- [Narrator] What is up EWU Crew. If you enjoy true crime,
mysteries, and true stories, be sure to hit the like
button and subscribe. Now let's get into it. Julia was born a twin
on January 25th, 1989 to her mother, Kim. Her loved ones described her as a spunky and straightforward, but lovable individual. From a young age, she and her twin, Jennifer,
had been inseparable. The family recalls a winter when Julia and Jennifer were just kids. They were gleefully using plastic sleds to glide down a snowy slope when Jennifer began sliding too fast. She tried to break momentum
by sticking out her leg, but accidentally stuck it
against a tree, breaking a bone. While she was recovering from the injury. Jennifer had to ride on
what the kids referred to as the short bus, because
of her wheelchair. The isolation from the other
children upset Jennifer, but Julia, being the caring
sister she was known to be, came to the rescue. Although the school
was initially perplexed by the family's odd request, they allowed Julia to ride
the bus with Jennifer. Julia loved her sister and as the two grew up
experiencing the trials and tribulations of
coming of age together, they continued to lean on each other for support and grew even closer. Upon graduating high school, the twins first went
to a community college, knocking out some of their
prerequisite classes. Julia was a hard worker and she had dreams of becoming a news anchor
ever since meeting one of her idols in New York, Anderson Cooper. She got accepted into
Eastern Michigan University and began studying communications, deciding to gain some
independence from her family. To attend EMU, Julia had to move to an
apartment near campus about a 45-minute drive from
the Niswender household. While she originally moved in
with two close girlfriends, that living arrangement
quickly turned sour when Julia reportedly brought
a stray kitten into the space without her housemates' permission. As a result of this, Julia eventually ended up choosing to move in with two new roommates. The apartment complex was
called Peninsular Place and like most college
student accommodations, it wasn't anything extravagant. However, Julia was lucky enough to get a bedroom that had an en suite. She presumably enjoyed the luxury of not having to walk across the hall to access the washroom. Julia felt secure in that
her belongings were safe as she had a house key for the front door and a separate key that only worked on her specific bedroom door. Though, unbeknownst to her, Julia's illusion of safety
would soon be shattered. The days leading up to
Julia's disappearance offer some insight just how
unsuspecting Julia was. On Thursday, December 6th, 2012, she allegedly traded goodbyes
with one of her roommates. Both girls were going to be
out of town for the weekend. The roommate making her way to Ohio and Julia traveling to
Monroe to visit family. Julia told her roommate
that she had made plans to do some grocery shopping after finishing her shift
at Walmart that day. It's believed that Julia
drops the groceries off at the apartment before
heading into the city of Monroe to babysit for one of her uncles. The next day on Friday, December 7th, Julia apparently left,
brimming with excitement at the thought of finally
doing some Christmas activities with her family. Now that Julia was away to college, they didn't always have the
family together in one home. That day was different. Julia joined her mother, Kim, her stepdad, Jim Turnquist,
her twin, Jennifer, and Julia's younger sister, Madison, as they all decorated the tree. This was the first year the Niswenders had purchased a real Christmas tree. And Julia's mother remembers
that Julia was by far the most ecstatic about this decision. Together, they sipped hot chocolate and dug out their family's ornaments while Julia played Justin
Bieber's Christmas album. After the fun of decorating was over, Julia headed over to her grandma's home to help her set up her tree. While she was there, Kim reportedly showed up
to see what was going on, but oddly enough, Julia's grandmother, Rose,
says that Kim didn't help out. As soon as Kim left again, the grandmother reportedly
heard Julia say, "I'm never coming back to that house." Julia seemed to be very close
to all her family members. Still, looking back, Julia's
own grandfather emphasizes that whenever the young
college student visited home, she actually spent more
nights at her grandparents than she did with her
mother and stepfather. He attributed this to the fact that her parents' home
was a cramped two bedroom, where Julia would have
had to share a small room with Jennifer and Madison. And that night, after a long day of Christmas
shopping and decorating, Julia decided yet again to stay
at her grandparent's place. At face value, this may
