Timeline: The Julie Ward murder

Julie Ward was due to return home to Suffolk shortly before she died

A British inquest into the death of photographer Julie Ward during a safari to Kenya is the latest stage in a 16-year battle to establish how she died. BBC News Online looks at the key developments.

February 1988 - Julie, 28, leaves home in Suffolk for seven-month trip to photograph African wildlife.

7 September 1988 - She disappears from her campsite at the Masai Mara game reserve towards the end of her safari.

13 September 1988 - Her charred and mutilated remains are found nearby. Her father, John, flies to Kenya and organises a search of the area by spotter planes. Kenyan authorities initially insist she had either committed suicide or been killed by wild animals.

January 1989 - Kenyan police refuse to conduct a murder inquiry. Julie's father begins his own investigation.

October 1989 - Kenyan court rules that Julie was murdered.

February 1990 - Mr Ward persuades UK Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd to order an investigation by Scotland Yard. Detectives fly to Kenya.

January 1992 - Two rangers from the Masai Mara reserve go on trial for Julie's murder.

June 1992 - The pair are acquitted, and the trial judge declares there has been a cover-up to protect Kenya's expanding tourist industry.

November 1993 - Focus switches to claims that Julie was murdered for political reasons after stumbling across a smuggling operation.

1996 - The man behind the claims is discredited.

1997 - Kenya provides a team of independent police officers to mount a fresh inquiry into Julie's death as her father keeps up his high-profile campaign to find her killers.

July 1998 -Gamekeeper Simon Ole Makallah is charged with her murder.

1 March 1999 - Makallah goes on trial in Nairobi.

17 September 1999 - Judge clears Makallah of murder. After the acquittal, Mr Ward demands a retrial, but his plea goes unanswered.

November 2001 - Police Complaints Authority agrees to supervise an investigation by another force of the original Scotland Yard inquiry.

2 March 2004 - Greater Suffolk coroner Peter Dean announces he will resume an inquest into Julie's death, 16 years after it was opened.

26 April 2004 - The long-awaited inquest takes place in Ipswich.