It’s extremely difficult to express my feelings as a grandparent; to describe what loosing Julia has meant to me. She was a twin and her sister, Jennifer, misses her each and every waking hour. From the day they were born until they were 10 years old, I raised them as if they were my daughters. I went through all the stages of their growing up from immediately after their birth (both were born at home!) to visiting them almost every day that they were in the St. Vincent Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Yes, I changed diapers, saw her take her first steps and heard her first words; I was there every step of the way so to speak.
Julia was a twin, but from the very beginning, everyone knew that she was a very different girl with her own personality compared to her sister. Julia was always very friendly and outgoing. She was also the one as a child that would talk Jennifer in to doing something that they would eventually get in “trouble” for. As an example, they were probably three or four when I believe Julia talked Jennifer into coloring with crayons on their bedroom wall but doing this under their bed so we would not see it. They had a trundle bed that was positioned in the corner of their room and was seldom moved. That worked fine until her mom and I went into their room one day to move their bed away from the wall and we saw it! As a youngster, Julia loved to talk and wasn’t afraid to say anything to anyone. At times she would try to be the “bossy” one of the twins and Jennifer would usually listen. There were some occasions where Jennifer would try to resist but seldom would she succeed. My favorite phrase for the girls was “Here comes double trouble!” They were so close in their relationship that if something happened to one of them, the other seemed to know something was wrong.
Julia and Jennifer grew up and became remarkable young ladies. Julia always had a “harder” time with school and studies but she learned how to apply herself and get things done. She went to the Monroe County Community College then transferred to Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Here at EMU she was doing excellent and had very good grades. She was constantly talking about her future career after she would be awarded her degree. Julia was a junior, majoring in communication, media and theatre arts at EMU. She pictured herself on television as a news personality – the one that’s always on camera! She would joke with her sister, Jennifer, who has a Journalism degree from EMU that she could write the news stories and Julia would be the one to present them on camera!
We, my second wife Linda and I, had moved to Florida in May of 2001. We had never been back to Michigan for Christmas time but in November of 2012, we decided that we would leave Florida and spend Christmas time with my family in Michigan. Julia was extremely excited to hear this news. She would tell all her friends if they wanted to meet her grandpa, they better be around when we were in Michigan. Julia really had a deep love for me and really put me up on a pedestal so to speak. When we would talk on the phone she would eventually say a phrase that I miss so much each and every day – “Oh grandpa!” She would usually say this if I said something or did something that really amused her.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 began as any other day. I went to work and this is the one night that I bowled in a league. I did not bowl well as I just could not concentrate for some reason. I got home about 9:15PM and soon after that, I got a call from my daughter, Kim (Julia’s mother). She said that people were becoming very concerned as no one had seen Julia or talked to her in almost two days. She said a friend was driving her and Jennifer to Ypsilanti to check on Julia. It’s about an hour drive to get there and she would call me later. My wife and I became very concerned and spent the next hour wondering about what could be wrong…… We never anticipated the next call we would get. Kim called but just could not talk and her husband, Jim, told us that Julia was “gone”! He said the police believe she had been murdered. I became very distraught and to say the least very upset. I immediately began uncontrollable crying and needed all the comfort my wife could give me. Later, my daughter called and basically said that “dad, you need to get home”. My wife and I had already decided that we had to get to Michigan ASAP so we could be with my family. We spent the rest of the night packing and making airline and rental car arrangements plus booking a room at a motel. We were up all night and left early the next morning from Tampa to Detroit. This was a flight that I’ll never forget, knowing I was going home to find one of my granddaughters had been murdered for no apparent reason, at least nothing that seems to make any sense.
Since Julia’s murder, there has been an on-going investigation. Many police and national agencies have been involved trying to solve this case as well as analyzing items in their forensics labs. All in all, after talking to the Ypsilanti police, the effort continues today almost 2 years after the crime. Yes with such a seemingly slow process, the family is frustrated to say the least. We have lots of questions in our minds that we would like to have answered but in reality we may never get those answers. This investigation has seemed to be “slow” but, all I want is to make sure the person or persons are arrested and go to court for their due process and their appropriate punishment. No matter how many years of prison (hopefully without a chance of parole) the sentence is; it won’t bring our Julia back. We have lost her constant smile, her outgoing personality and her ever loving way for the rest of our lives. I constantly find myself having what I call “Julia moments” where something will trigger a memory of her or something she had done which causes me to have some uncontrollable crying. I’m sure I’ll have these the rest of my life as I also experience these from the loss of my son, Jeff, which was in 2004. I pray each and every night that Julia’s case will be solved and justice will be done. I hope when this happens, we (the family) will get the “answers” to all our questions concerning why this happened. Until that day, all we can really do is pray for answers and allow justice to be done. We - as a family must not lose hope and continue to believe that justice will prevail – no matter how long it takes.
Jim Niswender
October 24, 2014
Comments:I've provided this to give a little "life" to Julia so everyone will have a feeling of what a great young lady she was....
