Delia D'Ambra

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 Horsnell and Patrick Barkham reported that way back in the fall of 1988, John Ward and some of his supporters had been told by a former MI6 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.

So of course, when reporters did find out about it, they couldn't help but go to press immediately.

The British forensic pathologist who 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, 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, look elsewhere, end quote.

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.