For the last two weeks Tracey and Brian Marceau have sat in the back of a courtroom listening to details of their daughter's brutal death be described, examined and picked apart.
They shed tears, they got angry, there were times it all became too much and they walked out
- but every day they returned, their crusade for justice for Christie stronger than their personal pain.
Christie was killed in her own home in 2011 by Akshay Chand.
He was on bail for an earlier assault on Christie and had been ordered to stay away from her.
READ MORE:
'I watched the life drain out of her'
Terrifying last moments at hands of insane killer
Marceau inquest: psych expert says killer 'perfect example of a psychopath'
Christie Marceau inquest: emotional detective gives evidence about bail
Christie Marceau inquest: bail judge 'not interested' in police opinion
Christie's death broke hearts across New Zealand, but no one has suffered more than her parents and sister Heather.
Tracey and Brian spoke to the Weekend Herald about the inquest, where for the first time they heard the full details of the events leading up to the loss of their youngest daughter.
"Over the last two weeks, having to listen to that information and a lot of stuff we hadn't heard before has been quite emotionally distressing," Tracey said.
"It's almost sucked the life out of us again.
"It was quite painful."
The couple sat in courtroom 5.1 in the Auckland District Court on the rigid public gallery seats for six hours a day, listening to everyone from police to Chand's mother analyse Christie's death.
"You're sitting there and suddenly you realise some of the things you'd been told weren't quite as they were," Brian said.
Tracey added: "We've waited a long time for it, so it was good from that point of view.
"I think we do have a better understanding of the events that led up to Christie's death.
"In the backs of our mind we had a fair idea anyway but being told to our faces made things a lot clearer to us."
November will be the sixth anniversary of Christie's death, and her family had a long wait for answers.
Since it was announced an inquest would be held, a hearing date was scheduled, then vacated as it was not a long enough time frame, the presiding Coroner retired and the file was transferred to his colleague and lawyers for some of the parties involved sought to have points of law addressed.
