MI MI - Julia Niswender, 23, EMU student, Ypsilanti, 10 Dec 2012 - #5

Julia Niswender

Who Killed EMU Student Julia Niswender? Police Still Seeking Tips
November 14, 2013 7:52 AM

YPSILANTI (WWJ/AP) - New tips are being sought in the case of a 23-year-old Eastern Michigan University student whose December bathtub drowning was ruled a homicide. Crime Stoppers on Thursday will renew the call for information about the death of Julia Niswender. More than $15,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest.

Niswender was a Monroe native and an undergraduate at the Ypsilanti school. Her body was found in her bedroom Dec. 11 at the Peninsular Place Apartments on Huron River Drive, located across the street from the campus police station.

A medical examiner ruled the official cause of death as asphyxiation associated with drowning.

[...]
Anyone who might have information is asked to contact Ypsilanti police at 734-482-9878. Tips can also be provided anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP, online at www.1800speakup.org, or by texting “CSM” and your tip to CRIMES (274637).

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Julia Niswender's stepfather named person of interest in her death, police say
By Darcie Moran | dmoran@mlive.com March 04, 2015 at 12:21 PM, updated March 04, 2015 at 1:20 PM

[...]
The Ypsilanti Police Department has named James Turnquist as a person of interest in the death of his stepdaughter and Eastern Michigan University student Julia Niswender.

Turnquist is in custody in the Monroe County jail on a child *advertiser censored* charge.

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Julia Niswender's stepdad was home when police believe she was killed, lawyer says
By Darcie Moran | dmoran@mlive.com March 05, 2015 at 6:11 PM, updated March 06, 2015 at 10:05 AM

[...]
Although the Ypsilanti Police Department has named Turnquist a person of interest in Niswender's death, Ypsilanti police Lt. Deric Gress said it would be incorrect to call him a suspect at this time. "He has been on our radar," Gress said. "But I don't think we've gotten to that point."

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Media Thread

Julia Niswender Case Map

SW 1- signed 20 November 2014
SW 2 - signed 06 January 2014

Thread #1 Thread #2 Thread #3 Thread #4

I've read some interesting comments here on the crime scene and possible perp. Here are some of my thoughts:

... discovered Julia's lifeless, nude body, face down submerged in the bathtub filled with water. ...
Julia's arm/hands were pulled behind her back, legs slightly bent, knees apart and feet together.

Click to expand...

I wonder if Julia's body could have been fully submerged. Bathtubs in such apartments are typically not very big or deep. Perhaps they are 5ft long. Even with her legs slightly bent, it would have been difficult to have the whole body submerged without any parts of the body sticking out. The mental picture I have, but I do not know if this is correct, is that her face was submerged, but her feet may have been sticking out and not were not completely submerged.
Possibly, the thighs weren't fully submerged, which makes it possible that some semen could have been found there.
I think that the semen would have dissolved in the water if it had been submerged for 2 days.

I think not all the forensic evidence was discussed in the affidavit. I think there may be other places in the apartment where semen, DNA, fingerprints were found. It is possible that blood, semen etc. was on the pillow case.
It might have been used to wipe some things, and the perp may have taken it for that reason.

Some interesting points were made about yoga pants. I don't wear them , but I did wonder if people always wear underwear with it. The clothing Julia was wearing sounds like comfy clothes, perhaps sleepwear. One wouldn't wear a bra with that, and perhaps not panties either. Before the revelations in the affidavit, I always had the suspicion that besides the key, her panties might be missing. The reason I was thinking this is because I had the feeling that the crime scene might have been staged to look like a sexual assault. The missing panties would be a classic clue of sexual assault by some predator.

<modsnip>

Thank you for the link. I had read the article but now that I've read the affidavit, some of the comments are much better context. The article that shows up below it also has some interesting information (http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor...dents_family_disc.html#incart_related_stories)

In case it's useful, this is the timeline from those two articles and the affidavit.

12/9 - Julia sees her sisters at Walmart, during her break, for lunch
---- 10:00 PM According to Kim, she and JT go to bed
---- 10:30 PM Julia sends text message to roommate (last known communication from Julia?)

