Delia D'Ambra

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 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.

He told reporter Michael Horsnell 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, 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.

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 Kaviti, 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.