Missy has been by her fiance's side every day for the past 11 months. Photo / Supplied
Watching the life slowly fade from her fiance's eyes, Dunedin woman Missy Parata wanted nothing more than to pass away with him.
In October 2021, her partner Hemi Tahuri lay dying, his limp head in her blood-drenched lap, with a single .22 bullet lodged in his brain.
The 24-year-old's tears rolled down her cheeks as she desperately tried to keep him conscious, while Hemi's eyes rolled back and the colour drained from his face.
During the alleged 40-minute wait for an ambulance to arrive, Missy was haunted by the horror that had unfolded just minutes earlier in front of her eyes.
The man who had been stalking her for a year, Krishan Ranui Dick-Karetai, had shown up at their home without warning, shooting Hemi between the eyes.
He allegedly convinced himself that the pair were in a relationship, and told everyone in his life that Missy was his girlfriend, despite her turning down his romantic advances.
The morning of the shooting, Krishan demanded to see Missy, but fed up with his obsessive behaviour, she lied and told him she was at work.
The 24-year-old then allegedly showed up to her workplace, pretending to have lunch to give her, and was outraged when her colleagues told him she was not there.
He then sent Missy 43 texts and attempted to call her a total of 76 times.
She responded with a single message that read: "I don't want you and I don't want you to ever try and message or call me. You need to leave me alone."
Enraged, Krishan drove to her house with a gun.
"The day of the shooting, I had this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that something wasn't right," Missy told news.com.au.
"That morning, Krishan asked me to drop my location, so he could see exactly where I was. It was his way of keeping tabs on me.
"Usually, I would do it to keep him off my back, but for whatever reason, at that moment I'd had enough. I told him I was at work.
"I was emotionally drained and wanted a rest. His behaviour had become increasingly intense over the last few months.
"When he realised I wasn't at work, and that I had lied to him, he went off, calling and texting me incessantly.
"I was angry. I called him and asked him to leave me alone, and told him I was totally done with doing everything he wanted.
"I'd never done anything like that before, and I was terrified. I was pacing around the house in fear and just had this bad feeling.
"Hemi was out mowing the lawn, and I yelled at him to come inside. He kept trying to calm me down and told me nothing was going to happen.
"Then I heard Krishan outside, he was beeping his horn and screaming my name, asking me to come and talk to him.
"Then me and Hemi had this moment, where we both looked at each other. It was like we knew something bad was going to happen."
Missy called the police for help, and she claims they told the couple to go and lock the front door.
It was this simple action that would change their lives forever.
"The cops told me that Hemi should go and lock the front door," she explained.
"It was a glass door that you could see through. I followed him and then saw Krishan approaching just as he was about to lock it.
"Krishan pulled a gun from behind his back and shot Hemi right between the eyes. He dropped to the ground, and blood was pouring from the wound.
"I thought he was dead. I looked back at Krishan, and now he had the gun pointed at me.
"In that moment, I wanted to pass away too. I couldn't imagine my life without Hemi.
"But then Krishan just smirked and walked away. He knew this would hurt me more than anything he could ever do to me."
Arriving at the hospital, the devoted girlfriend was given the devastating news that Hemi only had a tiny 1 per cent chance of surviving his horrific injury.
But for Missy, that was all the hope she needed.
"I clung onto that, and told Hemi every day that he couldn't leave me," she said.
"I was by his side, day in and day out, through everything. I wasn't going to let him die.
"When he first got to the hospital, he was put into an induced coma for five weeks.
"He couldn't move the right side of his body. The bullet is still in his head and affected the right side of his brain.
"I spent hours each day, massaging him and doing anything I could think of. Then he started moving, followed by doing steps, and then he started walking with a walking stick.
"We're really lucky, it could have been so much worse.
"They said he'd be permanently blind and paralysed, but he's still here, and is getting better every day."
Hemi was originally taken to Dunedin Hospital and later transferred to the Intensive Care Unit in Christchurch, where he remained for 11 months.
He was finally discharged in September 2022 and is now home with Missy to continue his rehabilitation.
When Missy first laid eyes on her now fiance, Hemi, something powerful inside her switched.
Having never experienced butterflies in her tummy before, she did not really believe in the phrase "love at first sight".
But she knew deep down that there was something special between her and him, a magnetic connection that she could not control.
The shy duo danced around each other with gentle flirting and contagious laughter for some time, before finally taking their friendship to the next level after both confessed their romantic feelings for the other.
"After both of us holding these feelings inside, Hemi finally made a move," she laughed.
