Pod Insights Park Predators REVISITED: The Reserve About this episode When a young British photojournalist vanishes in a well-known Kenyan reserve, questions swirl around what happened to her. After her remains are found at a grisly crime scene, her father sets out on a decades-long hunt to bring her killer to justice, but is faced with bizarre roadblocks from two nations on different continents.
Transcript 10,068 words · 8 speakers
0:00 Speaker 00 Hi, park enthusiasts. It's Delia. If you listen to Park Predators, you already know that sometimes the most beautiful places can hide the darkest secrets. But what happens when the danger isn't miles from civilization? It's in your community, and sometimes even in your own backyard. On Crime Junkie, hosts Ashley and Britt dive into real cases every week, from missing persons to unsolved murders, breaking down what we know, what we don't, and the details that still don't sit right. If you care about the stories behind the headlines and the victims at the center of them, you'll want to check out Crime Junkie. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
0:40 Speaker 00 Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And today's episode is one that actually came out on the feed early last year. But since then, there's been some really compelling coverage by The Telegraph and an entire limited series podcast by Catherine Rushton for that publication. The episodes are available now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And as soon as those came out in November 2025, I was glued. The reporting is fantastic. You hear from the victim's surviving brothers and so many more people integral to the investigation. So if you want a refresher to get you up to speed, listen to my episode right now and then go get even more in-depth coverage and the absolute latest by checking out The Telegraph's podcast and reporting.
1:26 Speaker 00 Something to note: This crime took place in Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya in 1988. According to Masai Mara Travel's website, the reserve borders Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, and it sits in the southwest part of Kenya. It's more than 370,000 acres in size and features some of the most unique wildlife in the world. Zebras, wildebeests, rhinos, lions, giraffes, elephants, and other species roam freely in this stretch of Africa's savanna, which is why the area attracts so many people to go on safari there. The word "Masai" in the reserve's name refers to the Masai tribe that lived in the area long before British colonization took place at the turn of the 20th century.
2:09 Speaker 00 The tribe was known for its semi-nomadic lifestyle, herding livestock, and bright red robes that male warriors don. Today, Masai is spelled the way British settlers spelled it, with two As instead of three. But the proper way of spelling it is actually M-A-A-S-A-I.
2:27 Speaker 00 Back in the day when soldiers from Great Britain forced many tribe members off their native land, bloodshed ensued. The hand weapons that Maasai warriors carried were outmatched by their invaders’ firearms. And in the early 1900s, some members of the tribe signed agreements with white settlers to hand over 2/3 of their most fertile land. They were then relocated to less desirable parts of Kenya and Tanzania to live. Despite this dark history, the tribe has still clung to its deeply rooted cultural traditions and practices. The people take pride in their land and all of the things that make it attractive to international tourists. Visitors to the reserve can visit the tribe’s village and learn about their rich culture.
3:09 Speaker 00 The word “mara” in the reserve’s name is the tribe’s word for “spotted,” or “spotted land,” and refers to the patches of acacia trees and shrubbery that are scattered throughout it. And similar to that aspect of the landscape was the patchwork investigation into the death of a young British wildlife photographer in September 1988. Information about what happened to Julie Ward while visiting Kenya seems to be dotted over the pages of time. Little lies and little truths just sprinkled between various sources. What I hope to do is wade through all of that, but come out the other side with something to hold on to. This is Park Predators.
4:29 Speaker 00 On Friday, September 9, 1988, a man named Doug Maury was at his home in Nairobi, Kenya, when he noticed that Julie Ward, a 28-year-old woman he’d been renting a cottage to on his property, wasn’t around. His next-door neighbors, an older couple named Natasha and Paul Weld Dixon, had also observed the same thing. Julie was nowhere to be found. The Weld Dixons knew that was kind of odd because they'd made plans with Julie to have her over for dinner that night and then make sure she made it to the airport the following day to catch a flight home to England. You see, Julie had been on a long trip to and in Africa, traveling to different areas to take photos of wildlife, but especially herds of wildebeests as they made their annual
5:11 Speaker 00 migration from Tanzania's Serengeti National Park into Kenya's Masai Mara Reserve. But Doug, Natasha, and Paul knew that Julie was supposed to be back in the city by September 9th. They'd all been expecting her to arrive earlier in the week, but she hadn't. At one point, the Weld Dixons even called several hospitals and police stations to see if maybe Julie had gotten into a car accident or something, but there were no reports that she had. Doug had also utilized some of his resources, too. He'd asked some pilot friends of his to keep an eye out for her and her used Suzuki Jeep whenever they flew over the 150 miles or so of savanna between the reserve and the city of Nairobi. But after a few trips back and forth throughout that week, the pilots told Doug that they
5:56 Speaker 00 hadn't seen any sign of Julie or her vehicle. He then did the one thing that made the most logical sense in the moment. He checked inside the cottage he'd been renting to Julie, to, I imagine, figure out if maybe she had actually returned, but everyone just missed seeing her. But after scoping it out, it became clear that Julie had not come back to her cottage. Doug looked through her things and found the plane ticket with her name on it that was scheduled to depart for London the next day, Saturday, September 10th. Unsure of what else to do, the Weld Dixons and Doug just continued to wait. They were growing more and more worried, but, I don't know, maybe they just hoped Julie would arrive with a good explanation as to why she was so overdue.
6:39 Speaker 00 The next day, September 10th, Julie's father, John Ward, called the Welldixons from England to check in and see how things were going, because Julie hadn't come home and he was getting nervous. But Natasha and Paul had to break the bad news that Julie hadn't returned to Nairobi, and they were worried she was missing. When John learned that information, it didn't sit well with him. He immediately made arrangements to fly to Kenya and figure out what was going on. That same day, September 10th, is when the majority of the source material states that Julie was officially reported missing to Kenyan authorities. John didn't arrive in the country himself, though, to sync up with the police until two days later, on Monday, September 12th.
