KEY POINTS:
A couple of weeks before her gruesome death, Moera Jayne McIntyre was warned her teenage daughter could hurt or kill someone.
She replied to her sister, Marie: "I know, but what can I do?"
She had tried everything she could to get help for her troubled daughter, Bonny Nga Karohe Hohepa McIntyre.
That included selling her home and moving from the West Coast to Christchurch to get her specialist care for mental health issues. But Marie McIntyre said all the agencies they tried had sent Bonny back to her family and put her case in the "too-hard basket".
And soon it was too late. About 8.30pm on November 29 last year, the family's worst fears were realised when McIntyre, 16, went to her mother's Christchurch home, took a log-splitter axe from the garden shed and walked into the lounge where her mother, 46, lay on the couch.
She struck her repeatedly in the head, neck and shoulders with the axe before leaving with her dog, walking to a nearby dairy and calling the police to tell them what she had done. In the meantime, her brother had come into the lounge to find the bloodied body of his mother sprawled on the floor, a discovery that has left him still struggling to cope.
McIntyre is now beginning a life sentence for murder and must serve at least 10 years in prison.
After her arrest, she did not give a clear explanation for what she had done, police said, "other than to say they did not respect one another".
The Canterbury District Health Board said yesterday it believed the care and treatment it gave McIntyre was appropriate.
Child Youth and Family would not comment on its dealings with McIntyre and her family.
Yesterday McIntyre had to face her angry relatives in the High Court at Christchurch as they read their victim impact statements. Her sister Atlanta, and aunt Marie told the court of the devastating toll the killing had had on their family.
One person was escorted from the court amid the heated discussion.
Marie McIntyre said Bonny, like her twin, was highly intelligent and a high achiever in academic and athletic fields.
But from the age of 12, her difficulties became more obvious and she had attempted suicide.
"Bonny has always demonstrated a mentality that showed if she couldn't get her own way, someone would pay for it. She resented those that got Moera's attention and because Moera was such a giving person and tried to help as many people as she could, Bonny made life difficult for her and those she tried to assist or befriend.
"Moera loved her children. She would still forgive Bonny now for what she has done. Bonny had communicated that all she wanted was Moera's love and didn't get it, but this was not the case at all." Atlanta McIntyre told her sister their mother's death had "totally ripped the heart out of the family".
"I had total trust of Bonny at the time of the murder. Bonny was living with me and my children. I still love you, Bonny, but we'll never forgive you.
"Mum didn't deserve to die, and certainly didn't deserve to die the way she did."
Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Wormald told the Herald the killing was an especially tragic case.
"We have had cases of homicides where there have been relationships, but to have a sibling kill their mother is certainly out of the ordinary."
Mr Wormald said that although McIntyre had difficulties, a killing could never be justified.
