Julie Ward

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1:57Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

2:30Today I'm discussing the case of Julie Ward. Julie's case and her family's journey to get her justice is tragic and inspiring. Many people have been charged with Julie's murder, but none have been convicted. Her dad John spent 35 years and over 2 million pounds fighting for justice. In the end, he proved that both the Kenyan and British governments took action to cover up Julie's murder. This is the case of Julie Ward. Julianne Ward was born on April 20, 1960 in Suffolk, England. She was the oldest child of John and Jan Ward. After Julie came two sons, Tim and Bob John Ward was a self-made millionaire After serving in the Royal Air Force in the early 1950s, he saw the world's fascination with coffee shops and decided to open one himself He then expanded to a second location And eventually, by the mid-1960s, he began purchasing hotels that he then sold John made a good amount of money from the sale and decided to retire to California, at least for a while.

3:47Like many entrepreneurs, retirement bored him, so he took his family back to Britain and founded the Butterfly Hotel Group. Despite John's impressive success, his daughter Julie worked very hard to make her own path. Julie was gorgeous, extremely intelligent, and kind. She worked upwards of 15 hours a day as a publishing assistant in Suffolk. But that wasn't truly her passion. What she really loved were animals and photography. It seems that a lot of this passion came from her mom Jan owning a lot of huskies and just caring for stray animals. In 1985, Julie took her first trip to Africa and fell in love.

4:29In 1988, at age 28, she embarked on her third trip there. And this was a long trip. Julie planned on spending seven months there. She really just wanted ample time to capture the annual wildebeest migration at the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. This is an event that people still travel from all around the world to go see. It's also where visitors can visit what they call the Big Five. The African elephant, African lion, cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. In addition to a lot of other animals. especially back in 1988. It was the perfect place for Julie's love of photography and animals to come together.

5:11So, on February 7th, 1988, Julie flew from England to Kenya. While, of course, this is long before the days of constant communication with cell phones, Julie did keep in touch with people back home through writing letters and sending back her undeveloped rolls of film as she traveled through Africa. Through her travel, she also made some friends, most notably Paul and Natasha Weld-Dixon, an elderly couple she met in Nairobi. They owned a property there and basically let Julie camp on their site because they liked her and enjoyed her company. So for months, Julie's just kind of traveling, taking a ton of pictures, and staying at a variety of properties and campgrounds across Africa.

5:54By early September, Julie's trip was nearly over, and her flight back to England was just about a week away. During this portion of her trip, she was traveling with an Australian friend, Dr. Glenn Burns. Together, on September 2nd, they drove to the Mara in Julie's Jeep. She purchased this in Nairobi for this trip. But this was it, the moment that Julie had been waiting for. They were finally going to see the wildebeest migration. On their way, they stopped and camped at the Sand River Campground and continued their journey the next morning. But after stopping for lunch at the Serena Lodge, the jeep broke down.

6:32Luckily, a tourist vehicle finds them and tows them back to the lodge. But this is where they realized that they had a bad fuel pump. Unfortunately, Dr. Burns was due at a meeting at the National Museums of Kenya in three days, so he asked their city host, Mr. Weld Dixon, to send a new pump to Julie at the lodge. On September 5th, the jeep was repaired by a local mechanic, and Julie left for Nairobi on the 6th, determined to see the migration with or without Dr. Burns. But before she could head on to Nairobi, she had to kind of backtrack to pick up the tents that they left behind at the Sand River campsite.

7:08She was reportedly seen here around 2pm, doing exactly that. She also paid a fee for storing the tents for the past few days. It's reported that she was alone. This is the last known sighting of Julie Ward. From here, it's believed that she headed back towards Nairobi to see the wildebeest migration as planned. But days pass, and the Weld Dixons become increasingly concerned for Julie. Her return ticket to England was for September 10th, but she told the Weld Dixons that she planned to visit them before leaving. Now, this couple had been in the area for over 25 years, So I imagine that they are well versed in the dangers of Julie's trip.