12/10 - 7:15 AM, Kim says Jim leaves for work and "probably picked up an employee...on the way to his worksite"
---- Julia scheduled to work and attend a holiday party that night, she does not show up for either. JT said she was supposed to work for his cleaning business, but her sister says she was scheduled to work at her "retail job" (presumably Walmart)
---- Kim calls Julia with her negative lymphoma results and is unable to reach her
---- Kim and Jennifer play darts at Clamdiggers
---- Jennifer hasn't heard from Julia since 12/9 and sent a text to tell her she was watching Mean Girls

12/10-12/11 Jennifer repeatedly tries to call Julia's cell; calls go straight to VM

12/11 7:30 (?) AM - One of Julia's roommates returns in the morning after a weekend away and does not see Julia but hears her alarm; she leaves for class and work shortly after
---- Julia's roommate returns in the evening after work and school and becomes worried because there is no sign of Julia, she calls the apartment's security office to report that Julia was missing, the apartment security office calls police
---- Jennifer receives a phone call from Julia's friend (her roommate?) saying that Julia hadn't shown up for work on 12/10 nor attended the holiday party
---- Jennifer and family start off for Ypsi, Kim and Jennifer ride together, JT and younger sister drive in a separate vehicle. EMS calls Jennifer/Kim while they are en route to ask if Julia has any known medical problems
---- Julia is found dead at 9:30 PM
---- Julia's family arrives and Jennifer notes that the ambulance is there but does not have lights on
---- Jennifer and Kim run into the apartment but are not allowed into Julia's bedroom, they are told she has died while in the apartment and are subsequently escorted to the lobby

One thing I find curious is that Julia's alarm was sounding in the morning when her roommate returned and left the apartment, but there is no mention of her alarm still being on when the roommate returned that night. Was the killer still in the apartment in the morning? Did the killer enter in the morning after the roommate came back from her weekend away?

I find the discrepancy between JT's story (per the affidavit) that Julia was supposed to work for him that day and Jennifer's assertion a year later (per the AA news article) that Julia was supposed to work at Walmart, not for JT, to be very interesting. Did JT tell LE on the night of the murder that Julia was supposed to work for him because he need a story that would explain why his vehicle would be in the vicinity on the morning of 12/10? Or is there some other explanation? Who was the (other?) worker who JT was supposed to pick up at 7:15?

Skigirl said:

Thank you for the link. I had read the article but now that I've read the affidavit, some of the comments are much better context. The article that shows up below it also has some interesting information (http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor...dents_family_disc.html#incart_related_stories)

In case it's useful, this is the timeline from those two articles and the affidavit.

12/9 - Julia sees her sisters at Walmart, during her break, for lunch
---- 10:00 PM According to Kim, she and JT go to bed
---- 10:30 PM Julia sends text message to roommate (last known communication from Julia?)

12/10 - 7:15 AM, Kim says Jim leaves for work and "probably picked up an employee...on the way to his worksite"
---- Julia scheduled to work and attend a holiday party that night, she does not show up for either. JT said she was supposed to work for his cleaning business, but her sister says she was scheduled to work at her "retail job" (presumably Walmart)
---- Kim calls Julia with her negative lymphoma results and is unable to reach her
---- Kim and Jennifer play darts at Clamdiggers
---- Jennifer hasn't heard from Julia since 12/9 and sent a text to tell her she was watching Mean Girls

12/10-12/11 Jennifer repeatedly tries to call Julia's cell; calls go straight to VM

12/11 7:30 (?) AM - One of Julia's roommates returns in the morning after a weekend away and does not see Julia but hears her alarm; she leaves for class and work shortly after
---- Julia's roommate returns in the evening after work and school and becomes worried because there is no sign of Julia, she calls the apartment's security office to report that Julia was missing, the apartment security office calls police
---- Jennifer receives a phone call from Julia's friend (her roommate?) saying that Julia hadn't shown up for work on 12/10 nor attended the holiday party
---- Jennifer and family start off for Ypsi, Kim and Jennifer ride together, JT and younger sister drive in a separate vehicle. EMS calls Jennifer/Kim while they are en route to ask if Julia has any known medical problems
---- Julia is found dead at 9:30 PM
---- Julia's family arrives and Jennifer notes that the ambulance is there but does not have lights on
---- Jennifer and Kim run into the apartment but are not allowed into Julia's bedroom, they are told she has died while in the apartment and are subsequently escorted to the lobby

