Noela Rukundo sat in a car outside her home, watching as the last few mourners filed out. They were leaving a funeral \u2014 her funeral.<\/p>\n
Finally, she spotted the man she\u2019d been waiting for. She stepped out of her car, and her husband put his hands on his head in horror.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it my eyes?\u201d she recalled him saying. \u201cIs it a ghost?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSurprise! I\u2019m still alive!\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n
Far from being elated, the man looked terrified. Five days ago, he had ordered a team of hit men to kill Rukundo, his partner of 10 years. And they did \u2014 well, they told him they did. They even got him to pay an extra few thousand dollars for carrying out the crime.<\/p>\n
Now here was his wife, standing before him. In an interview with the BBC Thursday, Rukundo recalled how he touched her shoulder to find it unnervingly solid. He jumped. Then he started screaming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry for everything,\u201d he wailed.<\/p>\n
But it was far too late for apologies; Rukundo called the police. The husband, Balenga Kalala, ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison for incitement to murder, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC).<\/p>\n
The happy ending \u2014 or, as happy as can be expected to a saga in which a man tries to have his wife killed \u2014 was made possible by three unusually principled hit men, a helpful pastor and one incredibly gutsy woman: Rukundo herself.<\/p>\n
Here is how she pulled it off.<\/p>\n
Rukundo\u2019s ordeal began almost exactly a year ago, when she flew from her home in Melbourne with her husband, Kalala, to attend a funeral in her native Burundi. Her stepmother had died and the service left her saddened and stressed. She retreated to her hotel room in Bujumbura, the capital, early in the evening; despondent after the events of the day, she lay down in bed. Then her husband called.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me to go outside for fresh air,\u201d she told the BBC.<\/p>\n
But the minute Rukundo stepped out of her hotel, a man charged forward, pointing a gun right at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t scream,\u201d she recalled him saying. \u201cIf you start screaming, I will shoot you. They\u2019re going to catch me, but you? You will already be dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rukundo, terrified, did as she was told. She was ushered into a car and blindfolded so she couldn\u2019t see where she was being taken. After 30 or 40 minutes, the car came to a stop, and Rukundo was pushed into a building and tied to a chair.<\/p>\n
She could hear male voices, she told the ABC. One asked her, \u201cYou woman, what did you do for this man to pay us to kill you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d Rukundo demanded.<\/p>\n
\u201cBalenga sent us to kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were lying. She told them so. And they laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a fool,\u201d they told her.<\/p>\n
There was the sound of a dial tone, and a male voice coming through a speakerphone. It was her husband\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cKill her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And Rukundo fainted.<\/p>\n
Rukundo had met her husband 11 years earlier, right after she arrived in Australia from Burundi, according to the BBC. He was a recent refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and they had the same social worker at the resettlement agency that helped them get on their feet. Since Kalala already knew English, their social worker often recruited him to translate for Rukundo, who spoke Swahili.<\/p>\n
They fell in love, moved in together in the Melbourne suburb of Kings Park, and had three children (Rukundo also had five kids from a previous relationship). She learned more about her husband\u2019s past \u2014 he had fled a rebel army that had ransacked his village, killing his wife and young son. She also learned more about his character.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew he was a violent man,\u201d Rukundo told the BBC. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t believe he can kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, it appeared, he could.<\/p>\n
Rukundo came to in the strange building somewhere near Bujumbura. The kidnappers were still there, she told the ABC.<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t going to kill her, the men then explained \u2014 they didn\u2019t believe in killing women, and they knew her brother. But they would keep her husband\u2019s money and tell him that she was dead. After two days, they set her free on the side of a road, but not before giving her a mobile phone, recordings of their phone conversations with Kalala, and receipts for the $7,000 in Australian dollars they allegedly received in payment, according to Australia\u2019s The Age.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want you to go back, to tell other stupid women like you what happened,\u201d Rukundo said she was told before the gang members drove away.<\/p>\n