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The family of murdered Scottish tourist Karen Aim say they are still struggling with the realisation the 26-year-old is never coming home.
"It's hard because Karen went away to have a good time but never came back," her father Brian told Britain's Sunday Mail.
"We are prepared for the trial but then, after a policeman comes to your door and tells you that your only daughter has been murdered, you are prepared for anything."
Ms Aim was killed while on a working holiday in Taupo in January, and this week, a 15-year-old boy was committed to stand trial for her murder. The boy has denied the charge, but police allege he bashed Ms Aim to death when she was walking home after a night socialising with friends.
Mr Aim said: "It's heartbreaking to think she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The police told us Karen had stopped at a shop to buy a pie on the way home that night. Had she not stopped she would probably still be with us now. But it's all ifs and buts ... "
Mr Aim said the family had had no worries about his daughter's safety when she went to Taupo because it had a population about the same size as the Orkney Islands, where she grew up.
A date for the accused boy's trial has yet to be set, but written depositions evidence seen by the Weekend Herald reveals that police initially feared Ms Aim had also been sexually attacked.
A police officer found her lying bloodied and barely alive with her underwear torn, and immediately called an ambulance.
Detectives allege the weapon used to strike Ms Aim was a baseball bat found at the defendant's house with her camera and handbag.
