Delia D'Ambra

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.

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.

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 Masilla 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 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.

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.