7:22 Speaker 00 As soon as he got on the ground, though, he immediately got to work and contracted four private planes and two helicopters to fly over the reserve and look for Julie. He also connected with Doug, Natasha, and Paul to gather information about who she'd been traveling with and where she went. He also coordinated local volunteers, game wardens, and police officers to aid him in his efforts. The key to efficiently covering so much ground in a short amount of time was learning as much as possible about Julie's last known movements. Julie was the eldest child in her family with two younger brothers, and from a young age, she really liked learning about animals, thanks to her mother, Jan. Author Nick Buckley detailed in "Julie Ward: Gentle Nature"
8:05 Speaker 00 that it was mother and daughter's shared love of wildlife that got Julie interested in wildlife photography. In 1986 and 1987, she'd visited Nairobi for extended stays and traveled on safari during those trips. She reportedly fell in love with Kenya to the point where she wanted to eventually move there and sell jewelry made by the members of the Masai tribe. Her seven-month-long trip in 1988 had started in February and took her from Great Britain into Spain, through the Mediterranean, into several North African countries, Uganda, Tanzania, and eventually ended in Kenya in late June.
8:41 Speaker 00 For most of July, she'd camped on Natasha and Paul's property in Nairobi because they allowed people who were traveling internationally to pitch tents on their land. The more they'd gotten to know Julie during that summer, the more they all developed a close friendship over their collective love of dogs. In August, Julie had decided to shift her living arrangement slightly and started renting that cottage from Doug Mori, who, like I mentioned earlier, lived next door to the Weld-Dixons. Around this time is when Julie purchased her Suzuki Jeep to get around while traveling. She also met up with three other tourists from Australia, two of whom she knew and another whom she'd just met for the first time. That new person was a guy named Glenn Burns, and according to Grace Musilla's book, "A
9:24 Speaker 00 Death Retold in Truth and Rumor," he and Julie had traveled from Nairobi to the reserve together on Friday, September 2, to watch the wildebeest migration. Initially, the other two people who Julie knew better were supposed to go with her and Glenn, but at the last minute, they ended up bailing. According to Glenn, he and Julie drove in her Jeep to a campground in the reserve called Sand River Camp. They pitched two tents there and stayed the night. The next day, Saturday, September 3, they traveled through the reserve but had car troubles that forced them to cut their day short. They ended up having to get towed to a nearby lodge by a local tour guide who let them borrow a tent because they'd left theirs across the park at Sand River Camp. By Sunday morning, September 4, Julie and Glenn had come up with a plan to get Julie's
10:09 Speaker 00 Jeep fixed so they could continue on with their travels. But the only problem was, the car part they needed, a new fuel pump, had to be retrieved from Nairobi, which wasn't super close by. Like I mentioned earlier, the city was more than 150 miles away from the reserve. Glenn was scheduled to go to a conference at a museum in the city the following day anyway, so he told Julie he would hop on a charter plane to the city, link up with her friend Paul Weld-Dixon, and see if Paul would be willing to buy a new fuel pump and fly it back to the reserve. That plan panned out, because when Glenn returned to Nairobi by the end of the day on September 4, Paul was more than happy to assist. The next day, Monday, September 5, the new fuel pump was on its way to Julie.
10:54 Speaker 00 When it arrived, though, it was too late in the day for a mechanic to put it in her Jeep, so she opted to spend Monday night at the lodge that she and Glenn had been towed to and just figure things out the next day. According to people who saw her, she woke up on Tuesday, September 6, and around midday drove to Sand River Camp to pick up her and Glenn's tents. She reportedly made plans to pit stop at a lake in the reserve to see the tour guide who'd helped tow them, and then was going to finish the drive back to Nairobi.
11:22 Speaker 00 The last people who saw her were a police constable working at Sand River Camp named Gerald Corari and the campground's clerk. The constable said he'd helped Julie take down the tents that she and Glenn had left behind a few days earlier, and the clerk remembered her paying him for the time the tents were there, even though they hadn't been occupied.
