KEY POINTS:
An abusive husband holding his wife at gunpoint turned the rifle on their daughter and told her: "It's going to be you or your mum."
Chilling details have emerged in a coroner's report into the murder-suicide deaths of Deborah Rerekura, 39, and her husband William Rerekura, 40, in their Taupo home.
The daughter told police she heard a click as her father aimed a cut-down .303 rifle at her before she fled the room.
Mrs Rerekura was later heard pleading with her husband to "put it down" before he shot her.
He then turned the gun on himself, inflicting a non-fatal chest wound before reloading the rifle and killing himself.
The murder followed two decades of domestic violence. Coroner Wallace Bain has allowed full evidence of the November 2005 murder-suicide to be published - despite opposition from William Rerekura's family - because there was "an overwhelming public interest".
Mr Bain said Mrs Rerekura was "essentially executed" after enduring 20 years of domestic violence. She had stopped involving the police, "believing they would not be able to curb it".
She made an application in 2001 for a protection order against her husband, describing an incident where he put a gun in her mouth while he threatened her.
"She was told that she was going to end up like a stepmother who had been shot to death by William's father," Mr Bain said.
William Rerekura was described as a violent and controlling man who was addicted to methamphetamine and a heavy user of cannabis and alcohol. Blood samples showed a drug cocktail of methamphetamine, cannabis and methadone when he died.
Rerekura's behaviour had become more erratic as time went by and he made threats to kill or shoot his wife. He was paranoid she was about to leave him.
On the day of her death, Mrs Rerekura wrote in her diary that her husband had taken too many drugs.
The couple fought and Mrs Rerekura was assaulted. She locked herself in the bathroom, according to the police evidence.
Two of their four children, then aged 17 to 22, were in the house and Mrs Rerekura left with her 17-year-old son but apparently went back to the house to get something.
Her husband had armed himself with a cut-down bolt action rifle and followed her into the bedroom, closing and locking the door.
The daughter, aged 22 at the time, let herself into the room with a key but fled when her father pointed the rifle at her, saying, "It's going to be you or it's going to be your mum".
She ran to her grandmother's house next door and alerted police.
During a four-hour standoff with armed officers, police tried to contact the couple on the home phone and cellphone.
Crying and thumping could be heard from the bedroom. Mrs Rerekura could be heard asking her husband to "put it down". A short time later she was shot.
Three seconds later he turned the rifle on himself but the bullet wound was not fatal. He took 30 seconds to reload the rife and shoot himself again.
Mr Bain said evidence in the "tragic case" established that Rerekura had a long association with illicit drugs and violence towards his wife.
"[Mrs Rerekura] has been a victim of circumstances and unfortunately due to the violent behaviour of her husband and the effects of illicit drugs, she has lost her life."
The murder-suicide highlighted the extreme dangers of methamphetamine and cannabis, Mr Bain said.
"The harm to this country and its citizens is immense and there are now a number of well-documented cases of completely irrational behaviour resulting in death and horrific injuries as a direct result of the use of illicit drugs.
"The harm caused and tragic consequences can be clearly seen in this inquest, with a mother essentially executed by her husband and their children innocently involved."
The report said Mrs Rerekura seldom drank alcohol and did not consume illicit drugs. Her blood showed no traces of any substances when she was killed.
Family and friends at the Pak n' Save supermarket where she worked described her as a happy person.
Mrs Rerekura's mother, Judy Samuels, had wanted "every detail published" because she felt it would help someone get out of a situation her daughter found herself in.
Mrs Samuels told the Herald her daughter did not discuss the domestic violence.
"She'd say a few things but she never said a hell of a lot."
Her death had been "totally unbelievable". "It was very hard in that she was such a happy person. When Debbie was in your house it was just full of noise and laughter."
What happened
* William Rerekura shot his wife and then himself with a rifle at their house in Taupo in 2005
* The murder followed 20 years of domestic violence suffered by Mrs Rerekura
* Coroner Wallace Bain has allowed full evidence of the November 2005 murder-suicide to be published - because of public interest
