The family of Lena Zhang Harrap is having a public celebration for her 30th birthday, more than two years after she was murdered by a stranger.

Harrap, who had Down syndrome, was killed by homeless man Shamal Sharma in September 2021.

Sharma was arrested two days after a volunteer searcher discovered Harrap’s partially concealed body along a bush-lined walkway about a kilometre from her Mt Albert home.

Harrap had left her Mt Albert home where she lived with her family around 6.30 on the morning of her death for her daily solo walk through the neighborhood, an effort that was often slow going due to significant visual impairment.

Harrap’s mother recently posted on Facebook inviting members of the Mt Albert community to celebrate Harrap’s 30th birthday on November 8.

“We will begin at the bottom of Grande Ave and retrace Lena’s last steps.

“At the top of the walkway people are invited to pay tribute or leave messages in our remembrance box.”

Lena Zhang Harrap was killed by homeless man Shamal Sharma in September 2021.

Harrap’s life will then be celebrated with singing, dancing, and tributes at a nearby football field followed by watching the sunset.

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Sharma was jailed for life, with a minimum non-parole period of 19 and a half years.

Police believe Harrap encountered Sharma walking past her on the opposite side of Grande Ave as she made her way to a bush-lined concrete pathway that would take her to Summit Rd.

“As Mr Sharma walked up the road he looked back towards Ms Zhang on several occasions,” court documents state, explaining that he then loitered in the area until she began walking up the more remote, wooded pathway.

Authorities don’t know exactly when the violent attack began, but they believe he tortured her over a period of about two hours, inflicting multiple blows to her face before strangling her - the act that resulted in her death. A pathologist would later count 13 bruises and abrasions to her head, as well as blunt force trauma that caused brain injuries but were not fatal.

Other serious injuries were related to Sharma’s sexual offending, some so brutal that they could have independently caused her death, Crown prosecutor Matthew Nathan said at sentencing.

“This has a degree of sadism through the infliction of pain,” he told the judge.

Sharmal Sharma was jailed for life, with a minimum non-parole period of 19 and a half years. Photo /Simon Rogers, RNZ

Sharma left the area after abandoning her body in the bushes and shrubbery about 5m from the pathway, authorities said.

When he was apprehended by police two days later, he denied any knowledge of Harrap. But he had been caught on CCTV in the area directly before and after the attack, and he left blood-soaked items of his own clothing near her body.

Police would later test the blood stains found on his pants and shoes at the time of his arrest, linking it back to Harrap.

At sentencing, Harrap’s parents and siblings described the nightmare of coping with how she died.

“I wonder when she realised she was in mortal danger,” her father Martin Harrap said during his victim impact statement. “How long was she conscious knowing she would die?

“He treated my daughter as if she was nothing and he disposed her as if she was rubbish. In her last hour she as faced with brutality and terror.”

Harrap was remembered as “a little warrior from the moment she was born” who was adopted as an infant and overcame heart surgery as a child. She had numerous disabilities that made her especially vulnerable, but she managed to thrive despite that and grew up to be loving, kind, thoughtful, and religious, family members said. She prided herself on the independence that came with her daily walks.

“She was caring. She was funny. She was clever,” Martin Harrap said.

“She was a beautiful dancer. She was a wonderful daughter.

“She was a good person. She had purpose in life. Lena wanted to do so much. Now all that is gone.”