LOMÉ, Togo – There are some dates that remain carved in our memory. Nothing and no one can erase them, no matter how much time passes between the past and the present. On April 18, 2013, I settled for the first time permanently in Lomé (where I was born), the capital of Togo, a small yet great country nicknamed "The Switzerland of West Africa". After a few years in East Africa and 18 months in Accra, the bustling capital of Ghana, Lomé was the paradise I longed to reach to continue my life in this part of the world. The modest apartment I found between the ocean and the Ghanaian border is still my home-office today. Over the years, I would have probably forgotten that date if it weren't for another date I consider far more important: June 18 of the same year.

Two months after setting down my backpack in Lomé, I learned of Michael Hastings’ death. A death I never believed to be "accidental", despite never having met the journalist. The closer I got to him was in Accra, where I shared an apartment with one of his colleagues through the Obama campaign. I'm sure Michael and I would have gotten along very well. In June 2010, I immediately shared his most explosive article, "The Runaway General", via email with several colleagues and friends in Africa and Europe. I introduced it with a single sentence: "Every journalist's dream". I was, however, quite disappointed by Seymour Hersh's harsh words, which described Michael as a journalist "who broke the rules". In the few emails I exchanged with Mr. Hersh over the years, I never told him about this disappointment of mine, that's a conversation we must only have face to face. I believe that to every rule there must be an exception and Michael's piece on General Stanley McChrystal and his team was exactly that. What "Rolling Stones" allowed him to publish radically changed world history. It doesn't happen every day, but that's the effect of the truth, more than the lies.

I don't believe in coincidences. I believe everything, really everything, happens for many reasons, even if human beings often have difficulty in understanding them. Sometimes it takes time. This time it took exactly 13 years. Since I discovered Candace Owens' podcast about a year ago, I hardly miss an episode. And yesterday's was, by far, my favorite one. For the first time, in fact, Candace mentioned Erik Prince, the man I'm convinced is one of the main people responsible for Michael's death, a killing very similar to the character of LeAnn Harvey, played by Neve Campbell in House of Cards. I explained the reasons in my article from March 3rd: "Erik, you need to stop – How an 'American Prince' hijacked US history through Hollywood". I doubt Candace remembered the anniversary of Michael's death, but when I realized the coincidence, my heart skipped a beat.

If one of Candace’s missions is to uncover the truth about Charlie Kirk's death, for me, for the past 13 years, it has been to uncover the truth about Michael Hastings'. And, I'm sure, we're both getting closer.

Matteo Fraschini Koffi

(journalist/filmmaker)