"He asked me to the movies, and it was such an amazing date. We began hanging out more and more and then introduced one another to each other's families.
"They both instantly bonded, it was like we were all one. Everything just felt right.
"Ever since then we have been inseparable. Everyone who knows us knows it's always me and Hemi.
"We will always be soulmates."
The pair have been together for 10 years, and finally got engaged just last month.
Krishan sent Missy a Facebook friend request and private message back in 2020, telling her that he admired all the great work she was doing in the community as a youth worker.
The pair struck up a friendship, and Missy agreed to meet with him to discuss his desire to "help the community".
During their first in-person meeting, she says they sat on a park bench, and Krishan took photographs of them together.
Missy assumed they were for professional use, but she later discovered Krishan had shown these pictures to his friends and family and told them that Missy was his girlfriend.
Over the next few months, their friendship deepened, and Missy would help talk Krishan through the mental health struggles he said he was facing, including having suicidal thoughts.
His communication with Missy intensified, and he began demanding to talk with her at all hours of the night and would send dozens of text messages.
She explained how she felt trapped by his demands, terrified that if she did not respond that he might harm himself – a threat that was close to her heart, as her cousin had only recently died by suicide.
According to Missy, during a short break that she and Hemi were having, Krishan had pushed himself into her life even deeper.
She claims he convinced himself that they were in a relationship, and forced her to agree that they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
She said she tried to tell him repeatedly that she loved Hemi, and was not interested, but was met with heated outbursts and threats of self-harm.
In the end, she said it was simply easier to go along with him.
"I was terrified of him," she explained.
"Krishan seemed harmless at first. A few months into our friendship, he told me he was attracted to me, but I shut him down right away.
"He appeared to understand. But said he wasn't going anywhere because he valued our friendship. I had no idea that it would spiral into what it did.
"There were so many red flags, but I didn't see them at the time. It got to a point where he would threaten me to do what he wanted. He manipulated me with his words.
"He'd send videos of him engaging in self-harm and I felt responsible for him."
Missy said things started getting "really bad" after she tried to end their friendship.
"A few months before the shooting, I kept telling him he needed to move on and go live his life," she said.
"I told him I loved Hemi, and nothing was going to change that. But he didn't give up, he said he would never stop.
"I didn't realise it at the time, but my friends and family later told me that I had become a shell of myself and lost all my confidence. He controlled my entire existence and I felt like I didn't have any way out."
Krishan pleaded guilty to attempted murder, which in New Zealand has a maximum imprisonment term of 14 years.
He was sentenced to a total of 6 years and 11 months at the High Court of Dunedin on the 30th of June, 2022.
The court heard Krishan had "panicked", raising the gun so it "went off".
"She tried to end contact with you, however, you would not accept this," Justice Rachel Dunningham said to him in court.
"It is clear from the medical records that Mr Tahuri narrowly avoided death.
"Indeed, I consider this is about as close to murder as a charge of attempted murder can be.
"It is not clear whether he [Hemi Tahuri] will ever be able to work again, but it is obvious he will need ongoing support in his rehabilitation.
"The lives of those victims and of their families, have been turned upside down. Ms Parata
can no longer work in the job she loved, and she has become a full-time caregiver.
"She says she has been functioning in survival mode since the shooting and that makes sense. "Her courage, and her determination, to ensure her partner has the best life he can, despite what you did, is awe-inspiring."
The judge said the crime had some degree of premeditation, and that Krishan took advantage of Hemi's "vulnerable state" by taking him by surprise.
The judge also stated that she took Krishan's guilty plea, along with his relatively young age, his apparent "good character" and the fact he has no prior convictions, into account.
Missy says she and Hemi will be "living in fear" when Krishan is released from jail.
"I think about the day he gets out all the time. Hemi and I will be living in fear all over again," she said.
"It's not fair that we will have to live like that. The way he was with me, it felt like he'll never stop."
Missy said the biggest thing she wanted people to learn from reading her story, is to always trust their instincts.
"I knew something didn't feel right, but I didn't act on it," she said.
"Maybe if I'd done something sooner, this wouldn't have happened. But I know I can't think like that now.
"You have to tell people what is going on, even when you're scared. I never wanted to worry anyone, but I should have been more vocal about it.
"Always trust your gut. When something feels wrong, it usually is. You just know.
"Since all this came out, I've been contacted by so many other women, and people, from around the world that this has happened to. I want my story to inspire and raise awareness.
"You are stronger than you think, and you are more powerful than you know."
The victim was found dead at home about 4.30am the next day.