MSU Professor Ruth Simms Hamilton was beaten with a wooden object and strangled before she was fatally stabbed four times in the back in her Meridian Township home, a final autopsy showed Thursday.
Hamilton, 66, was found dead in her Seneca Drive residence in Meridian Township on Tuesday.
While the sequencing of the attack isn't entirely clear, Ingham County Medical Examiner Dennis Jurczak said it appears the assailant struck her in the head with a wooden object - possibly a cane or a walking stick.
"We think she was hit, then strangled and then finally stabbed," Jurczak said. "That was the final fatal act."
Her son, Bramlett Hamilton, 35, turned himself into authorities on Tuesday. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment at 55th District Court in Mason on Wednesday.
Bramlett Hamilton's attorney, Vince Green of Lansing, said Thursday that he will meet with prosecutors on Tuesday to discuss details of the case.
Vince Green is the son of MSU urban affairs professor Robert Green, who worked with Ruth Simms Hamilton during her 35 years at the university.
"Our families have been friends for years," Green said. "He knew of me, and some people have called and said he wanted me to see him."
Green said Bramlett Hamilton, a 1989 MSU graduate, has been unemployed in recent years since he stopped working as an attorney with the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office in California.
"How he filled his time from a day-to-day basis, I'm not really sure," Green said.
Bramlett Hamilton and his sister, Priscilla Hamilton Taylor, both attended Stanford University. Bramlett Hamilton graduated from the university's law school in 1992.
On Thursday, Ruth Simms Hamilton's colleagues said they are planning to memorialize the slain professor.
For now, though, friends and co-workers are holding off from making concrete plans.
"There will be something planned to honor Ruth at Michigan State later," said David Wiley, director of MSU's African Studies Center. "Our feeling is that the family's plan and wishes should come first and we'll plan after that.
"At the moment, we are trying to be sure people in the professional organizations that Ruth worked with know what has happened."
Hamilton worked alongside dozens of researchers in the area of African migration. She authored more than 11 volumes on the topic.
Her husband, the late James B. Hamilton, an assistant MSU provost, died in 1994 of Lou Gehrig's disease.
