Julia Niswender

Photo from Facebook

The family of Julia Niswender, the 23-year-old Eastern Michigan University student found dead in her off-campus apartment in December, has released an open letter to the school's community, the Eastern Echo reports.

"We are grateful for all the support that the EMU community has shown our family," reads a sentence from the brief letter.

Police continue to investigate the death as a homicide. Ypsilanti police Lt. Deric Gress said Friday that the status of the investigation remains the same as last week. Interviews continue and police are still waiting for autopsy results, Gress said.

"The medical examiner's office is finalizing the report," he said. "They wanted to check on a few things."

Gress said more information is expected to be released to the public next week.

Police found Niswender dead at 9:30 p.m. Dec. 11 in her Peninsular Place apartment. Investigators were called to the residence after family and friends had not heard from her in a couple of days. Ypsilanti police immediately ruled the death a suspected homicide.

There’s been no indication from police on what was found in Niswender’s apartment that led them to rule her death a possible homicide and the results of an autopsy, performed days after she was found, were inconclusive.

The 23-year-old Monroe Township native had no signs of trauma on her body during the autopsy, police said.

• Read the letter in the Eastern Echo.

John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.