“Why This Story Must Be Told” Some stories linger in a nation’s memory, refusing to fade, disturbing the quiet of everyday life long after the headlines are gone. This is one of those stories. Before I began writing this book, I made myself a solemn promise: that every sentence would honour the women whose lives were taken, that every chapter would preserve their humanity, and that every detail would serve a purpose far greater than merely recounting horror to remember, to bear witness, and to call for accountability. When the news broke that seven women had been murdered by a prison trustee in Kabwe, Zambia was shaken to its core. These were not nameless victims. They were mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, women whose laughter once filled homes, whose dreams were still unfolding, whose futures should have stretched far beyond the moment they crossed paths with Joseph Chiteta. Their lives mattered. Their stories deserve to be told fully, respectfully, and honestly. I authored this book to honour them. Not as statistics. Not as footnotes in a criminal file. But as human beings whose lives were violently stolen. I authored this book to shine a light on the cracks within the very system meant to protect society, a system that allowed a convicted felon, serving a twenty-year sentence for aggravated robbery, to move freely as a trusted inmate under the trustee program. What was intended to reward good behaviour and encourage rehabilitation instead became a loophole that a predator exploited to hunt and kill. It is a painful truth, exemplified in the life and death of Virginia Chanda and the six other women, but one we cannot ignore: these tragedies were not the work of the killer alone. They were made possible by institutional failures, gaps left wide open, unnoticed, or unaddressed, that allowed danger to slip silently through the cracks. I authored this book to understand the mind behind the violence. Joseph Chiteta presented himself as obedient, disciplined, and quiet, the kind of inmate prison officers believed they could trust. But behind that calm exterior existed a darkness that went unnoticed for too long. His crimes reveal a chilling duality: a man capable of charm and compliance on the surface yet driven by impulses that eventually consumed him and cost innocent women their lives. This is not a story told for shock value. It is a story told for remembrance, so the victims are never forgotten.