One thing I find curious is that Julia's alarm was sounding in the morning when her roommate returned and left the apartment, but there is no mention of her alarm still being on when the roommate returned that night. Was the killer still in the apartment in the morning? Did the killer enter in the morning after the roommate came back from her weekend away?

I find the discrepancy between JT's story (per the affidavit) that Julia was supposed to work for him that day and Jennifer's assertion a year later (per the AA news article) that Julia was supposed to work at Walmart, not for JT, to be very interesting. Did JT tell LE on the night of the murder that Julia was supposed to work for him because he need a story that would explain why his vehicle would be in the vicinity on the morning of 12/10? Or is there some other explanation? Who was the (other?) worker who JT was supposed to pick up at 7:15?

Click to expand...

Where did JT say that Julia was scheduled to work at the cleaning business?


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black_squirrel said:

Where did JT say that Julia was scheduled to work at the cleaning business?


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Click to expand...

Page 3 (L) of the warrant he stated he spoke on phone with Julia about working for cleaning business at an apartment complex. Does not say specifically what day.

Skigirl said:

Thank you for the link. I had read the article but now that I've read the affidavit, some of the comments are much better context. The article that shows up below it also has some interesting information (http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor...dents_family_disc.html#incart_related_stories)

In case it's useful, this is the timeline from those two articles and the affidavit.

12/9 - Julia sees her sisters at Walmart, during her break, for lunch
---- 10:00 PM According to Kim, she and JT go to bed
---- 10:30 PM Julia sends text message to roommate (last known communication from Julia?)

12/10 - 7:15 AM, Kim says Jim leaves for work and "probably picked up an employee...on the way to his worksite"
---- Julia scheduled to work and attend a holiday party that night, she does not show up for either. JT said she was supposed to work for his cleaning business, but her sister says she was scheduled to work at her "retail job" (presumably Walmart)
---- Kim calls Julia with her negative lymphoma results and is unable to reach her
---- Kim and Jennifer play darts at Clamdiggers
---- Jennifer hasn't heard from Julia since 12/9 and sent a text to tell her she was watching Mean Girls

12/10-12/11 Jennifer repeatedly tries to call Julia's cell; calls go straight to VM

12/11 7:30 (?) AM - One of Julia's roommates returns in the morning after a weekend away and does not see Julia but hears her alarm; she leaves for class and work shortly after
---- Julia's roommate returns in the evening after work and school and becomes worried because there is no sign of Julia, she calls the apartment's security office to report that Julia was missing, the apartment security office calls police
---- Jennifer receives a phone call from Julia's friend (her roommate?) saying that Julia hadn't shown up for work on 12/10 nor attended the holiday party
---- Jennifer and family start off for Ypsi, Kim and Jennifer ride together, JT and younger sister drive in a separate vehicle. EMS calls Jennifer/Kim while they are en route to ask if Julia has any known medical problems
---- Julia is found dead at 9:30 PM
---- Julia's family arrives and Jennifer notes that the ambulance is there but does not have lights on
---- Jennifer and Kim run into the apartment but are not allowed into Julia's bedroom, they are told she has died while in the apartment and are subsequently escorted to the lobby

One thing I find curious is that Julia's alarm was sounding in the morning when her roommate returned and left the apartment, but there is no mention of her alarm still being on when the roommate returned that night. Was the killer still in the apartment in the morning? Did the killer enter in the morning after the roommate came back from her weekend away?

I find the discrepancy between JT's story (per the affidavit) that Julia was supposed to work for him that day and Jennifer's assertion a year later (per the AA news article) that Julia was supposed to work at Walmart, not for JT, to be very interesting. Did JT tell LE on the night of the murder that Julia was supposed to work for him because he need a story that would explain why his vehicle would be in the vicinity on the morning of 12/10? Or is there some other explanation? Who was the (other?) worker who JT was supposed to pick up at 7:15?

