Cory Jefferies earlier admitted killing her but denied it was intentional.
The family of murdered mother-of-three Kim Richmond always believed her killing by partner Cory Jefferies was premeditated.
Today a jury delivered a verdict of murder against Jefferies, who admitted at trial last week to killing Richmond on July 31, 2016, but maintained it was manslaughter, not murder.
"He deserved what he got," Raywynne Richmond told the Herald after the verdict was announced at the High Court in Hamilton this morning.
"We always felt that it was premeditated. We're ecstatic at the result."
Richmond said she and husband Matt, and Kim's two younger sisters, would have been disappointed with a manslaughter conviction.
"He deserved what he got," Raywynne Richmond, pictured with husband Matt Richmond, told the Herald after the verdict was announced at the High Court in Hamilton this morning. Photo / Alan Gibson
Jefferies killed Richmond on the way home from a barbecue and rugby night at the Arohena Hall in the tiny Waikato farming settlement almost two years ago to the day.
He was jealous of a fledgling affair between Richmond and her neighbour Alfons Te Brake and made several threats against her life in the months leading up to her death.
After killing Richmond, he drove her ute with her body inside off a boat ramp at nearby Lake Arapuni and pretended she had taken off and deserted her family.
Cory Jefferies, pictured in the High Court at Hamilton, killed his partner Kim Richmond on the way home from a barbecue and rugby night at the Arohena Hall in the tiny Waikato farming settlement almost two years ago to the day. Photo / Alan Gibson
He even let his then 7-year-old daughter text Richmond the next day asking when she would be home.
Raywynne Richmond said the family wanted the murder verdict.
"He never showed any remorse during the [week-long] trial. He never shed a tear."
She said his attempts to cover up the killing, including letting his young daughter text her mother when he knew she was dead, was despicable.
"I hope that swayed the jury."
Jefferies' actions had put the whole district under suspicion, she said.
"None of them believed he could have done it."
Richmond and Jefferies were well-liked in the tight-knit community.
After killing Kim Richmond, pictured, her partner Cory Jefferies drove her ute with her body inside off a boat ramp at nearby Lake Arapuni and pretended she had deserted her family. Photo / NZ Police
It wasn't until police used Jefferies' cellphone to track his movements that night that they found the ute and her badly decomposed body, almost 11 months later.
Because the body had been underwater so long a pathologist could not determine the cause of death, but police arrested Jefferies the day before Kim's funeral.
The effect on the community of 170 farmers had been devastating, Richmond said.
After the disappearance the community spent weeks helping police and land, search and rescue specialists search for Kim in trying weather conditions and despite it being the height of calving season.
However, Jefferies never once looked for his partner of 26 years.
In the months after their daughter went missing, the Richmonds moved in with Jefferies to help with the children.
Richmond said at the end of the four months she had a strange feeling about Jefferies, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.
"There was something not quite right. He never searched [for her]."
Red roses sit underneath a cross erected at the spot where Kim Richmond was found in Lake Arapuni in the Waikato. Photo / Alan Gibson
On Saturday, after the jury went into the weekend to continue their deliberations, the Richmond family and their friends floated the red roses they wore to court in memory of Kim, at Arapuni Landing where her ute was hauled out of the lake.
Raywynne Richmond said a large brown dog appeared and waded into the lake, clenched a rose - Kim's favourite flower - in its teeth and brought it out of the lake.
"We tried to get the rose off it but it barked at us. And we thought 'Oh well, that's Kim'."
Richmond said she would never think of Jefferies again, but her daughter would always be in her heart.
For now, the broken family would continue as best as they can. The children - who "are coping well" - would continue to go to school locally and be raised by their grandparents.
They would float more roses at the boat ramp near Arohena, where a tiny white cross bearing the name Kim Richmond marks her once watery grave, again today.
