The family of a Canterbury father-of-three murdered and dismembered by Michael Scott Rodger are desperate to find the rest of his body to say goodbye and bury him with dignity.

Rodger shot Richard Leman in April 2023 before dismembering him and stuffing his torso into the boot of his own car and leaving it at an abandoned Rangiora house.

Only Leman's torso has been recovered.

On Friday Rodger was jailed for life with a non-parole period of 17 years for the 41-year-old's murder.

He fixated on the front of the courtroom, never meeting the eyes of Leman's sister as she tearfully told the High Court at Christchurch of the pain Rodger had caused her family.

"He shot him. He then took his head and his limbs, which are still missing," Kim Leman said.

"What did he do with them? Why can't he let Richard come home?

"I'm still searching for Richard. Part of my mind is always looking, always wondering if today will be the day."

The three years since Leman's death had been exhausting, she said.

"There is no closure, no final goodbye. The loss is not something that happened in the past, it continues every day.

"What was done to Richard's body deprived us of the opportunity to hold him one last time and say goodbye."

She called Rodger evil and a coward.

'I will never forget my mother's screams'

KIm Leman would never forget the day she learned her brother was dead.

"I will never forget my mother's screams," she said.

"The air left my lungs and a crushing weight of grief consumed everything around me.

"There are not enough words in any language to describe the depths of our sorrow."

Other victim impact statements were read by prosecutors Barnaby Hawes and Sean Mallett.

"I cannot comprehend how anyone can be so cruel to take Richard from us," his mother Vanessa's statement said.

"He was a kind and loving man, a devoted father.

"I feel like I have lost Richard twice. The first is when his life was violently taken from him, the second is because I have never had the chance to say goodbye."

"How do you say goodbye when half of the person you love is still missing?" one of his nieces asked in her statement.

"You took away his dignity, you took away our chance to say goodbye," another niece said.

Leman's 11-year-old son, who was aged eight when his father died, said the loss of his father was unfair and had left him angry.

"I have been texting him for three years hoping he will text back," his statement said.

"My heart is broken. I will never see my dad again. I miss my dad so much."

'Grief never leaves me'

Leman's 82-year-old father Norman said he never imagined he would spend the last years of his life mourning his youngest child.

"Knowing my son died alone, terrified and begging for his life is something that will never leave me until the day I die," his statement said.

"The grief never leaves me. It is there when I wake up in the morning and it is there when I go to sleep at night. No father should ever have to know his son's body was cut in half.

"We cremated Richard without knowing that parts of his body had not been recovered. We have never truly been able to say goodbye."

In a statement released by police after the sentence was handed down, the Leman family said there were no words to truly describe the pain they had lived with since his death.

"Over the years, we have tried to come to terms with an unimaginable loss, but one of the hardest realities is that Richard is still not fully home. We are still missing parts of him. How do you say goodbye when you are still waiting for your loved one to be returned to you? How do you find peace knowing part of the person you love is still missing? That is a burden our family will carry forever," the family said.

"Until every part of Richard that can be recovered is brought home to his family, we do not believe the person convicted of murdering him should ever be granted parole."

While the court process had come to an end, the Leman family said their grief endured.

"He was far more than a court case or a headline. He was a father, a son, a brother, an uncle, a family member and a friend. He was loved, he mattered and he deserved so much more."

The family said they were frustrated and hurt by Rodger being granted name suppression and legal protections around his criminal history during the court process.

"We understand that the justice system has rules designed to protect the fairness of a trial. But from the perspective of Richard's family, it was incredibly difficult to watch so much care being taken to protect the rights of the man accused of taking Richard's life," they said.

"At times, it felt as though the person accused of Richard's murder was being protected while Richard and our family were left to carry the consequences."

Rodger denied the killing

A High Court jury took two days of deliberations to reach a unanimous guilty verdict in March following a four-week trial.

The Crown's case was that Rodger shot Leman once in the thigh and then fatally in the chest at a property in Andrew Street in Rangiora.

Rodger denied shooting or killing Leman, instead blaming "Mr X" who he refused to identify after previously suffering a beating in prison.

The prosecution said Leman smoked methamphetamine with his friend Sara Plimmer before the pair went to the home of another woman, Morgan Grant, to bring her food.

Leman went to look for a way to smoke more methamphetamine while the two women sat in a bedroom and ate Burger King.

The two women found Leman and Rodger facing off in the lounge and Rodger was holding a gun.

No-one gave Leman first-aid or called emergency services after the two shots were fired and Leman died within minutes.

Rodger's DNA was found on the cap of a petrol container at the home where Leman's torso was found as well as on the inside of a door handle of the car where his torso was hidden.

The women told the jury Rodger had threatened to kill them, took Leman's drugs and cash and dragged his body to another room.

The prosecution pointed to CCTV footage, telecommunication data and forensic evidence pointing to Rodger's guilt.

Rodger claimed Leman was already dead when he arrived at Grant's property but he admitted concealing and dismembering his body.

Defence lawyer Ethan Huda told the jury there were questions about Rodger's involvement in Leman's death.

A pathologist told the jury Leman could have been stabbed before being shot, a point the prosecution omitted from its closing argument.

Huda said neither Grant nor Plimmer mentioned any stabbing during their evidence and that raised significant doubts over the killing.

The defence also questioned the reliability of some CCTV evidence.

A text message exchange between Grant and another person in the days after Leman's murder had referenced the involvement of multiple "fugitives" in the killing.

Police issued a statement on behalf of Leman's family after Rodger was found guilty.

"Nothing will ever undo what was done to him and nothing will ever bring him back to the people who loved him. Richard was not just a name in a courtroom or a case in a trial," the statement said.

"He was a son, a father, a brother, an uncle and a man who was deeply loved by those closest to him.

"We have been forced to hear and see the devastating reality of how Richard's life was taken. No family should ever have to endure that."