Click to expand...

Thanks for for the good timeline, Skigirl.

To answer your last question, per the warrant the employee is AdG (see warrant Page 8 (II)

Spellbound said:

Page 3 (L) of the warrant he stated he spoke on phone with Julia about working for cleaning business at an apartment complex. Does not say specifically what day.

Click to expand...

Correct - Section L - "Jim advised that he spoke to Julia about her helping him with his cleaning business accounts at local apartment complexes so she had extra money"

This is a very general statement. When he used the word "local" - would that be local to Monroe or Ypsilanti?

The grandmother and aunt (Sections U and V) mentioned a specific work appointment, December 10 at 6am/early morning.

Has she helped him in the past with cleaning jobs or was this the first time an offer of work was made?

black_squirrel: I don't know where she was suppose to work for JT. Maybe MIMOMMY could get the answer. She also could have been scheduled to work at Walmarts in the evening - I'm sure LE has already checked this out. I don't know , seen anywhere or been told if this is true.

From the M-Live article mentioned above: http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor...dents_family_disc.html#incart_related_stories

The stress began long before Turnquist was placed in handcuffs in Monroe County. It began within months of Julia Niswender's death when Ypsilanti police began to interview Turnquist's relatives about him &#8211; picking at old wounds and digging up stories of abuse he witnessed and endured, Jennifer Niswender said.


This implies the abuse witnessed and endured by JT is true.



Jennifer Niswender said her younger sister has been bullied at school because of the cases.

Her mother has been yelled at while working at her retail job, and Jennifer has received death threats on social media for supporting James Turnquist.

If true, this is not wise, nor needed behaviors. I wonder who is threatening or yelling at them. I do think if the family was more cooperative, the public opinions might not be this horrible or harsh. JMO




However, police findings that the fluid was from a man with a vasectomy &#8211; which her stepfather had &#8211; don't rule out others Julia was spending time with who are rumored to have had the same procedure, she said.

Was it not Jennifer who said a guy Julia dated HAD a vasectomy? Now she says "rumored". Which is correct?



Jennifer Niswender is confident the images found on the family computer were pop-ups, unintentionally downloaded to the computer.

Can you really "accidentally download pop ups"? More likely, a popular image is stored in a temp file and eventually written over, but kept? I am no computer pro, so I don't know if this accidental download would be feasible.





She also disputes a claim that her sister was supposed to work for James Turnquist's cleaning business the morning after she was last heard from. They had discussed her going to class and her retail job that day, she said.

Then why did JT say (per warrant) they talked about her doing cleaning work? Or be more specific about the date in his comment?




Ypsilanti Police Chief Tony DeGiusti said:
"This is a very complicated case and has taken us in many different directions and although Mr. Turnquist is a person of interest in the case we have not regarded him as a suspect," he said.

"Not a suspect". Still seems they only want a (or another) statement on record. I think they believe he knows more than is being shared, and may be helpful to the case in solving this. What is more important..... protecting one's reputation or finding the murderer of one's daughter?

caspermi said:

Correct - Section L - "Jim advised that he spoke to Julia about her helping him with his cleaning business accounts at local apartment complexes so she had extra money"

This is a very general statement. When he used the word "local" - would that be local to Monroe or Ypsilanti?

The grandmother and aunt (Sections U and V) mentioned a specific work appointment, December 10 at 6am/early morning.

Has she helped him in the past with cleaning jobs or was this the first time an offer of work was made?

Click to expand...

I can assume, if she was in fact going to help him, that it could have been the contract he had just signed with myself. I say this due to the fact that he was supposed to start work for me that week and did not arrive due to Julia's murder.

<modsnip>

I just read about this case so I don't know much about it. Just wanted to share some thoughts on this.

Its obviously that she was bound with something and you are right that rigor mortis set in while she was bound. I wonder though if he left and then panicked and came back later to remove the ties and remove more evidence and set the scene to try to cover his tracks.

He may have tried to make it look like she drowned herself.

