YPSILANTI, Mich. – A Ypsilanti family is going a decade without justice in the brutal murder of an Eastern Michigan University student, and they want answers.
Saturday (Dec. 10) marks a decade since Julia Niswender was found murdered in an off-campus apartment bathtub. Her family is still waiting for her killer to be captured.
“I am fired up, I am hot,” said Niswender’s mother, Kim Turnquist.
Turnquist and Julia Niswender’s twin sister, Jennifer Niswender, have waited long enough as it’s been 10 years.
On Dec. 10, 2012, someone brutally took Niswender away from them. The killer or killers have been getting away with murder for the last 10 years.
“Ten years,” Turnquist said. “Ten years, our family has suffered a lot of grief, losing Julia to the botched investigation to the false accusations on Niswender’s dad, it has been a long 10 years.”
“We are not going to stop,” said Jennifer Niswender. “We’ve been silenced for too long. No trust, no communication. We need to do what we need to do.”
Turnquist says she’s now revealing new information about the case as she’s accusing Ypsilanti investigators of losing a security camera video of a man pacing in front of Julia Niswender’s apartment complex before the murder. And overlooking a peeping tom caught there a week earlier and more about the DNA found at the murder scene.
“The Michigan State Police needs to take on this case,” Jennifer Niswender said.
“They need to have this in their hands,” Turnquist said. “More resources, more detectives. Let the Ypsi police deal with what’s going on right here. We are not going to stop. When you look at us, know that we are making noise, and you are going to see us. This has to be solved.”
Crime Stoppers is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in the case -- call 1-800-SPEAK-UP, and you can remain anonymous.
Click here to learn more.
