They also revealed Matue had been deported from Australia and spent time at a detention camp on Christmas Island.
Speaking from Australia, two of his sisters, Sila and Peati Matue, said Faletoi was deported to New Zealand in 2016 after serving time in an Australian jail for wilful damage.
Faletoi, whose nickname was Toi, had battled with mental health problems, been diagnosed with schizophrenia and paranoia and spent time in a mental health centre prior to being imprisoned in 2015, they said.
The same day he was released from prison he was transferred to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney before being moved to Christmas Island where was held for about eight months, his youngest sister Sila, 30, told the Herald.
"He said it was like doing time again and then he got deported."
Faletoi Matue was murdered in Torbay last year. Photo / Supplied
She was saddened to think her brother had no family to support him as he had lived in Australia most of his life after immigrating there with his family when he was 10 years old.
"He was the first one to be deported and he was basically alone over there [in New Zealand]. "When he went to New Zealand he tried his best to start a new life again, but it was hard for him because he had no support ... It's just hard because none of us were there."
About a year after Faletoi arrived in New Zealand, his younger brother, who had also served time in prison, was deported, leaving his fiancee and two children behind, Sila said.
She understood they had both lived in a central Auckland hostel with other deportees.
"My brothers, they didn't want to be separated, that's why they both lived in the lodge and apparently a lot of other deportees live in the same situation."
The family's youngest has also spent time behind bars.
"They only had each other. And my brother blames himself for not being there."
Sila, who lives in Brisbane with their elderly father who is in his 70s, said despite his mental illness, her dead brother had a huge heart and had longed to have a family of his own.
"He had a big heart. Anyone he came across he just showed love. He was a clown - he always wanted to make people happy and even despite his mental illness, we knew how much of a big heart he had. He loved his nieces and nephews. He always wanted to have kids of his own," Sila said.
His older sister Peati said when Matue arrived in New Zealand he felt like he was "in a strange land".
"It wasn't his home - his home was Australia."
She said it was an oversight on her parents' part that her brothers hadn't applied for citizenship in Australia, but it had caused a lot of stress for the family with having the two brothers sent back to New Zealand.
"He was one in a million. He made people laugh. He had a heart of gold. He had no filter - he just told you straight."