11:42 Speaker 00 Both men said that around 2:30 PM, they saw her leave alone in her Jeep headed in the direction of Nairobi. However, I did read another source that reported it was two park rangers who saw her leave around 3:00 PM. But I wonder if that reporting just assumed the constable and clerk were the rangers, not what their actual titles were. It's hard to tell. There's a lot of things like that in the source material about this case, where it's difficult to decipher if factually different information is being reported, or if authors just misreported titles in small details. Anyway, by the time the search for her was fully underway on Tuesday, September 13, her dad, John Ward, and a pilot he'd hired to take him over the reserve were flying
12:24 Speaker 00 over an area about six miles away from Sand River Camp, when he spotted Julie's Suzuki Jeep mired in deep mud inside a gully. Once he got on the ground, he was joined by local police and park rangers. Together, the group examined the vehicle and found that it was locked. They smashed out one of the windows and discovered that some food and water were missing, along with a 20-liter plastic can of fuel that was supposed to have lasted up to five days. There were also several large scratches dug into the roof that spelled out the letters "SOS," though some other sources reported that the letters were spelled out in mud on the roof. Around the Jeep were several spots where it appeared someone had tried to start a fire
13:05 Speaker 00 or had maybe gotten a few fires going, but none of them had ever grown very big. This evidence, combined with the missing can of fuel, was a clue to John Ward that his daughter may have attempted to get help by starting signal fires, but when no one came to assist her, she left the Jeep and walked to find help. Something that seemed odd to everyone, though, was that a pair of binoculars and two maps, one of which was of the game reserve, were still inside the Jeep, meaning Julie had not taken them with her. After assessing the abandoned vehicle, John and the rest of the search crew fanned out to continue looking for Julie. A few hours later, around 4:00 PM, about five miles from where the Jeep was found, and roughly four miles before a known hunting camp, the chief game warden of the reserve,
13:50 Speaker 00 a guy named Simon Olimakala, and other searchers discovered what looked like burned human remains and personal belongings scattered beneath and around a tree. Some of the items included burnt camera film, coins, cutlery, pieces of glass, a sauce pan, and a small cooking stove. When members of the search party and John Ward took a closer look at the charred scene, they were able to find a pair of flip-flops, remains of a handbag, a passport, credit cards, and a few body parts in the ashes that hadn't been destroyed by the fire. The human remains included a jawbone, a left leg, and a lock of hair. John personally collected the remains and ashes in a makeshift bag he'd fashioned from
14:33 Speaker 00 a helicopter seat cover and handed them over to a Kenyan police officer, who then gave them to a pathologist who worked for the police force named Dr. Adel Shaker. Shaker conducted a post-mortem exam in Nairobi shortly after the remains were discovered, but his findings weren't released to officials and John until a few days later on September 15. In his report, he stated that Julie's remains appeared to have been cut with some sort of sharp instrument before being burned, which essentially pointed to one thing: murder. But Kenya's police force didn't accept that conclusion. Officials wanted to dismiss Julie's death as some sort of tragic accident. They were convinced that she'd been attacked by lions or wild animals, which were known
15:18 Speaker 00 to roam free in the reserve. The police force's theory essentially went like this: Julie had most likely been burning her bag under the tree to signal for help after abandoning her jeep, and while doing so, she'd inhaled noxious fumes which caused her to pass out and fall into the fire she'd made. Then, wild hyenas or some other carnivores had eaten on her remains. It was either that scenario, or she'd died by suicide. Or, wait for it, she'd been struck by lightning. Yes, I'm not kidding. These were all scenarios that the police force felt were more likely than someone murdering her. But John Ward, Julie's dad, didn't believe any of the police's theories.
16:01 Speaker 00 He told reporter Michael Horstnull for The Times that his daughter had been to Kenya two times prior to this trip, and she knew what to be on the lookout for. There was no doubt in his mind that she'd been ambushed and killed somewhere between where she left her jeep and the hunting lodge that was just a few miles away. Evidence he said supported that scenario was the fact that Julie's Olympus camera and two of her telephoto lenses were missing. I imagine his point in saying that was to introduce the possibility that maybe someone had robbed her of those expensive items and killed her to keep from getting caught. John told The Times, quote, "Stories that she was eaten by lions are totally untrue. Her body had been burned, and I believe she was murdered. I have no idea who might have done it.
16:46 Speaker 00 There are game poachers in the area, but a lot of other people go there as well." End quote. By September 18th, almost two weeks after Julie was last seen alive, John returned to the United Kingdom without his daughter, and without answers to the growing number of questions he had about what in the world had happened to her. The only upside to the situation was that the case had been officially deemed a homicide. But just a few days after that update, something truly wild happened.
17:20 Speaker 01 The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live US-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 60% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.
17:51 Speaker 02 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles County.
17:58 Speaker 02 Inside, they found a strange scene. A dining area converted into classrooms with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks.
18:08 Speaker 02 The couple that lived there had 21 kids.
18:11 Speaker 03 It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory, a baby factory.
18:18 Speaker 02 Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived.
18:26 Speaker 04 Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp.
18:29 Speaker 05 That's the one time that we called the cops because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun.
18:34 Speaker 06 I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into?
18:39 Speaker 02 I'm Ava Kaufman. "The Journey" is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
18:56 Speaker 02 About a week after the Kenyan police force was told by their own resident pathologist that Julie was a homicide victim, the chief government pathologist, a guy named Dr. Jason Cavidi, who from reading the source material is described as having more authority than Dr. Shaker, changed Julie's post-mortem autopsy report to say that her manner of death was no longer murder, but instead, an animal attack that perhaps occurred simultaneously with a lightning strike.
19:24 Speaker 00 This conclusion, as you can imagine, did not sit well with John Ward, who'd been extremely outspoken about how ridiculous he thought that theory was. He traveled back to Kenya to launch his own inquiry into the matter and sought assistance from an independent pathologist and a professor from the UK. Originally, he'd planned to have Julie's remains cremated, but he canceled those plans when he realized that Kenyan officials were being really sketchy about the autopsy report. A few weeks later, the two men from the UK who John hired to review Julie's remains concluded that she died as a result of a homicide. In fact, one of them said it was crystal clear that she'd been decapitated and one of her knees had been severed in half prior to her body being burned. So with that information,
20:08 Speaker 00 John accused the Kenyan police force of refusing to treat his daughter's death as a murder because they cared more about the negative impacts it could have on the country's tourism industry than getting to the truth. He told reporter Peter Godwin, "Kenya is a country which relies very heavily on tourism, and there may be a temptation to look the other way. If there is a man out there who killed my daughter, I want him." John's resolve was seemingly limitless, along with his ability to bankroll independent efforts to investigate what happened to Julie. He was a wealthy businessman and the managing director of a hotel group, so it's no surprise that from day one, he was able to contract several private pilots and aircrafts
20:52 Speaker 00 to search for his daughter. No amount of money, though, could buy him patience when it came to dealing with the Kenyan government. He wrote in his book, "The Animals Are Innocent: A Search for Julie's Killers", that the methods the country's police force employed were both unprofessional and outright bizarre. For example, about a month after finding Julie's remains in the reserve, two Kenyan police investigators showed up to John's hotel room in Nairobi and handed him a plastic grocery bag with a skull inside. They said it was Julie's and had been found during an additional search of the reserve. About six months after that, in early April 1989, the first Kenyan police officer who was in charge of the investigation filed a formal report in which he concluded Julie had died by suicide.
