Julissa Salazar's family releases statement after U of A student's death

For people at the University of Arizona and across Tucson, the family of 19-year-old student Julissa “Julie” Salazar is asking that attention remain centered on the young woman she was, even as the criminal case over her death moves forward. A memorial has been growing at the university in her memory. Salazar’s family says she should be remembered for her relationships, goals, service to other students, and the joy she brought to the people around her, rather than allowing the person accused of killing her to dominate the public story.

Police say Salazar was killed by her boyfriend. Law enforcement investigated the death and secured the arrest of the man accused in the case, according to the family’s statement. The family expressed gratitude to the Tucson Police Department and to federal and international agencies involved in locating and apprehending the accused. It also asked that the criminal justice process continue without unnecessary interference while investigators and prosecutors develop the facts.

Salazar was the oldest of three daughters and a first-generation college student at the University of Arizona. Her family described her as intelligent, kind, empathetic, and committed to helping other people. She hoped to become a child psychologist. Her experience navigating college as a first-generation student shaped her concern for others whose families might not know how to help them pursue higher education or find their way through university life.

As a peer mentor, Salazar helped connect students with resources and supported them as they adjusted to college. Her family said she cared deeply about helping first-generation students in particular. That role gave her a direct connection to other students who were working through the practical and personal challenges of college. It also reflected the qualities her family emphasized in describing her, including compassion, generosity, and a desire to make other people’s lives easier.

Her interests extended beyond campus. Salazar had a strong connection to the agricultural community, which had long been part of her family’s life and upbringing. She also cared about women’s empowerment, domestic violence awareness, and mental health. To her family, she was a devoted daughter and an extraordinary older sister. They remembered her as someone whose smile and hugs could change the atmosphere in a room, a description that places her personal warmth at the center of the family’s appeal to the public.

The family is also urging young people, parents, friends, and universities to take warning signs of unhealthy and abusive relationships seriously. Its statement identified controlling behavior, isolation, threats, stalking, physical violence, and sexual violence as signs that should not be dismissed. The family said it hopes Salazar’s story can help someone recognize danger earlier, seek help, or understand that they deserve a safer relationship. That goal, it said, would allow Salazar’s life and the values she held to continue helping others.

At the same time, the family wants a close examination of how universities respond to threats and safety concerns involving students and former students. It is not assigning blame before the evidence is known. Instead, it wants answers about what happened, who may have known what, and what options or procedures were available. The family specifically raised questions about whether university policies can adequately identify and respond to violence, escalating threats, campus-access concerns, information-sharing, and other risks.

Those questions could eventually lead to proposed reforms that the family is calling “Julissa’s Law,” although it has not decided what such legislation should include. The family said any changes should be based on evidence and aimed at specific gaps, if investigators find them, in university policies, campus access, communication, protections after violence or expulsion, the criminal justice system, or student-safety procedures. The family’s statement presents that work as something to consider after the facts are established, not as a conclusion about responsibility before the case is resolved.

Larry Wulkan, who represents the Salazar family, said Julie should remain at the center of every discussion about the case. The family’s immediate request is for the public to remember her dreams, her work as a mentor, her love for her family and community, and the people she wanted to help. As Tucson mourns a student whose future included helping children and supporting other first-generation students, her family says her life mattered, her dreams mattered, and the person accused of taking her life should not receive more attention than the person she was.