Grace Millane's family say her murderer took the life of their father David too.
Jesse Kempson, whose name suppression lapsed on Tuesday, murdered the 21-year-old British backpacker in 2018.
Two years later after a high-profile trial, Grace's father David Millane died of cancer in November.
The police officer who spearheaded the investigation into Grace's murder told Newshub her family believe her death took a serious toll.
"The [Millane] family feel that Grace's murderer has also killed David," said Detective Inspector Scott Beard.
"The stress, cancer - and he would have died of a broken heart."
Grace's murder has been brought into the spotlight once more after Kempson's longstanding name suppression lapsed. His identity had been kept under wraps since he was convicted in 2019, due to the fact he was facing other charges for violently abusing women.
Kempson is now appealing nine convictions which include rape, assault with a weapon, sexual violation and threatening to kill.
Eight of the convictions related to one woman - an ex-girlfriend who he physically, sexually, emotionally and financially abused. The ninth was for raping a woman after a Tinder date in Auckland - months before he went on to murder Grace.
He has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for the abuse of his ex-girlfriend and three-and-a-half years for the rape. Both sentences will be served concurrently with his life sentence for Grace's murder which has a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
Kempson is appealing all nine convictions - his attempt to appeal his murder conviction has been dismissed by the Supreme Court.