not seem like a huge deal, but the young woman's
pattern of avoiding home combined with what the
grandmother heard Julia say could certainly become
a cause for concern. The next morning was a Saturday and Julia had a shift at the
Saline, Michigan Walmart store. She allegedly also had a date that night, but otherwise the day
was pretty unremarkable. As Sunday rolled around, Julia simply went about her usual routine, heading out to her job at Walmart. To keep her company, Julia's
sister met up with her at the store for lunch. It's said that Julia gave them a tour where she not so subtly pointed out items they could buy her for Christmas. Little did Jennifer and Madison know as they waved goodbye to Julia who was heading back to work, this would be the last time they ever saw their sister alive. After getting off at five o'clock, Julia stopped at a convenience
store to pick up some items. Police would later check
the security footage, at Walmart and a convenience store to see if anyone suspicious
had been following her. But nothing strange was
found on those tapes. Upon returning to her college apartment, Julia was alone with just
one of her roommates, as the other was still
in Ohio for the weekend with her boyfriend. The roommate who was home reports hearing Julia's TV blaring
loudly from her bedroom, but she was in a hurry and the cranked up volume
didn't seem suspicious at the time. The roommate hastily grabbed a few things and left for the night
to visit her boyfriend around 10 or 11:00 PM. Allegedly Julia sent her twin
sister a text around 10:30 PM and a male friend said he also
received some sort of picture from Julia that night around 11:00 PM, the specifics of which which are unknown. Then everything on Julia's end went quiet. Radio silence. On Monday, December 10th, Julia's other roommate
returned from her Ohio vacation in the wee hours of the morning. She quietly got freshened up so she could head straight to class. On her way out the door, the roommate heard Julia's alarm, loud and continuously beeping. She said it wasn't too much of an anomaly for Julia to ignore
her alarm and sleep in, but all the same, she
tried to wake up Julia, by banging on the door and
yelling for her to wake up. After no response, she left the
apartment to head to school. Since the roommates all had jobs and rigorous academic schedules, it wasn't uncommon for them to go days without seeing or talking to one another. That being said, three
things happened that day that struck everyone as extremely odd. First off Julia, a dedicated student and
responsible young lady, neglected to show up
to any of her classes. Besides, Julia's stepdad
had a cleaning business where he had hired Julia so that she could earn some
extra cash for the holidays. But that day Julia was a no-show
and perhaps more alarming, Julia also didn't show up
for her main job at Walmart. She was a dependable employee so management and co-workers
were very concerned by this unexplained absence. The next day, Tuesday,
December 11th, 2012, all the weird signs pointed
to truly haunting outcome that nobody saw coming. Julia had another shift
at Walmart that day, and she had promised to
give some coworkers a ride to the annual work Christmas party. Unsurprisingly, she never arrived to pick up those fellow employees and she didn't show up to work or the staff party. For Julia's coworkers, this
was the breaking point. One coworker who was also
close to Julia's mom, Kim, gave the family a call. Kim happened to be out on the town, playing darts with friends that night. But when she was informed that her daughter had missed two shifts, Kim's heart immediately dropped. For Kim, after that call,
everything happened in a blur. She frantically called Julia's phone only to get through to her voicemail, feeling desperate and
living 45 minutes away from Julia's apartment,
Kim called a friend who happened to live in the
same college town as Julia and asked if she could
check on her daughter. When the friend made their
way to the apartment, she was greeted by one
of Julia's roommates. Together, they got ahold of
the complex security guard at around 9:15 PM. They were hoping they
would be granted access to Julia's locked bedroom, but the guard instead insisted that they first call the police. Kim's friend took his advice and when law enforcement
arrived for a welfare check, the authorities granted
the security permission to use his master key to break
into Julia's locked bedroom. When the officers stepped into the room, they were mortified by what they found. Julia's dead body was
lying in the bath tub, completely submerged in water. Her arms pulled behind her
back, her feet close together. There were ligature marks
on her wrists and ankles, looking as though she had been tied up, then had the ligatures removed. Her phone was mysteriously found underneath her lifeless body. Horrified and still adjusting to the sickening shock of