21:37 Speaker 00 Full stop. A few months later, in August of that year, an official inquest into the matter took place in Kenya, and John was hopeful he and his family would get some clarity and be able to present their own findings. By that point, he'd traveled to and from Africa multiple times since September of 1988, and he'd spent countless hours gathering interviews and evidence as part of his own investigation. He and his lawyer planned to present what they'd found to the magistrate overseeing the inquest, or at a minimum, just publicly raise doubts about the police's version of events. Andrew Hogg reported for the Sunday Times that John himself wasn't allowed into the courtroom for most of the proceeding, only his lawyer was. And very little of what his investigation had uncovered
22:20 Speaker 00 could be presented outside of his own testimony when he eventually was called as a witness. However, I will say that John did use his time in the witness box to push back and question the validity of the police's investigation, as well as a lot of the inconsistencies in the entire case. Regarding his doggedness to see justice served for his daughter, John told reporter Andrew Hogg that his entire family was unified when it came to holding Kenyan investigators accountable. He said, quote, "I'm just the sharp end. It's being done with the backing, encouragement, and insistence of my wife and two sons. They are not at home saying, 'Crazy dad is off halfway around the world again.' They are as determined as I am
23:04 Speaker 00 to catch the bastard that did this. From my point of view, it's probably 70% revenge and 30% a combination of factors, including my fear that if the murderer has done it once, he could do it again. It's not an obsession. It's more cold and calculating than that. It comes down to the fact that I don't like being buggered about." End quote. Another noteworthy witness who testified was Dr. Jason Cavidi, the chief pathologist who'd changed Julie's postmortem report a few days after it was initially labeled a homicide. When he was called to testify about his actions, he stated he'd done what he'd done because he felt that his underling, Dr. Shaker, had used words and phrases in the initial autopsy
23:47 Speaker 00 report, which was written in English, that were not grammatically correct. Caviti said that Dr. Shaker had made those mistakes because he didn't have a clear understanding of the English language because he happened to be Egyptian. Essentially, Caviti's story was that he and Dr. Shaker together had altered the report to simply correct Dr. Shaker's misuse of grammar. The alterations including changing the descriptions of Julie's injuries from stating things like "cleanly cut" to "cracked" or "torn", and changed the word "sharp" to "blunt." According to reporting by Aidan Hartley for The Times, the inquest also revealed that at one point, the clerk at Sand River Camp had been considered a suspect because he'd admitted after a few rounds of questioning
24:30 Speaker 00 to forging Julie's signature in the camp's register book about 30 minutes after she left the area. This clerk had several inconsistent statements throughout his testimony, but he vehemently denied killing Julie or participating with anyone else to cover up the crime. Another article by The Times reported that the Kenyan police constable Jared Carrari, who was stationed at Sand River Camp the day Julie was last seen, was also called to testify. He told the court that he'd seen Julie take down her and Glenn Burns' two tents from about 100 yards away while he was sitting in his office. Shortly after that, he said she left the area around 2:30 p.m. John Ward's attorney, though, didn't believe him and pressed him hard on the witness stand.
25:13 Speaker 00 And I think the reason for that was because Gerald's testimony at the inquest sort of contradicted his prior statement to investigators that he'd personally helped Julie take down her tents. And because of this, John Ward's lawyer basically called him a liar. He was definitely convinced that Gerald and the clerk at the camp knew much more than they were saying.
25:38 Speaker 01 Traditional home security only alerts you after a break-in, and that's too late. SimpliSafe is changing that.
25:44 Speaker 07 Stop. This is SimpliSafe. Police are on the way.
25:47 Speaker 01 We don't just alert, we help stop crime before it starts. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 60% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. SimpliSafe, ahead of crime, in real time.
26:02 Speaker 07 Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/l licenses for alarm license information.
26:09 Speaker 02 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles County.
26:16 Speaker 02 Inside, they found a strange scene. A dining area converted into classrooms, with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks.
26:26 Speaker 02 The couple that lived there had 21 kids.
26:29 Speaker 03 It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory, a baby factory.
26:36 Speaker 02 Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived.
26:44 Speaker 04 Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp.
26:47 Speaker 05 That's the one time that we called the cops, because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun.
26:52 Speaker 06 I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into?
26:57 Speaker 02 I'm Ava Kaufman. "The Journey" is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
27:14 Speaker 00 Several odd things about the evidence found where the Jeep was abandoned and where Julie's remains were discovered were also explored during the inquest. For example, John Ward's lawyer thought it was odd that Julie had apparently been wearing flip-flops when she died. Those shoes were recovered near her burned remains, and it was revealed in court that a pair of her gym shoes had been left behind in her abandoned Jeep. Which didn't make sense to Ward's attorney, because if she had really left her vehicle in search of help, then why didn't she wear more appropriate footwear to traverse the landscape? The lawyer also noted that where the Jeep was found, in a gully, was about 15 feet away from a dry, easily traversable patch of ground. So it didn't make sense to him why Julie had gotten bogged down in the first place.
27:59 Speaker 00 In his opinion, he felt all the evidence pointed to her Jeep having been purposely planted at the spot to make it appear as if she'd run off the road or gotten stuck. John raised similar issues during his testimony. He said that he'd spoken with a Swiss film crew who'd been staying on a hillside a few hundred meters away from where Julie's Jeep was found. But none of those folks remembered seeing her or her vehicle in the gully between September 6th and September 13th, which only further supported the notion that it had not been there the entire time Julie was missing. A local pilot later told investigators, though, that the film crew was actually staying further away from where the Jeep was left, and it was entirely possible that they had just not noticed it or been able to see it.
