MONROE, Mich. – James Turnquist, the stepfather of murdered Eastern Michigan University coed Julia Niswender, has been arrested by Monroe County Sheriff's detectives on child pornography charges.
Police armed with a warrant seized Turnquist's computer and cellphone. He's currently in the Monroe County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
His arrest is raising the eyebrows of law enforcement who have been working on his stepdaughter's case for the last two years.
Niswender, 23, was found asphyxiated in her bathtub, locked inside her off campus apartment in December 2012. Police said her body was positioned unnaturally and have always maintained robbery was not the motive.
Sources close to the investigation told Local 4 News even before Turnquist's arrest on child porn, investigators had moved away from the theory a casual acquaintance had murdered Niswender and were looking closer to home.
Turnquist's behavior has been described to Local 4 as strange. "Strange" doesn't make someone a suspect, but that behavior coupled with this arrest does make Turnquist someone investigators are interested in.
Sources told Local 4 they would like to have a long, on-the-record interview with Turnquist, which is something we're told has never happened in more than two years.
Local 4 reached out to Turnquist's wife, Kim, who is Julia's mother, and our call was not immediately returned.