Zane Meyer's family has been living a nightmare since the day he disappeared from their lives.
They waited anxiously for information from police for weeks after he went missing, until his body was found in a paddock
But the family was dealt another blow on Tuesday, when one of Mr Meyer's killers was jailed over his death.
With time served, Trent Pearson, 33, could walk free from prison in just three years after admitting to manslaughter.
He stabbed Mr Meyer multiple times in the chest and neck, causing fatal injuries to his heart and lungs.
The 26-year-old's body was discovered in a Lysterfield paddock, in Melbourne's southeast, in June 2020.
Two others have also admitted to their part in the killing, which happened after an argument at Punthill Apartments in Oakleigh on May 11 of that year.
Phillip Meyer said his son always saw the good in people and did not deserve to be "brutally killed and left in a paddock to rot".
"Call it what you will, but he was killed, brutally and unexpectedly," he told the court during a pre-sentence hearing.
Zane Meyer's mother Andrea said she would never recover from the tragedy.
"I’ll grieve the loss of Zane until the day I die," she told the court.
"I am living a mother's nightmare ... I will be forever broken-hearted."
Pearson was released from jail less than a month before he stabbed Mr Meyer, the Supreme Court was told on Tuesday.
He had been held in solitary confinement before being released into the community during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2020.
Pearson was offered little support upon his release, had been taken off his anti-psychotic medication, and believed prison officers had been poisoning his food, the court was told.
Justice Jane Dixon found his daily routine would have suffered a "dramatic change" when he was released, without appropriate medication, into a pandemic.
She said this left him "poorly equipped to avoid relapsing into criminal offending".
"You have been doing harder time than the ordinary prisoner," Justice Dixon said.
She jailed Pearson for up to eight years and six months, with a minimum term of six years.
He has already served three years of this sentence.