28:43 Speaker 00 It also came to light during the inquest proceeding that some members of the Masai tribe had heard a woman's prolonged screams coming from the general area where Julie's remains were eventually found on September 13th, which raised a really big question: Did Julie die on that day, or did she die on the day she was last seen, September 6th? If it was the former, September 13th, then where in the world had she been in the days between when she was last seen on the 6th and when her burned remains were located? Andrew Hogg reported for the Sunday Times that it became clear during the inquest someone had likely held Julie captive for several days and killed her shortly before her charred remains were found.
29:24 Speaker 00 That thought, as you can imagine, was a difficult reality for John Ward to process.
29:31 Speaker 00 The inquest lasted for almost three months and ended in late October 1989, with the magistrate in charge ultimately concluding that Julie had been murdered. Period. He ordered that the Kenyan authorities investigate her case as a homicide moving forward. Some of the big things he expressed that didn't add up to him were where Julie's Jeep had been found, where the missing can of fuel had ended up, and the clearly intentional injuries to her body. He told the court that he believed the vehicle might have been planted by her killer or killers, and that it was possible someone other than Julie had transported the can of reserve fuel from the Jeep to the burn site and then carried it away. Regarding the state of Julie's remains when they were found, he said, quote, "I can only
30:15 Speaker 00 come to the conclusion that those sharp cuts were man-made and not animal-made. I think the animals are innocent," end quote. The magistrate also said he knew the wards were going to continue to be highly suspicious of Simon Olamakala, the gay warden who'd found Julie's remains. But the magistrate emphasized that if Simon was somehow involved, it was unusual that he would have wanted to be the person who led people to the burn site. In my opinion, I think that's debatable. I mean, we know from looking at some true crime cases that involved parties can sometimes be right in the middle of an investigation, if not the person who relishes in finding remains or clues. Anyway, the magistrate officially labeling the case as a murder, though, wasn't total
31:00 Speaker 00 vindication for John Ward. The court had made it clear that even though murder was the most likely scenario, there had not been a cover-up. Therefore, the magistrate wasn't going to refer the case to the Attorney General's office for further investigation on the matter. John didn't feel confident that police in Kenya were really going to work Julie's case, though, so he continued to carry out his own investigation. He traveled back and forth from England and kept trying to track down all the people who'd been staying at Sand River Camp on the day she disappeared. Those efforts sent him and those who were helping him to Spain, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and even the United States, trying to track down witnesses and conduct interviews.
31:42 Speaker 00 He posted a $10,000 reward for information that might lead to an arrest. That amount then would have had the buying power today of over $33,000 US dollars, so it was a lot of money in 1989.
31:56 Speaker 00 After the inquest, it appears things in the case, at least in Kenya, went quiet for a while. But back in Great Britain, John kept being vocal about getting justice for his daughter. He called on people involved in England's political scene who had power and influence. Around this time, the US issued an advisory classifying Kenya as an unsafe destination, and reports of other international tourists being attacked and killed while visiting the country also began to surface. For example, in the summer of 1989, just a few weeks before the inquest into Julie's murder ended, a foreign conservationist and two Kenyan workers in a park were shot and killed by criminals from Somalia. Another group was also reported to have been attacked and murdered around that same time.
32:40 Speaker 00 But it was speculated that Kenyan officials didn't necessarily want word of those incidents to circulate in the press, because the tourism industry was such an economic driver for the country. By January and February of 1990, John's personal efforts to keep the spotlight on his daughter's case paid off. Scotland Yard launched an official investigation into the murder and actually sent three inspectors to Kenya to poke around and gather police files. Within weeks of that happening, two game wardens in their twenties who worked in the reserve during the timeframe Julie was killed were arrested on suspicion of being connected to the crime. An article by Michael Horstnell stated that forensic tests were being done by British investigators at that time as part of the investigation into the men, but the article
33:25 Speaker 00 didn't specify what specific items of evidence were being tested. Later reporting by Sam Kylie mentioned that several Caucasian hares had been found in huts that the defendants and another ranger lived in at the reserve. An article by Richard Casby said what had gotten the whole ball rolling and resulted in the game wardens being arrested in the first place was that someone had sent John Ward an anonymous letter in England claiming to know where some of Julie's personal belongings ended up in Kenya after her murder. I have to presume that tip pointed toward the two park rangers, or else investigators wouldn't have been so heavily focused on them. Anyway, Scotland Yard's theory at that point was entirely circumstantial, but it went like this. Julie willingly sought help from the two park rangers while they were patrolling on
34:10 Speaker 00 foot on September 6th, 1988. But then, something went south, and she was held for a few days at their ranger outpost, where they sexually assaulted her and killed her. To cover up their crime, the men dismembered her body and burned her remains in the savanna at a different location than where her jeep was found. John Ward mostly agreed with this theory, but he was also convinced that Kenyan officials higher up in the government had played a role in the seemingly corrupt and questionable events that followed the murder. Kenya's attorney general took a look at Scotland Yard's theory and reviewed evidence that allegedly supported it. Something he noted as interesting was that a button-sized, solar-powered battery that had been discovered at the ranger's outpost after the crime was the type of battery that
34:55 Speaker 00 Julie's missing Olympus camera would have taken. When it was found, it was resting on a coin in the sun. That position was one way to build up a charge, a fact that seemingly its owner would have known. And because Scotland Yard determined that none of the rangers owned an Olympus camera or knew how to charge a battery like that, it almost seemed as if Julie had left it at the outpost herself, perhaps with the intention of coming back to get it. However, there was other evidence that suggested the battery may have belonged to a wristwatch, which some of the rangers who lived at the outpost wore. So, in the end, the battery being there wasn't necessarily a smoking-gun clue. In February 1991, Kenya's attorney general made his decision about how to move forward,
35:40 Speaker 00 and he ultimately charged both of the park rangers with Julie's murder. But roughly another year passed before their trial finally got underway in February 1992. Sam Kiley reported for The Times that the two defendants hired the same defense attorney, who wanted to focus just as much on the Kenyan government's cover-up of the crime as he did on the innocence of his clients. An interesting bit of information that wasn't directly related to the trial, but certainly couldn't be ignored, was that just a few months after Julie was killed, Kenya's sitting foreign minister had also died under suspicious circumstances. Apparently, that guy was found dead 2 kilometers from his house, shot in the head at an awkward angle, sporting a broken leg and burned with accelerant.
