Members of the family of the late Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, whose body was found floating in the Hudson River last week, said Wednesday reports she committed suicide have “no basis in reality” and called on any persons with knowledge of what happened in her final hours to step forward.

The statement from Abdus-Salaam's family, released by a public relations firm it has retained, comes one day after police said they are investigating her death as “suspicious.”

“Despite the ongoing investigation, some media outlets and others have conjectured that Sheila was the victim of a 'probable suicide,'” said Abdus-Salaam's widower, Rev. Canon Gregory Jacobs, in the statement. “These reports have frequently included unsubstantiated comments concerning my wife's possible mental and emotional state of mind at the time of her death.”