Killer duo are charged with murdering teen girl and then executing woman who was about to reveal their crime
ALPENA COUNTY, MICHIGAN: Brad Srebnik, 36, and Josua Wirgau, 35, have been charged with murdering a teen girl, Brynn Bills, and Abby Hill, 34, a woman who could have spilled the truth about 17-year-old's death. The top prosecutor in the Wolverine State made the announcement on the alleged facts in the Alpena County case, “By September, the MSP identified Srebnik, Wirgau, and Hill as being involved in the disappearance of Bills. During the course of that investigation, it was learned that Hill was the last person to see Bills alive.”
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office said in a press release, “Facebook Messenger and eyewitness testimony both support that Bills was picked up by Hill in the early morning hours of August 2, 2021. The prosecution alleges that Bills was killed by Srebnik, and her body was buried in the backyard of Wirgau’s home shortly after she was last seen alive.”
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If prosecutors are to be believed, Bills may have been killed before her 18th birthday, which happened to be on August 12, 2021. Just over a month after Bills killing, Hill was "executed" for being a "potential threat" and her body was left in the woods.
“On September 25, 2021, Srebnik, Wirgau, and Hill were dropped off in a remote area of Alpena. The prosecution believes Abby Hill, 34, of Alpena, was executed on that property to stop her from revealing information about the killing of Bills, and that Hill’s body was left at the site,” read the press release.
An anonymous tip had led to a search warrant at the house in question from where human remains were identified as Brynn Bills’ established on tattoos found on the body that Michigan State Police recovered, as per Law & Crime.
On being asked about the specifics of that tip, MSP First Lieutenant John Grimshaw responded by saying, “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.” He added, “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 . . . to find the patch of dirt, it was pretty evident — so it didn’t take long to see the locations of interest to us to look. It took us a long time to find the remains and to get her out of there.”
Grimshaw highlighted the fact that the tip was a “collaboration of some other incidents which had occurred [and] which kind of made it a pressing investigative lead that we wanted to certainly dig into.” On Hill’s killing, Michigan Attorney Danna Nessel told 9&10 News, “Those men killed Abby Hill and left her body in the woods because they believed she would reveal information about their crimes.”
Bills’ best friend Jessica Eaves told WBKB, “All contact with everyone after the third was cut off; her phone was never turned on after. “And, basically, trying to track where she went has been impossible. Like she went ghost after the third.”
Srebnick is booked on two counts of first-degree premeditated homicide, disinterment and mutilation of a dead body, and felony firearm offenses. The other accused, Wirgau faces one count of first-degree premeditated murder in Hill’s death, firearms charges, and other felony charges for allegedly burying and hiding Bills’ body. If proven guilty they will face life without parole.
The two accused are called "habitual offenders," by prosecutors as their arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, October 20.