The Peninsular Place apartments were quiet Wednesday morning, with a few EMU students making their way to class down Leforge Road toward campus, peering at the TV news truck parked in the entryway of the complex.
Niswender’s first-floor apartment had decorative candy canes hung from the door. A friend wrote a note on a blue advertisement, reading simply “RIP = ? Love you, Julia.”
Neighbors living in the same section of the complex as Niswender declined to speak to AnnArbor.com when they answered their doors Wednesday morning.
Nikki Jackson lives in an apartment near the block of apartments where Niswender died Tuesday. Jackson said she returned home at 8 p.m. and nothing was out of the ordinary. About 9:30 p.m., there were suddenly police cars outside her window.
Jackson said she didn’t go near the area of Niswender’s apartment because police had the area blocked off.
“They weren’t letting people in that section and the people who parked there had to walk around so they wouldn’t come close to the area,” she said.
Jackson said a van came, seemingly from the Washtenaw County Medical Examiner’s Office Wednesday. Two amublances from the Huron Valley Ambulance service were sent to the scene as well, spokeswoman Joyce Williams said. However, Niswender was pronounced dead at the scene upon their arrival.
“There was nothing we could do,” Williams said.