36:25 Speaker 00 From reading the source material, it's pretty clear that his untimely death only increased some people's suspicion that the government was trying to cover up or silence people who may have known important information about what really happened to Julie. A lot of the defendant's trial went the same way as the inquest a few years earlier. John Ward testified, and so did the original witnesses from Sand River Camp. One big difference, though, was that the judge overseeing the trial had everyone involved travel out to the reserve to tour the important locations of the crime. That experience was incredibly emotional for Jan Ward, Julie's mother, who traveled from England to attend the trial. She and John were allowed to grieve in private after the tour ended for the day and the defendants were escorted out of the area.
37:10 Speaker 00 Not long after that, the murder trial abruptly paused so that another case could go before the court. It was scheduled to resume at a later date, and I guess this is just something that happens within the Kenya court system. I'm not familiar with a situation like this happening, but regardless, John Ward was once again unhappy with the way Kenya's court system chose to operate. He told The Guardian, quote, "It is really quite disgraceful. This trial has assumed second-league importance. It's really quite pathetic. They've adjourned it for every reason under the sun." End quote. I have no idea what the other court case was that caused the trial to be delayed, but once things resumed a few weeks later, the verdict came in. And it was not what the Wards expected.
37:54 Speaker 00 Sam Kylie reported for The Times that the assessors of the trial determined that both park rangers were not guilty of killing Julie. A few days later, the judge presiding over the proceedings agreed. Now, you might be asking, what is an assessor? Because I had the same question. And the best I could tell from reading the source material is they're kind of like jurors, but they don't have the same power that a jury here in the US has. Basically, in Kenya, assessors in a murder case determined guilt or innocence and made their recommendation to the judge, but it was the judge who ultimately held the power to convict the accused. This is different than how the judicial system in the US works, but that doesn't mean one way is wrong or right. It's just different.
38:39 Speaker 00 When it came down to it, the judge deciding the two game wardens' fates said he was just not convinced by Scotland Yard's findings or the circumstantial case that the prosecution had presented. He thought that in addition to the defendants, the clerk for Sand River Camp and the police constable who was on duty there in September 1988 should have been investigated more, as well as Simon Ole Makala, the chief game warden who'd found Julie's remains. The wards were understandably disappointed with the verdict and travelled back home to the UK with heavy hearts. John told The Times, quote, "There was just reworking of the old lies. All I ever wanted to do was find out what happened," end quote. For a while, that seemed to be the end of the story.
39:24 Speaker 00 John somewhat backed off continuing to push for answers, and the rest of Julie's family just sort of accepted that they may never know who killed her or what really happened. But then, 10 months later, that all changed. Because Kenya's Police Department apparently cleaned house, and a new team of investigators had decided to relaunch the investigation into Julie's murder. An investigation that led them straight back to a very familiar name.
39:54 Speaker 01 Traditional home security only alerts you after a break-in, and that's too late. SimpliSafe is changing that.
40:00 Speaker 07 Stop, this is SimpliSafe. Police are on the way.
40:03 Speaker 01 We don't just alert, we help stop crime before it starts. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 60% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. SimpliSafe, ahead of crime, in real time.
40:18 Speaker 07 Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.
40:25 Speaker 00 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles County. Inside, they found a strange scene. A dining area converted into classrooms, with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks.
40:42 Speaker 00 The couple that lived there had 21 kids.
40:45 Speaker 03 It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory, a baby factory.
40:52 Speaker 00 Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived.
41:00 Speaker 04 Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp.
41:03 Speaker 05 That's the one time that we called the cops because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun.
41:08 Speaker 06 I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into?
41:13 Speaker 00 I'm Ava Kaufman. "The Journey" is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
41:31 Speaker 00 In July 1998, Kenyan police arrested and charged Simon Olemakala with Julie's murder. By that point, it had been almost 10 years since the crime happened, and Simon was working as the Assistant Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service. He was no longer the chief game warden of the reserve. Kenya's sitting Attorney General at the time told the press that sufficient circumstantial evidence had come to light over the course of an 18-month-long investigation that allowed them to move forward with arresting Simon. Lucy Hannan reported for The Guardian that one tool investigators were exploring in their case against Simon was DNA. Kenyan authorities had agreed to send some of the hair evidence in the case to England for further forensic testing.
42:15 Speaker 00 If you remember from earlier, a few blonde hairs had been found in the ranger outpost that Scotland Yard suspected Julie had been held at. But it doesn't seem like testing the hairs resulted in anything monumental or new coming to light. Because when Simon went to trial in March of 1999, I couldn't find anywhere in the reporting that hair evidence was presented, as like a linchpin that connected him to Julie's abduction and murder. What prosecutors did argue was that Simon suppressed other evidence in the case and had done nothing to try and search for Julie when he first learned she was missing. The prosecution also accused him of being dishonest about several things, including his actions during the initial investigation. For example, back in 1989 during the formal inquest,
42:59 Speaker 00 Simon testified that he didn't know how to drive a vehicle. But when he was confronted with statements from some of his deputies, who said they'd seen him drive many times, and John Ward's testimony that he'd personally driven him on more than one occasion in the reserve the day after Julie's remains were found, it became clear that Simon had lied about his driving abilities. His explanation for lying, though, wasn't so much that he didn't know how to drive, it was that he'd been doing so illegally and lied afterwards to avoid possible charges. His dishonesty about whether or not he could drive made him look really bad, especially to John Ward. John accused Simon straight up of having prior knowledge of where to go to find Julie's remains.
