The time difference would have put it in the early hours of Sunday morning, Minneapolis time. Little did he know it was his daughter Justine’s husband-to-be Don Damond calling to deliver the news that hours later would rock his family to its core and infuriate Australia.

“It was a terrible, terrible experience,” Mr Ruszczyk told the Manly Daily this week in a rare interview to mark the first anniversary of his daughter’s killing.

“As most people know, I really don’t pay attention to my mobile phone, I just don’t,” he said. “Especially when it rings early in the morning. It is usually some of my friends from the States some old high school buddies who are having a party and they give me a call.

“So that morning, when I woke up, I saw the call from Don on the phone.”

Thinking it was the soon-to-wed couple wanting to touch base, he called back.

“That is when it all fell apart,” a visibly emotional Mr Ruszczyk said.

He said both he and Mr Damond were not thinking clearly due to shock and distress, making for initial miscommunication.

“When he said Justine had been killed by gunshot in the back alley of their house after reporting a possible sexual assault, I didn’t hear any more,” he said.

“All I heard was that she had been shot, and that it was a bad guy.

“I thought was she was caught up in something, she went to help somebody and a thug shot and killed her.”

Justine, Ruszczyk, 40, was shot and killed in her pyjamas outside her Fulton home by Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor about 11.30pm on Saturday, July 15, local time.

THE SHOCKING DEATH

Mr Ruszczyk said the magnitude of what had happened to his daughter did not sink in until hours after he learned of her death.

“My son Jason was fortunately more in control than I was,” he said. “He called Don to find out more details.

“That is when we found out that it was a police officer who had killed her. That is when we all fell apart.

“The idea that my daughter would be killed by a police officer, it was unbelievable, we couldn’t believe it for days.

“Time and time again, we went through it: she called up, said there was something going on, she called again because they hadn’t arrived.

“She thought they might have missed the location or there was something, they hadn’t understood.

“Then she went out into the alley — which is not like an alley with dark corners in the city, it is a laneway, it is well lit.”

For the first few days Mr Ruszczyk kept thinking, what if his daughter had just stayed inside.

But after meeting with his solicitor ahead of a journey to Minneapolis to help get Justine’s affairs in order, he was led down a different train of thought.

“I said to (my solicitor) ‘if only she hadn’t gone outside and hadn’t gone up to that police car’,” Mr Ruszczyk said.

“He said ‘John stop right there’ he said ‘John, she did what any Australian woman would do, she saw a police car, she knew there was something wrong going on and she went up to help’.

“She did what any Australian woman would have done. Over time, I can’t tell you how many Australian women — friends, and strangers — have come up to me and said ‘that is what we would have done here in Australia’.

“You see a police car you think of safety. You do not think it is a dangerous thing to do.”

The family will host a sunrise vigil at Freshwater Beach from 6.30am tomorrow to celebrate Justine’s life one year from her death.

The family — including John’s partner Maryan and Jason’s wife Katarina — wanted to give those locally who loved their girl a chance to celebrate her life at the beach she loved.

Attendees are asked to bring a pink flower to the vigil.

“We have lots of friends and family that think it is appropriate that we return to the beach where we met after we learned of her death, and that is what’s happening,” Mr Ruszczyk said.

LOCAL GIRL AT HEART

Justine grew up in Freshwater, and was a focal point of the tight northern beaches community.

“She was intelligent, witty, very quick and caring,” Mr Ruszczyk said. “She had a penchant for adopting animals, even before she went to university (to become a vet).

“At one time we had three dogs, a pigeon, and a cat all at our house taking care of them.

“She loved running along the coast, Manly, Curly and Freshie. She would say it is paradise. She loved this place — then she ended up going to the United States.”

She had moved on to work as a life coach in the USA helping people resolve their problems. But she had trained — and was accredited as — a veterinarian.

She also volunteered in Uganda rehabilitating chimpanzees and at Taronga Zoo at young ages.

The former Manly High School student also worked at her father’s bookshop, Dymocks in Warringah Mall.

But her family had no idea how much impact she had on the lives of so many others until she was no longer around.