Anyway I think he came back instead of staying there the whole time. I think he must have panicked while away and realized he left too much evidence and so came back.

Just a guess and main reason I think this is it seems things were removed from her place. Sometimes these criminals will run off right after they commit the crime and then after thinking it about it more realize they should have done more to clean up evidence. So thinking he may have drove back by the place and realized nobody had noticed yet and so he went back inside.

So I wonder if he had a key. If he was invited inside to begin with by her then he could have taken one of her keys if she had two of them. He may have left her one key and had one for himself which allowed him to regain entry.

If he did come back there is more chance of witnesses to see someone coming and going. Its too bad there were not more witnesses that could have helped see a suspect.

Nice to see you here, Hatfield. About the keys, Julia's apartment keys were missing, but her "other" keys were apparently on the lanyard or whatever it was where she kept ALL of her keys. If the perp kept her apartment keys, he could easily have returned, though we don 't know for sure when any possible cleanup occurred.

It seems we have moved beyond an accidental killing as opposed to planned?

Hatfield said:

I just read about this case so I don't know much about it. Just wanted to share some thoughts on this.

Its obviously that she was bound with something and you are right that rigor mortis set in while she was bound. I wonder though if he left and then panicked and came back later to remove the ties and remove more evidence and set the scene to try to cover his tracks.

He may have tried to make it look like she drowned herself.

Anyway I think he came back instead of staying there the whole time. I think he must have panicked while away and realized he left too much evidence and so came back.

Just a guess and main reason I think this is it seems things were removed from her place. Sometimes these criminals will run off right after they commit the crime and then after thinking it about it more realize they should have done more to clean up evidence. So thinking he may have drove back by the place and realized nobody had noticed yet and so he went back inside.

So I wonder if he had a key. If he was invited inside to begin with by her then he could have taken one of her keys if she had two of them. He may have left her one key and had one for himself which allowed him to regain entry.

If he did come back there is more chance of witnesses to see someone coming and going. Its too bad there were not more witnesses that could have helped see a suspect.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum. Many ofthe details of the crime scene are in the affidavit posted earlier. Keys of the aparment and private room were indeed missing. You may be right that the person came back to clean up the scene.

i think the perp may have left and came back with a glove with someone else's DNA. Then put some of Julia's blood on it and placed it in the room. the only wound Julia had was because she bit her tongue. So I wonder if he could have put blood on the glove if a lot of time had past since julias death because blood mightvhave dried up, washed away etc


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Spellbound said:

Nice to see you here, Hatfield. About the keys, Julia's apartment keys were missing, but her "other" keys were apparently on the lanyard or whatever it was where she kept ALL of her keys. If the perp kept her apartment keys, he could easily have returned, though we don 't know for sure when any possible cleanup occurred.

It seems we have moved beyond an accidental killing as opposed to planned?

Click to expand...

I don't believe it was an accident. In my mind, there's a small chance that it was a sudden impulse after the perp accessed her room and saw her there or had a confrontation with her, but even that, I sort of doubt.

Oh lord, squirrel, your comment made me wonder if the yucky glove was placed in her mouth when she was alive and because she bit her tongue the blood was there; glove was removed when the ligatures were removed?

Skigirl said:

I don't believe it was an accident. In my mind, there's a small chance that it was a sudden impulse after the perp accessed her room and saw her there or had a confrontation with her, but even that, I sort of doubt.

Click to expand...

Same way I see it, Skigirl. Thanks. It just does not add up to an accident in my mind. Which implies Julia was targeted for this. It just frustrates and upsets me to think someone purposely took her in this way.

How any family members can "move forward" with this being unsolved is beyond my comprehension. I know none of them personally, yet I think about it constantly, every day. My pain would be indescribable, and I would not be able function, work, act "normal". My heart aches for all who truly knew and loved Julia and continue to work toward the truth, no matter where that leads.

Spellbound said:

From the M-Live article mentioned above: http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor...dents_family_disc.html#incart_related_stories

The stress began long before Turnquist was placed in handcuffs in Monroe County. It began within months of Julia Niswender's death when Ypsilanti police began to interview Turnquist's relatives about him – picking at old wounds and digging up stories of abuse he witnessed and endured, Jennifer Niswender said.


