Wife surprises husband at her funeral after he paid to have her killed

Rukundo couldn't believe her husband, whom she had three children with, tried to kill her

A group of gunmen in Burundi were hired to kill a woman, but with the murder not going as planned, one wife gave her husband the shock of his life by turning up to her own funeral.

Australian citizen Noela Rukundo, was visiting Burundi to attend her stepmother's funeral when she was abducted by a group of hit men hired by her husband to kill her. The gunmen however, spared her life, explaining that they didn't kill women and children.



Rukundo couldn't believe her husband, with whom she has three children, would try to kill her and thought he cared about her. But when she was abducted in Burundi, the hit men made a phone call on speaker phone during which the man on the other end of the call directed them to kill her. Rukundo recognised the voice as her husband's.

PHOTO: BBC NEWS

Before leaving Rukundo, the men handed her the evidence they hoped would incriminate her husband, Balenga Kalala. They handed her a memory card containing recorded phone conversations of him discussing the murder and receipts for the Western Union money transfers.

"We just want you to go back, to tell other stupid women like you what happened," the men told Rukundo as they parted. "You must learn something: you people get a chance to go overseas for a better life. But the money you are earning, the money the government gives to you, you use it for killing each other!"

Five days later, Rukundo decided to return to Australia and give her husband the shock of his life, where he had organised a funeral for his wife of 1o years. As Kalala waved goodbye to neighbours who had come to comfort him, Rukundo finally approached him.

"I was stood just looking at him. He was scared, he didn't believe it. Then he starts walking towards me, slowly, like he was walking on broken glass," Rukundo said while recalling the incident.

She added that "He kept talking to himself and when he reached me, he touched me on the shoulder. He jumped. He did it again. He jumped. Then he said, 'Noela, is it you?'… Then he start screaming, 'I'm sorry for everything.'"



Rukundo then called the police who ordered Kalala off the premises and later obtained a court order against him. He eventually pleaded guilty to murder in a Melbourne court and was sentenced to nine years in prison, according to a BBC report.

Balenga Kalala, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and moved to Australia as a refugee in 2004, seeking protection from a rebel army that had killed his first wife and son.
"I knew he was a violent man," Rukundo said. "But I didn't believe he [could] kill me. I loved this man with all my heart!"

Many took to Twitter, just as shocked as Noela's husband.

Wife crashes her own funeral, horrifying her husband, who had paid have her killed: Noela Rukundo sat in a car... https://t.co/vcUvGIveNz

— Don Gere (@DonGere13) February 5, 2016

It's a bad day when the wife you had killed attends her own funeral. https://t.co/KEdgYYz40K #oops

— Joe Saul-Sehy (@AverageJoeMoney) February 5, 2016

This "wife attends funeral to shock hitman commissioning husband" story is fantastic. Going global big time: https://t.co/RGfPVu7Jki

— Stephen Mayne (@MayneReport) February 6, 2016

https://twitter.com/blkbubblebtm/status/695785638570758144

Wife attends her own funeral. Yes, this is real #J2150BB https://t.co/GtOWxaeNcE pic.twitter.com/U1FEVbAoMF

— Alexis Reese (@abtreese_) February 6, 2016

This article originally appeared on BBC