Former Christchurch woman Joanne McNish sobs her heart out every day but her mother believes it is a positive sign.
Ms McNish, 28, was shot and sexually assaulted and her Israeli boyfriend, Gal Erlich, killed when they were attacked in Picobonito National Park in Honduras on July 11.
Her parents, Joan and Bruce McNish, who moved from Christchurch to Brisbane last year, flew to the island of Utila, where Joanne is convalescing, late last month and returned home last Friday.
Mrs McNish said she had seen a change in her daughter in the last week she was with her.
"In the last three or four days she was sobbing every day.
"Perhaps she is coming out of the shock and the reality is hitting her, which is quite good in a way ... But it's going to take a long time."
The bullet wounds Joanne received when she grappled with one of the assailants had almost healed but she had sustained nerve damage which affected one leg and caused a burning sensation.
A bullet had hit her a few centimetres from her belly button and come out the other side, Mrs McNish said.
"She is able to get around and she has just started swimming again, but the doctors think it will be six months before she is able to work again."
Joanne was still determined to see justice done in Honduras, where the killers were still at large, and to go to Israel to see Mr Erlich's parents.
"All she wants is for the police to find the men who did it," Mrs McNish said.
"The police thought they had one of them while we were there but when Joanne went to identify him it was the wrong person."
Joanne and Mr Erlich's parents had organised for a reward to be posted for information leading to an arrest, she said.
"We heard a lot about him [Mr Erlich]. We're sorry we'll never know him.
"She never speaks about people the way she speaks about him," Mrs McNish said.
Joanne was well looked after on the island, where everyone knew of her ordeal.
- NZPA
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