43:43 Speaker 00 John claimed that reports had revealed that Simon joined the official search party only after Julie's Jeep was discovered, and he'd driven straight to the spot where her burned remains ended up, so that he would be the first person to make the discovery and radio the update to everyone else. Simon denied those allegations, though, and claimed that he and others had driven in several different directions around Julie's Jeep before taking the route that brought them to her charred remains. He said the only thing that had caused him to go in the direction of where she was eventually discovered was because search teams had spotted a flock of vultures circling in the air over that area, and his group had wanted to investigate it further. In the end, after 43 days of trial, the assessors and judge weighing Simon's guilt
44:26 Speaker 00 determined there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of murder, and he was acquitted. His adult daughter and several members of the Masai tribe celebrated the news outside of the courthouse. John Ward was not happy, though. He claimed that the assessors had been influenced and directly contacted by Simon throughout the trial, and that the proceedings had been fundamentally flawed due to corruption.
44:50 Speaker 00 Author Grace Musilla wrote in her book, "A Death Retold in Truth and Rumor", that no one could deny the racial and cultural discourses swirling around Julie's case as it went through multiple criminal trials and continue to stay in the media limelight. Julie was a young, white, British woman who'd been brutally murdered in an area predominantly occupied by native Masai tribe members. The fact that her father was a white, British, wealthy businessman who relentlessly questioned the guilt of Kenyan citizens and the Kenyan government made the issue that much touchier. When you take into consideration the bloody history between British colonizers and Kenyan native people dating back to the turn of the 20th century, you can see where it would have been possible for prejudices and deep-seated tensions
45:35 Speaker 00 to influence people's opinions about the case, potential perpetrators, and the government agencies that at times conducted parallel investigations. Simon Olamakala and the two game wardens who were also acquitted of Julie's murder were all reported to be members of the Masai tribe. Now, I don't know if these men truly were guilty or not. I don't think anyone can know that except them. But it's clear from reading a lot of quotes from John Ward that at one point, he was convinced they were responsible for what happened to his daughter. However, on the flip side, there were also many native Kenyans who felt like the accusations being made against the defendants by Julie's British family members and supporters were a result of blind prejudice. Kenyan author Grace Musilla discusses in her book
46:19 Speaker 00 that one of the big reasons Masai tribe members weren't necessarily forthcoming with information to Scotland Yard investigators or John Ward was because culturally, the tribe is a very close-knit group, and their members always support their own. They've also historically been at odds with British influences and the norms of modern legal procedures. I think dynamics like this and other wild spin-off theories as to who might be responsible for Julie's death just made this case a lot more difficult to try and solve as the years dragged on. For example, one theory that cropped up speculated that Julie might not have been the innocent wildlife-loving photographer she presented herself as. Some people believed she might have been a British spy who'd come across damning information
47:03 Speaker 00 about the activities of powerful Kenyan political figures in the Reserve. It's unclear, though, if anyone with any authority ever really pursued that theory beyond just "it was possible." And naturally, John Ward and the Scotland Yard denounced it as completely unfounded, which at this point in the story isn't a huge surprise to me. By 2004, a formal inquest in the UK had been held to help snuff out rumors like this, and that proceeding concluded with the same ruling: Julie was murdered. Period. But another wild theory that surfaced as a result of that inquest had to do with Julie being struck by lightning. I know, we're back to that scenario again. Articles by Michael Horstel and Patrick Barkham reported that way back in the fall
47:48 Speaker 00 of 1988, John Ward and some of his supporters had been told by a former MI-6 officer that British intelligence agents had covertly inquired about Julie's murder shortly after news of her death broke. One agent had allegedly determined that she'd gotten her Jeep stuck in the mud, walked to find help, become lost, and started a fire beneath a tree. She'd then climbed that tree to possibly be safe from threats on the ground, but then lightning struck her, and it was so powerful it had severed her body, causing her to fall into the fire where animals later scavenged her remains. To say this theory feels like a stretch is an understatement, and it's worth noting it wasn't really something that the press reported on until many years after the crime.
48:32 Speaker 00 So of course, when reporters did find out about it, they couldn't help but go to press immediately. The British forensic pathologist who'd conducted Julie's second autopsy in England, though, was not convinced the whole lightning strike theory was credible, purely from a logical standpoint. He told the Daily Telegraph, quote, "When you are struck by lightning, your body doesn't fall into pieces with your legs, arm, and head falling off. I hope we don't hear any more of this nonsense. It's monstrous rubbish." End quote. It was also in 2004 that several big lies from the past started to unravel. For example, Dr. Shaker, the first pathologist in Kenya whose autopsy report had been changed,
49:13 Speaker 00 admitted that he'd agreed to let his bosses amend his initial report to cover up evidence that pointed to murder. A few years later, in 2009, nearly 21 years after Julie's death, the first Kenyan police investigator on Julie's case who'd concluded all the way back in April 1989 that she died by suicide, ended up telling John Ward face to face that he'd made his entire report up just to get his superiors, who'd wanted the police department's investigation to point away from foul play, off his back. This officer also admitted that his original investigation seemed to indicate that a well-known political figure in Kenya might have been involved in Julie's murder. However, when he told his supervisor about that hunch, his boss had told him to, quote,
49:58 Speaker 00 "look elsewhere," end quote.
50:01 Speaker 00 Also in 2009, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism unit launched another probe into the case after a new witness came forward with information about where some of Julie's other remains were buried in the park. This witness claimed that several of Julie's body parts had been separated from the ones that were burned and put elsewhere in the reserve to intentionally throw off investigators' suspicions back in 1988. The British detectives assigned to the case in 2009 told The Nation and The Sunday Telegraph that they'd identified DNA from evidence found at the murder scene and tied that DNA to a suspect, but didn't give any names. They spent almost two weeks interviewing witnesses in Kenya and collecting more DNA samples, but ultimately momentum in the case slowed down and no arrests were made.
