Delia D'Ambra

Sam Kiley 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 U.S.

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 U.S.

works, but that doesn't mean one way is wrong or right.

It's just different.

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 McCalla, the chief game warden who'd found Julie's remains.

The Wards were understandably disappointed with the verdict and traveled 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.

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.