Matakaua "Karl" Ngaruaine Rouvi (65) stabbed his 21-year-old partner Moana Anahera Marie Aranui to death outside a Bay View Rd home in January 2009 after she told him the relationship was over.
He was granted parole last week to Auckland despite concerns over his understanding of high-risk situations and lack of community support.
Ms Aranui was staying with her sister Leanna Tawha at the time, and she had offered to accompany her when she broke things off with Rouvi.
"I’d sit there, for months and months, picturing that day watching my sister and her baby walking down the street," Ms Tawha said.
"I’ve always carried a lot of guilt.
"Being the oldest [sibling] ... I just felt I failed.
"And still now, I look at my niece and still think I failed her."
Ms Aranui and Rouvi’s daughter was now nearly 18 and the family had tried to protect her from the painful truth of her past, but the news of her father’s release had rocked her.
Ms Tawha said the regular parole hearings since 2021 had been torturous.
"I got that very first letter from the Parole Board and everything came flooding back.
"When I got told [Rouvi was being released] it was kind of a relief.
"Now we don’t have to sit around for another six months and have to deal with it."
The board’s decision, released to the Otago Daily Times, noted the killer spoke "constantly" about his wife as his sole source of assistance during last month’s hearing.
"But she lives in Australia and there is nothing to suggest in our discussions with him that he would resume a relationship with her," board chairman Sir Ron Young said.
"If he does, great care will need to be given to managing that relationship, given Mr Rouvi’s violent jealousy-fuelled murder of his young partner in 2009."
Rouvi had left his wife of many years to start a relationship with Ms Aranui but she discovered he was having an affair.
Ms Tawha believed it was the possibility of that coming out that sparked the man’s extreme response.
In a drunken rage, he took two boning knives from his car, chased the victim and stabbed her 21 times.
She died in a carport 70m away from the address.
Since the murderer’s previous parole hearing in October last year, the board heard he had undertaken six guided releases and had an offer of employment.
However, Sir Ron raised questions about Rouvi’s inadequate safety plan which failed to address his use of alcohol or potentially problematic behaviour in relationships.
"However, we are satisfied, given he has a low risk of violent reoffending, that he has a good accommodation, that he has good employment, that he has shown over a considerable time that he can manage relationships with the prison and outside of the prison well, that he is no longer an undue risk and can be released."
Ms Tawha said the last 14 years had been a struggle.
"It was my kids that got me through it. They’re what kept me going."
She would remember her sister’s smile, "just her kindness — so humble, so laid-back".
Reminders were ever present with her niece nearby.
"She’s just like her mother," Ms Tawha said.
Rouvi’s parole conditions
- Not to enter Dunedin.
- Not to contact any victim.
- Not to possess non-prescription drugs or alcohol.
- To attend any assessments or programmes as directed by Probation.
- To inform Probation about any intimate relationships.
- To inform Probation about changes in employment status.
- To abide by a 9pm-6am curfew.
- To submit to electronic monitoring.
