The tragic murder of Julie Ward spawned a decades-long search for the truth that’s still ongoing.
YouTubeJulie Ward in Kenya .
In 1988 , Julie Ward set out on the trip of a lifetime . Taking a tenacious break from her chore in England , she was going to Africa to photograph wildlife in Kenya . A workweek before she was set to return home , she made one last journeying into the Maasai Mara biz reserve to photograph an annual wildebeest migration .
She would not return .
YouTubeJulie Ward in Kenya.
On Sept. 6 she was reported missing . Nearly a week after , her own father found her remain at the biz reserve .
Ward ’s beginner has been determined to find out what happened to his daughter . But resistance from the Kenyan government , rumors , and alleged coverups leave the death of Julie Ward a closed book to this solar day .
Julie Ward was born on April 20 , 1960 to British parents John and Jan , who also had two sons .
YouTubeInquiry into Julie Ward’s case.
As an grownup , Ward was a publisher ’s assistant in Suffolk , England . But she loved photographing wildlife . So much so that at 28 - old age - old , Ward resolve to take an extended break to pursue her passion and quench her thirst for adventure .
Julie Ward Sets Out On A Journey
In February 1988 , Ward allow her home in England for a seven month head trip to Kenya . She was staying in the capital of Nairobi . But in September she left the metropolis for a trip-up to the Maasai Mara game reservation . She need to capture photograph of the annual Great Wildebeest Migration , where giant herds of wildebeest , gazelles , and zebras journey across Tanzania and move through the Serengeti and Maasai Mara .
Ward was accompanied by her Australian supporter , Glen Burns . The two were driving a Suzuki jeep , which broke down during the journeying . Burns had to return to Nairobi , so Ward spend the nighttime alone at the Mara Serena lodge while the vehicle was getting repaired .
The next Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , Sept. 6 , 1988 , she drove the landrover to the nearby Sand River ingroup they had been stay at to gather her camping equipment . It was the last time she was view active .
YouTubeJohn Ward revisits the location where Julie Ward was found.
The Search For The Truth
After Julie Ward ’s parent receive the news that she was missing , her father John flew to Kenya to join in the search for her .
“ I pick up she was miss , a dreadful matter for any mother to hear . Fear take up hold of you , you become rigid … you may hardly move , ” say her mother Janin an interview11 year after her disappearance .
John Ward rule the mutilated remains of his girl – her leg and part of her jaw – on Sept. 13 near a tree in the Maasai Mara reserve .
YouTubeJohn Ward during one of his trips to Kenya.
Kenyan authorities initially enunciate that Ward had been killed by a wild animal such as a Leo . But the theory did n’t make sense give that in addition to her body being dismember , the remains were also cut .
A British pathologist who also investigated the incident concluded that Ward ’s body had been dismembered with a matchet and duck in petrol before being set on fire .
In the wake of Ward ’s mysterious death , a slew of theories go around . According to one , she was obliterate by the son of a prominent politician she was having an involvement with . Another theory , propagate by the Kenyan police , was that she had committed suicide .
Kenyan police detective were reluctant to call the decease a murder and deny to lead a homicide probe . John Ward charge the Kenyan government of want to cover up a execution so as to protect the country ’s tourism industry .
YouTubeInquiry into Julie Ward ’s compositor’s case .
As a result , John Ward decide to launch an investigation of his own . Over the years , he has made over 100 trip to Kenya and spent over $ 1 million in a desperate lookup for the truth . It was simple : he require to know what really go on to his daughter .
YouTubeJohn Ward revisits the localisation where Julie Ward was found .
Investigations, Trials, And Possible Witnesses
In February 1990 , after John Ward persuaded U.K. Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd to order an investigating by Scotland Yard , investigator flew to Kenya to look into Julie Ward ’s slip .
The initial investigating led to the closing that two park rangers were creditworthy for the murder . But after a 1992 trial in Kenya , the ranger were acquitted .
In 1997 , a fresh squad of Kenyan police officers review the vitrine . The head warden of the Maasai Mara at the time of Julie Ward ’s destruction , Simon Makallah , was accused of murder and tried in court . In 1999 , he too wasacquitted .
“ I was charged in a court of law for a crime I have sex nothing about . I was excruciate , I have been traumatized , but I never killed Julie Ward , ” Makallah order . “ I never have a go at it her and I never saw her . That is all . ”
In 2004 , a former Kenyan intelligence agency officerclaimedthat he see Julie Ward ’s execution . He say in an anonymous interview with a Kenyan newspaper publisher that three military personnel on the backlog brutally gang - raped and murdered Ward .
grant to the former officer , she was ordered to beat back her jeep several miles aside from the Sand River camp , where it was strategically rate in a gully . She was then forced to draw an ‘ SOS ’ mark in the sand to make it look as though she had gotten into an accident and was heroic for help .
The functionary say that he had been too afraid to intervene at the fourth dimension , and was still too afraid to come forward .
“ The things that I see will survive with me till I die , ” say the officer .
YouTubeJohn Ward during one of his trip to Kenya .
In 2009 , John Yates , the Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police Service at the time , made a secrettrip to Kenya and reopen the 21 twelvemonth old case . Yates was win over that advances in forensic science technique would aid solve the murder once and for all .
“ I receive the new inquiry , ” John Ward said at the time . However , nothing conclusive has come out of the unexampled investigation .
Next read about the unsolved disappearance ofMaura Murray . Then read about the mystifying last of former Vice PresidentNelson Rockefeller .