the gruesome discovery, the friend collected herself
enough to solemnly call Kim, notifying her of the tragedy
that they had come to pass. Kim and Jennifer were devastated. They couldn't believe such
a thing could have happened to their beloved Julia. Somehow they managed to get into the car and speed down the road
towards the crime scene. The pain and sadness they
felt in those 45 minutes must have been unimaginable. Around this same time, Jim woke up Julia's
younger sister, Madison, and quickly headed off to
Julia's apartment in his own car. Kim was hysterical upon arrival and was allegedly let into
the apartment by cops. But of course she was not allowed to go into the bathroom to
see the state of her daughter. Jim reportedly stayed in the parking lot during the proceedings. That night investigators
found several key pieces of evidence that would
play an important role in understanding just what
happened to poor Julia. Her clothing was completely
torn off, apart from one sleeve. The discarded fabric lay unceremoniously on the floor beside the tub. The knife used to cut off
her clothes was nowhere to be found and neither were
the ligatures used to bind her. Bodily fluid was found on her body, which, when tested,
showed that her attacker had previously gone a vasectomy. The autopsy conducted by
Washtenaw County Medical Examiner, Jeffrey Jensen, ruled her death as asphyxia associated with drowning. The manner of death, homicide. Her toxicology report came back negative for alcohol and drugs. This led authorities to believe that someone potentially
forced her under the water. Further examination of Julia's body found a deep contusion on
her tongue's right side, likely caused by Julia biting down on it. A truly sad detail to this case. The crime scene was strange. A suspicious pair of
bloody white latex gloves were discovered intertwined together and lying on the floor,
outside the bathroom door. One of the samples of DNA inside the glove was too weak to match anything, but there was a second sample inside and an additional sample
in the blood specimen found on the outside of the glove. It was later determined that the blood sample belonged to Julia. The apartment itself was ransacked, as if someone had potentially
tried to stage a robbery by digging through her drawers. Clothes were scattered all over the floor, plastic organizers had been
dumped of their contents, and Julia's purse was flung onto the bed. However, nothing of
great value was missing from the apartment. Julia's more expensive belongings, her phone, laptop, iPod, flat-screen TV, and wrapped Christmas
gifts were not disturbed. Oddly enough, only a
zebra print pillow case was reportedly missing, along with the two keys that
Julia carried on her lanyard. Officers theorized that the
perpetrator used the keys to lock Julia's bedroom door behind him, as well as the front door of the apartment while making his escape. Accordingly, Julia's roommates said that the bedroom door was not unlocked and the front door was not
open when they returned home. The apartment was on the first floor and all windows and doors were closed and locked at
the time of Julia's death with no sign of forced entry. It's possible that the
killer may have been someone who knew Julia and
therefore had easier access to her living quarters. Given the gruesome discovery, investigators set their sights on tracking down Julia's killer. They began by questioning all of Julia's past romantic interests, interviewing the man she
had gone on a date with just days before, but he was quickly cleared as a suspect. Furthermore, since the results of the fluid analysis
showed that the owner likely had a vasectomy,
law enforcement was struck with the realization that
they probably weren't dealing with a college student here. That realization set in motion
a personal investigation that Julia's family never saw coming. The Niswender family was left in disarray as Jim was sought after by the police. They felt outraged and defended
Jim's character vehemently, detesting, any claims of
foul play on his part. Then, suddenly, a close
friend of Julia came forward. She explained that two
years prior to her death, Julia had confided in her, confessing that Jim had done
inappropriate things to her and that she feared him. These details included Jim
saying suggestive things like, oh, you coming to cuddle? And Jim allegedly referring
to Julia as his girlfriend. The testimony looked bad for Jim, but his loved ones
continued to support him. And that friend later denied
ever making these accusations when brought in for a
second police interview. Yet it was highly suspected
