Killing of Julie Ward

Julie Ward was a publishing assistant and amateur wildlife photographer from Bury St Edmunds in England.[1] At the beginning of September 1988 she had been in Africa for seven months photographing wildlife and was due to return to England in about a week.[2] She was travelling to the Masai Mara game reserve with an Australian friend, Dr. Glen Burns.[3] On 5 September 1988 the vehicle they were driving broke down; Dr Burns returned to Nairobi while Ward spent the night alone at the Mara Serena lodge.[3] On 6 September the vehicle was repaired and Ward left to drive to the nearby Sand River camp to recover some camping equipment.[3] This was the last time she was seen alive.

Ward was reported missing and her father John Ward flew to Kenya to find his daughter.[4] He hired a plane to search the areas of the game reserve where his daughter was known to have camped alone.[4] A pilot sighted the vehicle in a gully next to a river and Mr Ward went to investigate in person.[4] Julie Ward's burned and dismembered body was found in the ashes of a fire by John Ward on 13 September.[5]

The original theory put forth by the Kenyan officials was that Ward had been eaten by lions and struck by lightning; however, they later accepted that she was murdered after her father's efforts uncovered further evidence.[6] The Kenyan coroner's report had been altered to disguise the fact that her bones had been cut by a sharp blade rather than gnawed by animals.[7] A British pathologist found that Ward had been dismembered with a machete then doused in petrol and set alight.[8]

John Ward, a retired hotelier, spent nearly £2 million on the investigation and made over 100 visits to Kenya.[1][5][9] Ward has accused the Kenyan government and former President Daniel arap Moi of trying to cover up his daughter's murder to prevent damage to the tourist industry.[10] A former MI6 agent has admitted having a role in the case but denied participating in a cover-up.[11]

In 1992, after the first of two trials, two junior park rangers were acquitted of her murder due to a lack of evidence.[6] The presiding judge in the trial recommended the investigation of the head park ranger.[2]

In 1997, the case was reexamined by a fresh team of Kenyan police.[6]

In July 1998, Simon Ole Makallah, who was the chief park warden at the time of the murder, was arrested following a two-year investigation.[2]

On 16 September 1999, Simon Ole Makallah was found not guilty at the second trial due to lack of evidence.[12][2]

In 2004, a British inquest, held at Ipswich, recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.[5]

In October 2009, the case was reopened after a secret visit, to Kenya, by John Yates, the head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorism squad.[5] In December 2009 Valentine Ohuru Kodipo, a key witness of the murder, died.[13] Kodipo died in Denmark where he had lived in exile for more than 20 years. Ward's murder was so sensitive that Kodipo had fled Kenya following his testimony.[13]

John Ward believed that Jonathan Moi, a son of Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, was responsible for the rape and murder of his daughter.[14] [15]

In 2018, John Ward campaigned in the media for the authorities in Kenya to obtain a DNA sample from the person he suspected of the crime.[6]

• List of unsolved murders

• Musila, Grace A. A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour - Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781847011275
• Ward, John. The Animals Are Innocent – The Search for Julie's Killers (Headline 1991). ISBN 0-7472-3763-8
• Hiltzik, Michael A. (1991). A death in Kenya : the murder of Julie Ward. New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-385-30191-X. LCCN 90027198.