50:45 Speaker 00 By 2012, John Ward firmly believed that a prominent political player, who he referred to as Mr. B., was the mastermind behind Julie's murder. He wrote a lengthy article for the March 2012 issue of Nairobi Law Monthly titled "Mr. B. Killed Julie," in which he laid out his entire theory. I wasn't able to get my hands on a copy of that piece for this episode, but Grace Musillo wrote about it in her book and explained that John was very convinced this well-known figure called the shots when it came to why Julie was killed and how her murder was covered up. John had previously told reporter Kate Alderson that at one point he'd interviewed the political figure's driver, who said he'd witnessed Julie's murder after she'd accidentally come across
51:28 Speaker 00 a group of gun and drug smugglers in the reserve and been killed because she'd seen something she shouldn't have. But John's accusations about this Mr. B didn't result in that guy getting charged with anything. It did prompt the man to issue a public denial to Kenyan newspapers, though, which I have to assume Mr. B did anonymously since I couldn't find his true identity reported anywhere. When John was previously interviewed by The Nation in 2011, he told reporters that he was absolutely convinced a conspiracy was to blame for why his daughter's murder had never been solved. He wrote in his book, "The Animals Are Innocent," quote, "You say to yourself, no matter what it is going to take, these people are not going to get away with it.
52:11 Speaker 00 But in the end, you are one individual against a state, and it is not easy," end quote. In 2020, John was back in news headlines yet again talking about Julie's case and still claiming that a political conspiracy was to blame. By this point, though, he had some compelling proof and new witnesses to back up his theory. In February of that year, Kenya's president, Daniel Moy, who'd been in power when Julie was killed, died. And John said the former president's death triggered many people in Kenya to finally come forward with important information, information they'd been too scared to share while President Moy was alive. John claimed that one witness had revealed to him that Daniel's son, Jonathan Moy, was in the reserve when Julie was killed
52:56 Speaker 00 and that the former president himself had helped cover up his son's involvement in the crime. John alleged that this witness alleged that Jonathan and some of his friends had been drinking in the park on September 6, 1988, and stumbled across Julie while she was on her way to Nairobi taking pictures of wildlife. They abducted her, sexually assaulted her, and took her to a farm that Jonathan owned in the reserve and then later disposed of her body. Unfortunately, in May and June of 2023, within several weeks of one another, Jan and John Ward died at the age of 89, unable to prove their claims or present them to a governing body. Today, their sons, Tim and Bob Ward, continue to keep asking questions and putting pressure on law enforcement
53:40 Speaker 00 to explore the Moy family as possible suspects. Nick Craven reported for the Daily Mail that Julie's brothers are convinced that Jonathan Moy was involved in their sister's murder. But Jonathan died in 2019, so even if it could be proven he was involved, he can't be prosecuted. It's important to note, though, that prior to his death, Jonathan denied allegations that the Ward family made against him regarding Julie's death.
54:07 Speaker 00 The Sunday Times reported that after her murder, Julie's remains were buried in Kenya because it was a place she'd loved so much and had made happy memories in during the final months of her life. Her dad traveled all over the world chasing leads and information he felt could bring him answers. John passed in June of 2023, followed shortly thereafter by Julie's mother, Jan. And even though John may have died never having found the truth, it's widely believed that if it weren't for his unwavering devotion to finding justice for Julie, the case would never have gotten the international attention it did over the years. His sons, Tim and Bob, consider him a hero in their eyes. And according to Frances Hardy's reporting for the Daily Mail,
54:51 Speaker 00 they've taken up the mantle of his efforts to continue pursuing justice for Julie. At the time of John's death, he had another book about the case still in the manuscript stage, and the brothers told the Daily Mail they still intend to publish it. There's also a proposed documentary and drama series in the works. I tried to reach out to Tim and Bob for this episode, but due to us being in different countries on different continents, I didn't hear back. So Bob, Tim, if you're listening, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach out directly to the show through the Park Predators Instagram, @ParkPredators. From everything I've read about John Ward, he went farther than most people are able or willing to go to fight for their murdered child.
55:35 Speaker 00 But that work wasn't easy on him as a person. At one point, he told The Guardian's Helen Carter, "There is no sense of pleasure in finding out who murdered my daughter. It has been grisly, unpleasant, and nasty work. From day one, my sole objective has been to catch the bastard who has done this. I don't think about whether Julie would have been pleased with me or say it is for her memory. That's all Mickey Mouse stuff."
56:03 Speaker 00 In 1998, Julie's mom, Jan, wrote in a book titled Julie Ward: Gentle Nature, about how devastating the entire ordeal was on her family and how their pain never went away. She penned in part, quote, "I don't think there will ever be an end because there is always an empty space. I think in the early days, the feeling is overwhelming. You've got to know why, and how, and who, and where. And you think, when you know all that, you will understand and accept it. But I will never, in a million years, understand how anybody could kill Julie. You do feel that somehow, when you know everything, you will be able to accept it. But it's not true. It's just a stepping stone along the way." End quote.
56:53 Speaker 00 Park Predators is an AudioChuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram, @ParkPredators.
57:11 Speaker 00 I think Chuck would approve.
57:18 Speaker 00 In the dark, even the most familiar trail can feel like it leads somewhere else. Every rustle becomes a warning, every shadow, a doorway. In Full Body Chills, those doorways open into worlds pulled straight from your nightmares. This spooky season classic returns with chillingly tales, immersive sound, and no promise that you'll find your way back. So step off the familiar path if you dare. Listen to new episodes of Full Body Chills every week, wherever you get your podcasts.
Previous The Wife Next The Manhunt Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated