A man was charged with murder Tuesday in the 2013 disappearance of a gas station clerk in western Michigan, a case that had stymied investigators until a teenage girl in an unrelated incident escaped from the suspect’s van in April.
(FOX)- Jessica Heeringa disappeared from the gas station where she worked in Norton Shores, near Muskegon, as she was about to close up for the night. The body of the 25-year-old woman hasn’t been found. Investigators weren’t able to break the mystery until Jeffrey Willis was arrested in May in a different case.
“We found Jessica’s killer,” Muskegon County prosecutor D.J. Hilson told reporters.
Willis is charged with kidnapping and murder. He’s already facing charges in two more local cases: the fatal shooting of a 36-year-old female jogger in 2014 and the attempted abduction of a teenage girl in April.
A not guilty plea was entered on Willis’ behalf during a brief court hearing. His lawyer, Paula Baker Mathes, declined to comment.
At a news conference, Hilson repeatedly rebuffed questions about the evidence against Willis or whether he knew Heeringa.
“Mr. Willis is a monster,” Hilson said. “He certainly is an individual that I wouldn’t let any of my children around, much less any female around. What his total motivation was, that’s only for him to say. Ultimately, I think this was part of who he was as a person.”
Police said they found a pistol, rope, chains, handcuffs and syringes in Willis’ van when they arrested him in the spring. If convicted, he faces life in prison without a chance for parole.
(AP/Family photo via WOOD-TV/Muskegon County Sheriff’s Department)