five people found dead in what a coroner called a murder-suicide in Oak Bay on Sept. 4 of last year. Lee took his own life after killing Park, his six-year-old son and his wife's parents in their suburban home.

Another videotape released Thursday shows the police interview with Lee. The two tapes are part of a police investigation launched after a car crash Park and Lee were involved in about a month prior to the killings.

CBC News and other media outlets argued for the release of the tapes, which were played at the coroner's inquest in Victoria Monday.

'He [Lee] thinks my parents are controlling me … interfering with the relationship.' — Sunny Park says on tape

On one tape, Park is seen moving stiffly at the police station. The interview was done shortly after she was released from hospital following what she described as a deliberate crash .

In a calm voice she recounted for police how Lee drove down a straight stretch of road, ensured her seatbelt was off, and then crashed the car.

"He goes, 'I'm sorry Sunny' and he hits it, hits a pole or tree — I don't remember after that, but I'm bleeding and my arm is broken. He says, 'I'm sorry, Sunny.'" Park tells an investigator.

In other parts of the interview, Park told an investigator about attacks she endured at the hands of her husband, how he banged her head against the floor and how he always carried a knife.

Park also said Lee told her he hated her parents, who lived with them.

"He thinks my parents are controlling me. He thinks my parents are interfering with the relationship," she told the officer.

Park told Victoria police she was worried that her husband's anger, violence and fixation with knives could eventually harm their family. Park also told the officer her husband always carried a knife in his pocket and one in the car.

Tape shows Lee was defensive with police

In Lee's videotaped interview with police, he acted defensive, with his arms crossed — not even wanting to give his name. He denied causing the crash to purposely harm his wife.

"Peter, I have to ask you, did you intentionally drive your vehicle into the hydro pole to harm your wife?" Lee is asked by an investigator.

"No, I can't comment … I'm not going to say anything before I see [unintelligible]," Lee replies.

He was later charged with aggravated assault and operating a vehicle in a dangerous way. He was released on bail with conditions that included he stay away from his wife and the family home.

A coroner's inquest into the deaths of Park, her son, her parents and Lee began Monday.

On Wednesday, the inquest heard a 911 recording where Park's mother, speaking broken English, attempted to give her address to a dispatcher, saying someone was "trying to kill us."