It has become more apparent in the year since her death, starting with the vigil attended by hundreds last year, less than a week after her death.

“I know how much she meant to people outside the family and how many friends she had, but also was continually surprised by the people who came up to me and said, ‘you know Justine helped me a lot’.

“They would describe a circumstance where Justine just had the right answer and would help them to make a choice and she had a knack for it.

“I knew she was good at what she was doing, that she had a way with connecting with people.

“But I was truly surprised at how many came up to me and said ‘she made a difference in my life, she helped me make a change in my life that I would not have done if I hadn’t had a conversation with her’.”

To this day he still has people approach him in the bookshop, just to let him know what a difference Justine had made in their lives.

TRYING TO MOVE ON

“We are doing the best we can,” Mr Ruszczyk says when asked how the family is getting by.

“It is extremely difficult. We are all getting up in the morning and going to work, we all have responsibilities, but the sky is often very cloudy and very dark.”

He swelled with pride as he described the amazing job his son Jason — a Northern Beaches Council environment officer — and daughter-in-law Katarina along with his partner Maryan had done in keeping things together.

“I am really proud of the way they have held themselves and provided support to me and to each other and all our friends, and Justine’s friends have been very kind and supportive to us and been aware of how much it hurts us and also how it hurts them to have lost her.”

The Ruszczyk family still keeps regular contact with Justine’s fiance, Don Damond — who is obviously also doing it tough.

“It is no better for Don, it is even worse,” Mr Ruszczyk said. “I can only dream and think back to the site where it happened.

“He can walk past it every day.

“He drives past it. When he parks his car he has to make a conscious decision not to drive that way.”

He said they were happy with the way he was handling the pending legal case against Mohamed Noor, who was charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter.

“We have kept in contact,” Mr Ruszczyk said. “All of us have suffered this trauma and all of us know that there is nothing anyone can say that makes it better.

“We know we loved her, we know we are all broken-hearted and we are mature enough to understand that that is not going to help.

“So we haven’t called him up every other day and said ‘don’t worry be strong’,” he said with a sarcastic laugh.

THE WAITING GAME

A NUMBER of balls are still in the air in the murder case being put against Mohamed Noor but between her Australia-based family and Mr Damond they are keeping up to date.

“It is extremely difficult, as you can imagine, we’ve had to endure long periods of uncertainty with the police investigation that has caused us great distress because it seemed that the circumstances were obvious,” Mr Ruszczyk said.

“There are three participants in this terrible tragedy: my daughter, who is dead; the shooter who is refusing to talk; and his partner.

“But those are the three people and it has taken months, a year, for us to get closer and closer to some trial circumstances. We don’t know when or if that will happen.”

Mr Noor, who is no longer a police officer, was formally charged on March 20, and released after posting $400,000 bail.

He most recently appeared in Minneapolis Court in May, where it was revealed that no plea bargain had been offered.

Mr Noor has previously indicated that he will argue he acted in self-­defence when shooting the Australian at point-blank range.

No trial date has been set.

The family is unsure whether or not they will attend the court hearing, but they certainly want answers.

“She went into this laneway, walked up and then of course no one knows what happened,” Mr Ruszczyk said.

“Of course we surmise. In my view she walked up to the car and the guy shot her.

“There is no other explanation, there is no reason and that is why we were happy to see him charged and go to court because he needs to tell us what happened and the jury needs to decide, sorry that is not good enough.

“That is not what you are put on the street to do — shoot a civilian that walks up to your car.

“It could have been the victim of a rape, if there was a rape (as Justine had initially reported).

“It could have been another innocent civilian who saw the car and wanted to ask why are you here? Is something going on?

“But it happened to be my daughter, who was trying to be a good person, a good citizen.”

Mr Ruszczyk however said his family had come to the realisation they may never hear what happened from Mr Noor’s mouth.

“He is taking the fifth (amendment — the right to remain silent). We assume he is going to take the fifth at the trial.

“At this point in time, we will never hear what he has to say. It is (infuriating), but it is within his constitutional rights.”

The Ruszczyk family will hold a sunrise vigil tomorrow from 6.30am at Freshwater Beach.