On her WhatsApp status on Tuesday, September 12, Grace Ingabire, 23, posted a picture of her late brother, Eric Turatsinze, with the caption: "Iyo mbimenya nari kugusezera [I would have said goodbye if I had known]." There are two crying emojis.
In the picture, a young man dressed in black jeans, a red turtle neck under a brown button-up shirt, his right hand raised in a peace sign, is posing on a Guraride bike somewhere in downtown Kigali. It is possible that the picture was one of the last ones his sister took when they last saw each other.
In March 2022, Ingabire lost contact with Turatsinze who had relocated from their hometown, Kayonza, to Kigali.
Having finished his training and internship as a hairstylist, Turatsinze, 25, moved to the city in search of better opportunities. He was hosted by a relative who resided around the Gisimenti area of Remera Sector.
On March 9, 2022, his family received a disturbing call from the relative with whom Turatsinze was living. The young man had gone missing.
Upon hearing the news, Turatsinze's father and siblings swung into action. They searched almost everywhere, starting with usual places like relatives' homes. They also checked with the prisons. They inquired from camps where military training was taking place, just in case Turatsinze had joined the army without informing them.
Despite all their efforts, Turatsinze could not be found.
The family did not get any information for about a year and a half, until when Turatsinze, eventually, turned out to be among the victims murdered by Denis Kazungu, a suspected serial killer from Kicukiro District, who was arrested on September 5.
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Kazungu, 34, was apprehended by Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) for allegedly murdering people and burying them in a pit he dug in the kitchen of his rented residence.
Ingabire, a younger sister of the deceased, told The New Times, on Tuesday, September 12, that they then got to know about Turatsinze's death.
"After hearing the widespread news of Kazungu's murders, one of our uncles got anxious. He suspected that Eric (Turatsinze) might be among the victims," Ingabire said.
When the uncle inquired from RIB, the news he got was quite heartbreaking.
"They showed him Turatsinze's ID which was found in Kazungu's possessions."
To ascertain that Turatsinze was among those who succumbed to Kazungu's murders, the deceased's father was invited for a DNA test. The father showed up at Rwanda Forensic Institute offices for collection of samples on Monday, September 11.
"We don't know Kazungu at all. If they knew each other, we don't know. We asked RIB to allow us to talk to Kazungu so that we could ask him for details of how he met with Eric. RIB told us they will allow us to talk to him after they have identified more bodies," she noted.
Ingabire said her late brother was "a very good person who loved to pray."
"About 99 percent of people who knew him can tell you that he is a man who loved to pray. Kazungu really robbed us of a good person," she said.
