In 1988, Andrew MacMillan brutally murdered Jayne McLellan (17), whose near naked body was found facedown in the Kaikorai Stream with extensive stab wounds, facial fractures caused by a concrete post, and stones stuffed in her mouth.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Pamela Wadsworth, of Palmerston, yesterday told the Otago Daily Times she met McMillan while he was on temporary release to attend his mother's funeral in April.
That meeting was outlined in a Parole Board decision, which declined to release the 45-year-old earlier this month.
Included in that decision was commentary on how MacMillan returned to Dunedin for his mother's funeral, where he met the mother of his victim, whom he did not recognise and had not expected to meet.
"He said that he apologised to her," the decision noted.
However Mrs Wadsworth said that was "not true", and prompted her to write a submission, as "it was just to make himself look good in front of the Parole Board".
"He didn't apologise."
Mrs Wadsworth said she knew MacMillan would be at his mother's funeral and she wanted meet him "face to face" for the first time in 22 years.
"Before this murder, I was a quiet, timid sort of a person who would not say boo to anybody. This is what it has done to me ... it has made me stronger and I will face anything now."
Once the funeral service ended, she came out of the church and "I walked straight over and said 'Hello Andrew'.""And he looked at me and said, 'hello, who are you?' and I said, 'I am Jayne's mum'. He said 'uh'."
MacMillan looked startled by the meeting, "but that was the whole idea - just to let him know that I was still around".
"I said 'you've got quite thin Andrew', and he said 'Aw yeah, that would be the stress I am under', and I thought, oh yeah, what stress have you been under?"
As she prepared to leave, she was hugged by MacMillan's tearful brother, who told her how he loved Jayne and wondered how Mrs Wadsworth had fared after all these years.
"I thought that was nice. It was a release for him."
Mrs Wadsworth said she had no regrets about the encounter and she believed while some would view her as a "crazy old woman", they had not been in her position.
Her daughter's death had scarred her family and every time a case of violent crime was reported, her thoughts went to the family of the victim.
"I am a different person, I know I am. I am stronger. I won't take any nonsense and I am more assertive and I am not bitter but I would have to watch myself because I could end up bitter."
Mrs Wadsworth said she would continue to fight to keep MacMillan in prison, and did not see her daughter's killer as a person.
"He is a pathetic thing. He is not a person. He is a monster."
