"Mashagiro had the gorillas killed to discredit Paulin," says a conservation researcher familiar with the case, who requested anonymity out of fear for his life. "This wouldn't have been difficult. You can have someone killed for a crate of beer in Congo."

Ngobobo says that three attempts have been made on his life, but—with the help of four bodyguards and the support of local police and military officers—he has escaped injury so far.

Matthieu Cingoro laid out the charges against Mashagiro in a complaint filed March 10 on behalf of the ICCN to the prosecutor general of the Court of Appeals of North Kivu Province, in Goma. The complaint specifically alleges that Mashagiro ran an illegal charcoal network, intimidated Ngobobo and other rangers, and met with six rangers to plan the gorilla murders in order to undermine Ngobobo's standing in the community and ultimately remove him from the park service.

Ngobobo is clearly exhausted. He has flown across Africa to tell me his story. It is two in the morning. He speaks slowly.

"Everyone knew I was innocent, but Mashagiro blamed the killings on me. He had to remove me to continue his charcoal industry."

Honore Mashagiro, interviewed by phone, has denied all accusations of misconduct and maintains he was "not in the charcoal business. My business was to protect the park." He also denied having any role in the killings of the gorillas. Although he was the park director, he says, "the gorillas were not my responsibility; they were Paulin's responsibility."

Within a week of the July killings Brent's pictures of the murdered gorillas were splashed across the globe. Mashagiro was removed as provincial director of North Kivu. Ngobobo was transferred to Kinshasa and exonerated of any wrongdoing. Two villagers were found guilty for their involvement in the gorilla murders and given eight-month sentences.

"It is difficult to know who pulled the trigger," attorney Cingoro had told me before I met with Ngobobo, "but Mashagiro orchestrated the killing of the gorillas. That is a fact."

In the past two months, Robert Muir has received a promise from General Mayala, the commander of the Congolese army in Virunga Park, that charcoal carried on military trucks will be seized and anyone in the military caught trafficking in charcoal will be imprisoned for 15 days. Muir also persuaded UN commanders to step up joint charcoal patrols with rangers to two to three a week.

Laurent Nkunda and his forces still control the gorilla sector of Virunga National Park. Paulin Ngobobo is waiting for a position as a park warden somewhere in the Congo. And Honore Mashagiro—suspended by ICCN—has been arrested in Goma and is awaiting trial for the killing of Virunga's gorillas.