Unsolved murders of Jennifer Servo and Julia Niswender: Still A Mystery on ID

Family pics of Jennifer Servo and Julia Niswender
The brutal murders of Jennifer Servo and Julia Niswender remain unsolved. Pic credits: Family Photos

This week on ID, Still A Mystery looks at two separate but similar unsolved murders. Jennifer Servo and Julia Niswender were both young women who had promising careers ahead of them; however, they were both brutally murdered in their apartments.

Both of these women were sexually assaulted before being choked to death. There was no sign of forced entry in either case, so officers assumed that the women knew their killers, yet, both cases remain unsolved.

The murder of Jennifer Servo

Jennifer Servo was a newsreader who moved to Abilene, Texas, to pursue her dream job; however, it ended in tragedy when she was found dead in her home in 2002.

There were two persons of interest, which included her ex and current boyfriends. Ralph Sepulveda had made the move with Servo from Montana to Texas, but the pair had split up after a short period. There was also a new man in her life, Abilene Weatherman Brian Traver.

However, it was Sepulveda who interested the police the most. According to Detective Jeff Bell: “All the times that we interviewed him, he really never said anything that made us think this wasn’t our guy.” However, there was never enough evidence to charge him.

The murder of Julia Niswender

On December 11, 2012, Julia Niswender was a student at Eastern Michigan University when she was found dead at her off-campus Peninsular Place apartment in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

She was discovered submerged in her bathtub. Her clothes had been cut off, and she’d been strangled to death. Investigators believe she’d been bound at one point. There were trace amounts of semen found at the scene.

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There was no forced entry into the apartment, but the room was in total disarray. There were missing items from the room, and a bloody latex glove found on the floor.

No one has been charged with the crime, and the police have never even declared a suspect. In 2015, her stepfather, James Turnquist, became a person of interest when he was arrested on child pornography charges. However, he was eventually acquitted and released from custody.

Both the Jennifer Servo and Julia Niswender murders remain open.

More from Investigation Discovery

Follow the links to read about more murder mysteries profiled on ID.

University of North Carolina student Faith Hedgepath was also found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment. She was sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death after returning home from a night out. A note was left near the body, which read: “I’m not stupid b***h jealous.”

Previously on Still A Mystery, the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of reality TV star Lyric McHenry were investigated. The EJNYC star had last been seen celebrating her 26th birthday at a fancy rooftop soiree in Manhattan. The next morning her body was discovered on an overpass in the Bronx.

Still A Mystery airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery. 

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Bernadette
Bernadette
2 years ago

Julia was murdered by her stepfather he planted the gloves and other evidence to throw off detectives. They found child porn linked to stepfather and the family still support him do not get it sadly julia is the one to pay the price

Ann
Ann
1 year ago

I think bot of these young women were attacked by individuals who have “fixated upon them, stalked them, studied their routines, movements, and planned their attack.

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