7:51And they really waste no time trying to find her. They call police stations and hospitals, and then the game reserve. They check their log of visitors entering and leaving the reserve, and tell them that Julie left on the night of September 6th. But then, Julie misses her flight on the 10th, and they know that they have to report her missing to police. After doing that, their next call is to John Ward. In reporting by Dan Warburton for The Mirror, John Ward says, quote, It's a funny feeling. I actually knew something was wrong. I had an overwhelming feeling I had to do something. So I flew out that day.

8:30I'd never been to Africa, never been to the bush. I realized how wild and rough it was. All I could think was that she was down there by herself. End quote. This episode of Voices for Justice is brought to you by Quince. I love giving gifts, and Quince really does make that so easy. They have something for everyone, from soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters for$50 that look and feel like designer pieces, silk tops and skirts for dressing up, perfectly cut denim for everyday wear, and outerwear that actually keeps you warm. And of course, what I love is that every piece is made with premium materials from ethical, trusted factories, and it's all priced far below what other luxury brands charge.

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11:00Get tickets now. After discovering that his 28-year-old daughter, Julie, has gone missing, John Ward is on a plane to Kenya within hours. And he wastes no time or expense to find her. At this point, Julie's already been missing for six days. They have no time to spare. With the help of the Well Dixons and other friends Julie made on her trip, John organizes searches. He also charters five aircrafts to search for Julie's jeep. And his plan worked. On September 13th, Julie's jeep was found off the path and in a gully in the Mara. The doors were locked, but of course John puts his hands up to the glass and looks through the windows, and in the backseat he sees this bundle of cloth.

11:50His first thought is that maybe Julie's under there, so they break the glass to get inside the Jeep, but Julie was not inside. Instead, they find two bottles of beer, binoculars, and a map, and on the top of the Jeep, they see the letters S.O.S. written in the dirt. While Julie's Jeep was found in this unexpected location, they thought that maybe it had broken down and Julie left this message before continuing on foot. John Ward had hope. But that same day, Chief Game Warden Simon Olay McCalla investigates an extinguished campfire about 10 kilometers away, and in it he finds charred human remains.

12:35When John Ward gets to the scene, he also finds film, and what would later be confirmed to be Julie's lower jawbone and left leg. Her skull would be found about a month later in a nearby bush. Dr. Adel Shaker, a pathologist from the Kenyan Police Department, performed Julie's autopsy. He concluded that Julie's body had been cut with some type of blade, and her leg had been burned after it was removed from her body. Everything was pointing to homicide. But despite this looking like a rather obvious case of foul play, Kenyan officials refused to conduct a murder inquiry. So, John Ward takes up the investigation himself.

13:20He says that they pushed for Julie's remains to be cremated, but he instead took them back to England to have them examined by three separate pathologists. And each one of them said the same thing. They didn't know exactly how Julie died, but it was clear that her leg had been removed via some type of blade, then soaked in gasoline and set on fire. Now, at first, Kenyan officials tried to make John Ward accept the fact that his daughter was attacked by animals But when John came back with these findings that clearly animals didn't soak Julie's body in gas They said maybe Julie had been struck by lightning or died by suicide John ends up placing ads in two of Kenya's major newspapers Advertising a reward of 10 million Kenyan shillings or about 77 ,000 pounds.

14:13He was specifically looking for an arrest or a conviction. The information does start to come in, and about a year after Julie's found, the first murder inquest into her death begins. But it's weird from the start. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office urges John to restrict witnesses to only the Kenyan police, basically discouraging him from bringing in his experts from England. John denies this request, and in the end, it was determined that Julie had been murdered. Chief Magistrate Joseph Mango said, There is ample and substantial evidence that Julie Ward died of foul play by a person or persons unknown.

14:55I think the animals are innocent. If they are guilty at all, it is in eating what they found. Despite this ruling, though, no arrests were made, and it was decided that no further investigation was needed. But do we think this stopped John Ward? Of course not. John dedicates his entire life to this. He even sells off a part of his stake in the Butterfly Hotel Group to pay for the investigation. He was not going to let this go. He dug deeper and deeper, and eventually by early 1990, he was able to convince UK Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd to initiate an investigation by Scotland Yard. And two detectives were flown to Kenya.

