I was travelling on the Ghan, the luxurious overnight train that crosses Australia, from Adelaide to Darwin. For most people, it is a fantastic way to experience the Australian outback, but to me, it was something else. I was here on a mission.
I am Samantha Nyamwasa and the sole survivor from my family of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. I travelled on this train to kill Patrick Bagosora, the man who murdered my family and avoided justice through living in Australia under a fake identity.
I finished my drink in the luxurious restaurant carriage, and I told my husband Jakob that I needed to visit the bathroom. I wasn't, I had something far more important to perform. It was time for Patrick Bagosora to face justice.
I published my manifesto detailing Patrick's crimes and collected the gun that I had bought illegally. After that, I turned on a live video feed to the internet and went to Patrick's cabin. I opened the door and shot the man who had murdered my family, streaming the murder online. Jakob saw me and came running towards me.
"Samantha, what have you done!"
"I did it!"
"You did what?"
"I killed Patrick."
"But why? Have you lost your mind?"
"No, he killed my family. I am infertile, and my family ends with me. This is my resolution."
"So, what are we doing now?"
"I will do what Patrick should have done. I will own up to my crimes and take my punishment."
Sometime later, the train stopped, and the police arrested me when we arrived at Alice Springs. A few days later, I received some great news. The autopsy revealed that Patrick Bagosora had died many hours before I shot him. Someone had poisoned Patrick the night before.
The court lowered the charges against me to desecrating a dead body and unlawful possession of a firearm. Since my case was so unique, the court case received international exposure, and I used this opportunity to tell the story of my family and to remind the world of the suffering of my fellow Rwandans.
A year later, my prison sentence ended, and I did something long overdue. I returned to Rwanda to visit my family's grave, located in a beautiful cemetery.
I kneeled at the grave, hoping that my ancestors' spirits would hear me and spoke. "I did it. I killed the man who murdered you and reminded the world of the plight of our people. I committed the perfect murder. I admitted the second murder of Patrick Bagosora, which convinced the police that I wasn't the one who really killed him. In fact, I was. I delivered a brew of frozen margarita laced with cyanide, on the night he died. He never saw it coming, and neither did the investigators," I said and smiled.
As I relaxed in the beautiful cemetery and watched the sunset. I was relieved that I had committed the perfect murder and had finally found inner peace.