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In February 1988, 28 year old Julie Ward quit her 15-hour-a-day publishing job in Bury St Edmonds, England and embarked on a 6 month excursion to Africa. Julie was a budding amateur wildlife photographer and she hoped to catch the migration of the wildebeest in Kenya’s Maasi Mara National Reserve. Julie, along with 26 others travelled through Morocco, Algeria, Mali, Ghana, The Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso before finally arriving in Kenya.
This wasn’t the first time Julie had visited the continent, in fact it was her third and during her previous trips, she had made local friends. These friends put Julie in contact with Dr Glen Burns, an Australian biologist who was also keen to see the migration of the wildebeest. In early September, the pair met in Nairobi and in the SUV Julie had rented, made the 5 and a half hour drive to the Maasi Mara National Reserve.
Once arriving in the park, the pair settled at the Sand River Camp Site in a large tent. Just as the two were beginning to make their first proper trip into the park’s grounds, which covers over 580 square miles, Julie’s rental car broke down. Luckily for them, a tour guide happened to be passing the area and offered them a ride to the Serena Lodge which was close by. A mechanic was called and Julie was informed that the issue was complex and required a part being shipped in from Nairobi.
Julie and Glen were in a race against time as Glen needed to return to Nairobi on September 4th and Julie only had ~7 days until she was due to fly home to England. Just as all hopes seemed dashed, a miracle happened. Glen returned to Nairobi on September 4th and sent out the part that Julie needed. Within hours of the part arriving, Julie was back on the road and ready to capture the wildebeest.
As Glen was now gone, Julie stayed at the Serena Lodge with Steve Watson, the tour guide who had rescued her and Glen days earlier. Steve later described Julie as happy and bright and being in good spirits. There was no indication she wanted to take her own life or do anything to sabotage her final project. On the morning of September 6th 1988, Julie left the Serena Lodge, thanking Steve for his kindness and hospitality.
Julie explained to Steve that she planned to circle round to the Sand River campsite to collect her things and photography equipment before making the 5 and a half hour drive to Nairobi to catch her flight back to England. This was the last time Julie Ward was ever seen alive and what would follow would become one of Kenya’s most disturbing and publicised crimes.
When Julie failed to make contact with her father, John Ward, he immediately knew something was wrong. He contacted her friends in Nairobi and was disturbed to learn they hadn’t heard from her since she entered the National Reserve. When the day of Julie’s flight came, John held his breath, but his daughter never walked through customs. On September 12th 1988, 6 days after his daughter was last seen, John Ward arrived in Kenya.
John immediately made his way to the Maasi Mara National Reserve and began looking for his daughter. John had enjoyed a successful career and as a result, he was able to hire 5 planes and one helicopter to scour the reserve. It is estimated that between 1988 and his death in 2023, John spent over £2 million looking for his daughter and pursing justice. On September 13th, the crew flying over the park and the crew on the ground found their first clue.
In a creek near the Sand River Campsite laid Julie’s car. It was completely abandoned and SOS had been written in mud on the roof. There was no evidence inside to suggest where Julie may have gone. Just a few hours later, park ranger Simon Ole Makallah radioed John Ward and told him to come to his location as he had just made a disturbing discovery.
Around 6 miles from where Julie’s car had been abandoned, Simon directed the team to a camp-fire that had recently been put out. Inside the camp fire was a jaw bone and a severed leg. John immediately knew the remains belonged to his daughter as locks of her hair were found in the fire. The local police were called, but, from the beginning, they were uninterested.
Clearly, Julie had been murdered and dismembered before being set alight, but the Kenyan Police were not suspicious of the circumstances at all. Days later, Julie’s skull was found nearby. A coroner in Nairobi was tasked with performing her autopsy, but the results of this autopsy would be changed. At first, a verdict of homicide was recorded, however, this was changed without the coroner’s knowledge by a higher-up in the association.
Days after Julie Ward’s remains had been found, the Kenyan Police fronted the media, stating they believed Julie had been struck by lightning and ravaged by animals. Nobody accepted this verdict, but no matter how hard her family pushed, this conclusion would stick. Two independent examiners in the UK noted in their reports that Julie’s head and leg had been hacked off with a sharp blade and she had been murdered.
In 1989 an official inquest was held into Julie’s death and over the course of several months, the preceding judge began to see the fatal flaws in this case. The police were now stating that Julie had taken her own life before throwing herself into the fire. Thankfully, the judge refuted this version of events. Frustrating, whilst he concluded she had been murdered, he saw no reason for any further investigation.
It wasn’t until 1992 that the first criminal proceedings were started in Julie’s case. Park rangers Peter Kipeen and Jonah Magiori took the stand in Nairobi and were cross-examined for several weeks. Despite the prosecution trying to push the agenda that the pair were involved, nobody in the courtroom believed it. There was no evidence linking the pair to the crime.
In 1999, Simon Ole Makallah, the park ranger who found Julie’s car was also put on trial. John Ward believed until his death that Simon was involved in his daughter’s murder. He had led them straight to her body just hours after the search had commenced. Simon gave the defence that he was able to find Julie’s body so quickly because he saw vultures circling above the fire. Simon Ole Makallah was also acquitted.
The final suspect in Julie’s case was Jonathan Moi, the son of then-president Daniel Moi. John Ward received several threats when pursuing this lead as Daniel Moi was known to be a particularly dangerous leader. In 2019, Jonthan Moi died, taking any secrets he held with him to his grave. It wasn’t until his father passed away a year later that more witnesses came forward, claiming to have known of his involvement in Julie’s murder.
John Ward accused MI6, the British Government and the Kenyan Government of being involved in a cover-up, but no charges were ever brought against these agencies. Between 1988 and 2023, John Ward made over 100 trips to Kenya to fight for justice for Julie. Both governments now accept that Julie was murdered, but it seems neither of them are willing to investigate the case further.
John and Janette Ward passed away in mid-2023, within 2 weeks of each other. Until the day he died, John Ward campaigned fearlessly for his daughter. Julie’s brothers, Tim and Bob are now carrying the torch and hope to post humously publish their father's second book. In the late 2010s, John asked the Kenyan Government to test Jonathan Moi’s DNA against the crime scene, this was denied. Until more evidence comes to light, the murder of Julie Ward will remain unsolved.
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