15:44But Kenyan officials stick to their story. This was not a homicide. They even go as far as to call Julie a loose girl who might have been sad enough to cut herself up. As in, dismember herself. But by January 1992, these detectives find enough evidence to charge two rangers from the reserve with Julie's murder Peter Kapan and John Maggiore Julie's hair and a battery from her Olympus camera were found at the game post they'd been working at that day The prosecution argued that the men abducted Julie after finding her jeep Then imprisoned her at the Macari game post for six days sexually assaulted her, murdered her, and then dismembered and burnt her body.

16:35The investigation also uncovered that Julie's signature had been forged at the Sand River campground where she was supposedly last seen. After being presented with evidence from a handwriting expert, employee of the campground, David Nakoko, admitted to forging her signature. But he said it wasn't to cover up any type of murder. It was just to avoid getting in trouble because he forgot to have her sign. In the end, by June, the two rangers were acquitted, citing lack of evidence. But there is a win in this. The judge actually sides with John Ward's theory that Julie's murder has been covered up to protect Kenya's tourism industry.

17:18Again, John is not giving up. He keeps gathering evidence and pushing for further investigation. and John really does a lot of this kind of in secret. He kept his itinerary secret and he wouldn't even order his own food. He stuck strictly to buffet options and according to John, he felt this was necessary because one man who threatened to tell the truth about Julie's death had apparently died in a mysterious accident. So John is chugging away trying to get new information. By 1997, now nearly a decade after Julie's death, a new team of Kenyan police officers re-examined Julie's case. And by July 1998, another man is charged with her murder.

18:06Gamekeeper Simone Ole McCalla. He's basically the big boss of the reserve, and the man who originally found Julie's remains. Or at least he used to be the big boss. He was apparently suspended not long after Julie's remains were found. But according to John Ward, the original story was that McCullough was on leave, before they finally admitted that he had been suspended and was not expected to return. So let's dig into McCullough finding Julie's remains. As the boss, the day that Julie went missing, McCullough was informed of her disappearance. But instead of participating in or just overseeing the search for her, he instead went to the Serena Lodge That's where Julie stopped for lunch before the jeep broke down He got to Julie's car around 3pm and promptly had the items inside, the binoculars, beers, and map Along with some other personal items, moved for safekeeping However, the detectives caught that in his testimony in the 1992 trial He said that he peeked into Julie's Jeep and saw these items three hours after the time recorded that he had removed them for safekeeping.

19:22This discrepancy was of course a major red flag for investigators. So they keep digging. And after reviewing the logs, it was discovered that from the time he found Julie's vehicle to the time of him finding her remains was the exact amount of time it would take to drive from one location to the other. Basically, McCullough went directly to Julie's remains while supposedly not knowing they were there. Now, McCullough counters this. He says he saw a buzzard circling in the sky, so Julie was easy to find. However, experts have argued that from that distance, upwards of 10 kilometers or about 6 miles away, you couldn't see an elephant, let alone vultures.

20:08Investigators also took note that not only was Julie's jeep found hidden and off the path like I mentioned Her remains were found next to a rather distinct tree So it seems like either McCullough knew where she was Or he was told where she was using the tree as a landmark But in the end, McCullough is also acquitted of Julie's murder This did not stop the rumors from swirling and a local woman hands John Ward a note. It says Jonathan Moy, son of then-president of Kenya Daniel Moy, killed Julie. This episode is brought to you by eBay. Before all the algorithm-fed blah and the endless sea of dupes, shopping used to feel more fun.

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22:25He knows that they don't want whatever happened to Julie to come to light. But John keeps digging. He says he finds this film crew who was around the reserve that day. They offered their assistance in searching for Julie, but McCullough declined, telling them to mind their business. This crew was also apparently well aware of the rumors that Jonathan Moy had killed Julie. They say that after filming for about six weeks, they went to McCullough's office for a business matter, and they found him sitting with his head in his hands, saying he'd been called in for a meeting with President Moy. In John's investigation, he also revealed that Jonathan Moy owned a series of farms near the Serena Lodge.