This implies the abuse witnessed and endured by JT is true.



Jennifer Niswender said her younger sister has been bullied at school because of the cases.

Her mother has been yelled at while working at her retail job, and Jennifer has received death threats on social media for supporting James Turnquist.

If true, this is not wise, nor needed behaviors. I wonder who is threatening or yelling at them. I do think if the family was more cooperative, the public opinions might not be this horrible or harsh. JMO




However, police findings that the fluid was from a man with a vasectomy – which her stepfather had – don't rule out others Julia was spending time with who are rumored to have had the same procedure, she said.

Was it not Jennifer who said a guy Julia dated HAD a vasectomy? Now she says "rumored". Which is correct?



Jennifer Niswender is confident the images found on the family computer were pop-ups, unintentionally downloaded to the computer.

Can you really "accidentally download pop ups"? More likely, a popular image is stored in a temp file and eventually written over, but kept? I am no computer pro, so I don't know if this accidental download would be feasible.





She also disputes a claim that her sister was supposed to work for James Turnquist's cleaning business the morning after she was last heard from. They had discussed her going to class and her retail job that day, she said.

Then why did JT say (per warrant) they talked about her doing cleaning work? Or be more specific about the date in his comment?




Ypsilanti Police Chief Tony DeGiusti said:
"This is a very complicated case and has taken us in many different directions and although Mr. Turnquist is a person of interest in the case we have not regarded him as a suspect," he said.

"Not a suspect". Still seems they only want a (or another) statement on record. I think they believe he knows more than is being shared, and may be helpful to the case in solving this. What is more important..... protecting one's reputation or finding the murderer of one's daughter?

Click to expand...

I can say that I know with certainty that JN, KT, and the minor child have all been bullied, harassed, threatened, and intimidated along with other close friends and family.

Hello Everyone. This is a sad case and I just read through more and found the affidative so thanks for pointing that out.

Here is 1 thing that makes me lean towards what LE thinks regarding the stepfathers possible involvement. According to link below she was supposed to go to the cleaning job the morning of the 10th so how come the stepfather did not try to contact her and raise a big red flag about her not showing up for work. It seems to me that he should have been the one doing all the looking for her since she never showed up.

According to article it was the roommate who was the one doing all the looking for her and it took the roommate 2 days of trying to get ahold of her before the roommate finally got a security guard to go in her apartment.

If Julia was supposed to be at work on morning of the 10th then it seems to me someone at her job should have been the one doing all the worrying and looking for her.

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor...etail_allegations_a.html#incart_story_package

Hatfield said:

Hello Everyone. This is a sad case and I just read through more and found the affidative so thanks for pointing that out.

Here is 1 thing that makes me lean towards what LE thinks regarding the stepfathers possible involvement. According to link below she was supposed to go to the cleaning job the morning of the 10th so how come the stepfather did not try to contact her and raise a big red flag about her not showing up for work. It seems to me that he should have been the one doing all the looking for her since she never showed up.

According to article it was the roommate who was the one doing all the looking for her and it took the roommate 2 days of trying to get ahold of her before the roommate finally got a security guard to go in her apartment.

If Julia was supposed to be at work on morning of the 10th then it seems to me someone at her job should have been the one doing all the worrying and looking for her.

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor...etail_allegations_a.html#incart_story_package

Click to expand...

l

from the article you posted:
Niswender was supposed to work at a cleaning account for her stepfather that morning, according to statements to police.

Giving a little leeway, the warrant (as far as I found) did not actually say "that morning", JT's statement was only that they spoke of her working at an apartment complex, but was not specific if it was that day. Did the reporter take the liberty to word it that way, or did he have access to something that specifically said the work was that day?

MIMOMMY said:

I can assume, if she was in fact going to help him, that it could have been the contract he had just signed with myself. I say this due to the fact that he was supposed to start work for me that week and did not arrive due to Julia's murder.

Click to expand...

A few questions.......And where was it located? Was the contract to start on Monday?