The remains believed to be those of a missing 18-year-old woman have been found in what cops say was “fresh dirt” outside a Michigan home, Fox News reported.
Brynn Bills has been missing since August, and the remains found this week were linked through tattoos on the body after it was recovered in Alpena Township on Tuesday, Michigan State Police said.
Her cause of death was pending the results of an autopsy.
Bills was last seen Aug. 1 and investigators say they got a tip about where to look.
“The tip led us to an area where we had seen that there was some fresh dirt and something that looked like it had been dug up recently,” First Lieutenant John Grimshaw said at a press briefing Tuesday. “So it was easy to locate, there were several spots on the property like that, so we narrowed our search to those and that’s where we found the body.”
“It took us a long time to find the remains and to get her out of there,” he added.
Police said the home where the remains were found on Alpena Road belongs to Joshua Wirgau, 34, who is a person of interest in the death of Bills, The Independent reported.
“He is a person of interest, obviously. He is the homeowner where there was a deceased body found on it, so he is a person of interest,” Lt. Grimshaw said. “He has an attorney.”
Wirgau was not at the home when police searched the property, but was in police custody following an unrelated incident that allegedy took place earlier in the week on charges of unlawful imprisonment and assault with a dangerous weapon, the Independent reported. His attorney's office tells Inside Edition Digital he has plead not guilty to both charges.
Police said that there are other persons of interest in the investigation, according to The Independent.
Grimshaw added that Bills' family is coping “as well as can be expected.”
Bills’ friend Jessica Eaves spoke to local news outlet WBKB and said she is heartbroken and said she has no idea why anyone would want to harm her friend but said said the victim may have been too trusting.
“The only thing that comes to my head is trusting the wrong people,” Eaves told WBKB.
“All I know is that she was friends with someone who was close with [Wirgau],” she added in her interview to WBKB.
Bills would have turned 18 on August 12, less than two weeks after she was last seen, However, her father, Duane Bills, told The Alpena News that he doesn’t think she reached her birthday.
“They found her, so, obviously, somebody’s got some answering to do on the subject,” he told the outlet.
Breaking Down the Timeline and Connections in the Brynn Bills Investigation - 9 & 10 News
Many pieces are still being put together in the disappearance and death of Brynn Bills. Last seen in early August, Bills’ parents reported her missing on Aug. 17 after she didn’t respond to text messages wishing her a happy birthday five days earlier. Two weeks later, Michigan State Police...
www.9and10news.com
CHILLING messages about toxic relationships and feeling controlled posted online by missing teen Brynn Bills show her psyche before her body was dug up from a Michigan home's backyard.
"God please remove anybody lying to me, using me, speaking foul on me behind my back but pretending to love me in my face. amen," read one of the 18-year-old's introspective messages.
Joshua Wirgau is listed as a sex offender dating back to a 2009 conviction for Criminal Sex Conduct.
Brynn Bills shared chilling Facebook posts before her body was ID'd by tattoos
CHILLING messages about toxic relationships and feeling controlled posted online by missing teen Brynn Bills show her psyche before her body was dug up from a Michigan home’s backyard. “…
www.thesun.co.uk
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Hill is wanted on felony warrants for unlawful imprisonment and felon in possession of a firearm, but police said Tuesday they consider Hill missing and possibly endangered.
The charges against Hill stem from an alleged incident also involving Joshua Wirgau, owner of the Alpena Township property where police last week discovered Bills’ body, and another man, Brad Srebnik.
Police arrested both of those men last week and they have been arraigned on charges similar to those sought against Hill.
Hill also apparently knew Bills. The two were Facebook friends.
According to handwritten notes in court files, a man said Wirgau asked him for a ride from Naylor Road on Sept. 21. Srebnik, Hill, and Wirgau, all armed with firearms, allegedly got into the man’s vehicle and Wirgau held a pistol to the man’s head and demanded a ride to the intersection of Lacomb and Haken roads in Alpena Township, a five-minute drive.
According to court records, Srebnik lived near that intersection in 2020, although court records currently list him at an Alpena address.
Last week, police said they found Bills’ body, identified through tattoo markings, buried in Wirgau’s back yard on Naylor Road.
Police indicated Wirgau is a person of interest in the investigation of Bills’ death. Grimshaw would not comment on whether the search for Hill is related to the investigation into Bills’ death or on whether Srebnik is a person of interest in that investigation.
Police: Woman linked to Wirgau, Srebnik, Bills missing
ALPENA ― Abby Hill, 31, who has connections to Brynn Bills and to the owner of the property where police found Bills’ body, has herself gone missing, police said Tuesday. Hill is wanted on felony warrants for unlawful imprisonment and felon in possession of a firearm, but police said Tuesday...
www.thealpenanews.com
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