23:10As you might recall, this is where Game Warden McCullough went before joining the search for Julie. At this point, it really just becomes this kind of open secret that Jonathan Moy was at least involved in Julie's murder. By November 2001, another investigation is launched into Julie's death. This time it's overseen by the Police Complaints Authority. This would eventually lead to another inquest in 2004, and this is where a lot of new information about the case comes out. And it really confirms much of what John Ward found or suspected. First, the Kenyan Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs admits that there had been a deliberate obstruction of John Ward's attempts to solve Julie's murder.

24:00He then calls Julie's case a part of Kenya's, quote, dark and ugly past, end quote. A former MI6 agent comes forward. Basically, that's the Military Intelligence Section 6, and it's the Foreign Intelligence Service of the UK. So this agent, only known as Mr. A, testifies. He says that he and his Kenyan police contact, David Rowe, did in fact conceal their involvement in Julie's case. but he denies covering up her murder. While Mr. A denied meeting with Mr. Rowe nine days after Julie's murder, he was presented with documentation of this meeting in London. It was four days after this meeting that John Ward was told Julie may have been struck by lightning and eaten by hyenas.

24:50Furthermore, Mr. Rowe of the Kenyan police denied knowing about Julie's murder when meeting with Mr. A. And again, documentation proved otherwise Then Mr. Rowe finally admits that he did meet with Mr. A after Julie's murder But he maintains that it wasn't him who briefed Mr. A on Julie's case And once again, he's faced with documentation in which Mr. A wrote that Mr. Rowe Quote Briefed me about the Ward murder case End quote To which Mr. Rowe basically says whoops, I must have gotten my dates wrong. In addition to all this just being extremely odd and pointing to a cover-up, Dr. Adele Shaker, the original Kenyan pathologist that determined that Julie's death was a homicide, testified that he was pressured into doctoring that report to say otherwise.

25:45His initial findings were that Julie's limbs had been clearly cut with some type of sharp blade, human intervention, but the words clean cut were changed to torn and cracked, and sharp injuries became blunt injuries. Dr. Shaker says that his boss, Dr. Jason Cavite, came to his office and began to underline the report, making these exact changes. Dr. Shaker says that after this, he fled Kenya out of fear for his life, and that he was also told that basically it was Julie's fate against the fate of an entire nation, alluding to Jonathan Moyes' involvement. A woman named Jenny Jenkins also came forward.

26:32She worked for the British High Commission in Nairobi. She says that after expressing support for John Ward's campaign that clearly something was wrong here, she was told to, quote, back off from John Ward, end quote. After a week of testimony, it was declared that Julie had been unlawfully killed, and John Ward was praised by the court for his determination in the face of, quote, official obstruction and ludicrous misinformation, end quote. Basically, this inquest allowed for further investigation, and the information just kept coming. Not long after the inquest, a former Kenyan intelligence officer says that he saw Julie's murder.

27:18According to reporting by Andrew Alderson for The Telegraph, this man said, quote, All three men repeatedly raped the British tourist in turn as she pleaded for mercy. End quote. He says Julie was told to drive her Jeep from the Sand River camp, and it was strategically placed in the gully. She was then made to write SOS on the top of her Jeep. From there, she was blindfolded and dragged to where she was killed. While they initially tried to make her death appear to be the result of an animal attack, they realized that they may have left too much evidence behind, specifically noting semen. So that's when they decided to burn her remains.

28:02Unfortunately, this anonymous tipster refused to say who killed Julie, but he did add, quote, Our government used to do unimaginable things. Looking back today, I have nightmares. I terrorized my own people. People opposed to the government. It is time to take stock. End quote. Now, I think it's important to mention that John Ward isn't just believing everything he's being told. He's skeptical of this finding, as he was with all rumors until otherwise proven by hard evidence. And I will say there are a lot of rumors in this case. By 2008, John Ward had visited Kenya over a hundred times. and spent over 2 million pounds of his own money in search for the truth.

28:52That same year, the Sunday Telegraph also released a bombshell report about an independent police report that was secretly completed in 2004. This report found that Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the British High Commission in Kenya both not only made mistakes, but were active in trying to cover up the investigation into Julie's murder. Both sides were covering up Julie's murder. But that didn't stop John. That year, he went back to Kenya to investigate two tips that ended up being hoaxes. but he said that his new focus was DNA. He'd actually kept evidence in his own freezer for decades hoping technology may advance.