FIND THIS MONSTER
‘Don’t let coward who took Julia cause this grief to another family’
DOG walker Julia James was killed by a “worthless cowardly monster”, her uncle said yesterday.
Grieving relatives have pleaded for answers as police stepped up the hunt for a killer who bludgeoned their colleague Julia James, 53.
The police community support officer was attacked while walking her Jack Russell Toby in countryside just 300 yards from her home.
Michael Turnbull said his niece was “funny, kind, caring, always saw good in people and, most of all, full of love”.
He added: “Julia has been taken from us by some worthless cowardly excuse for a human being for no other reason than his own sense of self gratification to justify what he did, leaving behind a family full of broken hearts and sadness. Let us find this monster before he can cause more grief to another family.”
Kent Police – where Julia worked in the domestic violence unit – vowed to leave no stone unturned.
She joined the force in 2008 and had been working from home – and was not in uniform.
Her body was found just after 4pm on Tuesday at Akholt Wood in the hamlet of Snowdown, between Canterbury and Dover. She had been battered about the head with a blunt weapon.
Police said they had not established any possible link to her role working with victims of domestic abuse in Canter
CLUES HUNT Line of police search field yesterday bury. And they refused to rule out if it was the result of a botched dognapping, robbery or sexual attack.
It comes after reports that a van driver accosted another female dog walker last month.
A bouquet from Kent Police was among tributes placed on a village green mining memorial in Aylesham, close to Snowdown. A note said: “For our dear colleague Julia. A service so highly regarded. A precious life so tragically taken. We will leave no stone unturned. Your colleagues, Kent Police.”
Members of Julia’s family yesterday issued a fresh plea for answers. One wrote on social media: “Somewhere out there is the person that did this.
“Walking amongst you and your communities. You think this could never happen to you.
“I’m afraid it can. Anything you may have seen, heard or had a gut feeling about. Maybe someone you’ve seen out and about. Please call it in.”
Julia’s son Patrick Davis, 23, earlier wrote an open letter online to his mum, who lived with electrician husband Paul, 57.
It said: “I love you to the moon and back, I’m in complete shock and still don’t even think this is real.”
Julia’s body was found just two miles from Chillenden, where Lin Russell, 45, and daughter Megan, six, were beaten to death with a hammer in 1996 as they walked their dog. Meg’s sister Josie, nine, survived.
Michael Stone, now 60, got life but continues to protest his
innocence from jail.