that Jim had gotten a vasectomy in the past, as Rose, Julia's grandmother, had informed the police. She said that Turnquist had even asked her for a doctor recommendation. It should be noted that the grandmother would then eventually apply for
a personal protection order. What was she afraid of? A detective who was with Kim and Jim right after the homicide and noticed that Kim began asking
questions and wanted answers as to what had happened to
Julia and was very emotional. Jim Turnquist, who was
calm and unemotional, told his wife Kim to calm down. It wasn't just Julia's family
who believed things were off. An FBI profiler was revealed
to have told detectives that they should consider
Jim their number one suspect. Thus Jim was named a person of interest in the case of his own
stepdaughter's murder. There were a few crucial elements that could allegedly
link Jim to the crime. The three main implicating
factors were the vasectomy, the statement from Julia's old friend, and the fact that because no
forced entry was observed, Jim fit the profile of someone
who knew Julia well enough to get into the apartment
without a struggle. Yet, Jim voluntarily gave two DNA samples. Though the samples were only tested against the DNA found
inside the latex glove and not on the bodily fluid, the test sample didn't match. Some people speculate that perhaps Jim could
have taken the gloves out of the trash of the cleaning
company he worked for as a means to plant phony evidence to throw off the police. Although that can't be proven, it wasn't the key piece of evidence to get him into trouble anyway. When police seized Jim's
laptop, they were able to uncover illegal content
regarding children. With this, authorities finally
had cause to arrest Jim, but eager to prove his innocence, he went on to pass two polygraph tests. He also had an alibi that
his wife corroborated, that he was at home with Kim
and her two other daughters the night the murder took place. Kim told the police that she
remembered him being in bed with her around 10:00 PM. Despite all this, speculation continued. Some family members claimed
that the two had been fighting and sleeping in separate beds. Is it possible that the
couples slept apart that night? That Kim didn't have as
close of an eye on Jim as she had claimed to the police? Or had Jim really gone to sleep
around 10:00 PM that night? As for Jim's trial concerning
the damaging material found on his computer, he was not found guilty
because his attorney argued that any number of employees
at his cleaning business could have been responsible for these disgusting downloads and that there was no way to prove that Jim was knowingly involved. The last bit of curious information about this case deals with a purple rug. When going through crime scene photos, investigators later realized that there was a rug next to
the bathtub Julia had died in, but it had not been collected as evidence. Kim allowed the investigators
to search the storage unit where she had placed the
Niswenders belongings, but they couldn't find the rug. How had it disappeared if
the family were the only ones with access to the storage unit? Although the evidence
paints an odd picture, we must not forget that Julia's mourning family
misses the spark of joy that the happy young woman
brought into their lives. When the family had eventually traveled to the apartment to relocate
Julia's abandoned belongings to a storage unit, they had also picked out
a dress for her funeral. Soon after, a vigil was
held in the community, the grieving attendants
lit Chinese lanterns, releasing them up into the sky, hoping for justice for Julia. Jennifer describes her
sister as her best friend, someone who is outgoing, had lots of adoring friends, and was set to graduate
college the following winter with a major in communications. She had a beautiful life ahead of her. Jennifer was later quoted as saying, "You know, whenever they
do catch this person "or whatever they do in the end, "it still doesn't bring my sister back." Sentiments from Julia's
loved ones generally seem to suggest that while they
wished the investigation would have done some things differently, they believe the local
Ypsilanti Police Department did the best and most
thorough job they could, given the circumstances. Eventually the family
unwrapped the Christmas gifts Julia had lovingly prepared for them. A pair of UGG boots, some
clothes, and a laptop. Many people said that
Julia would never leave without telling the people
that mattered to her that she loved them. To this day, Julia's loved ones and the investigative force
behind her case are stumped. The evil individual behind
Julia's murder is still unknown and many members of Julia's family, including Jennifer, stand
behind Jim's innocence. The Niswenders, a heartbroken family, are left behind without a daughter and still to this day without answers.
