True Crime Vault: Murderer in the Minivan

Is this a family on the run? Or is the truth far more sinister?

Or maybe see audio in 2020, this is what happens to the mixed days. Follow what happened to the mixed days for weekly episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Or if you can't wait, entire series is streaming now, add free for subscribers to 2020 True Crime Plus. Find 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts to start your free trial today. Step into the 2020 True Crime Vault where each story is unforgettable.

Three young women, one missing, one murdered, one kidnapped. Now the hidden secrets that cracked this case in all new 2020 starts right now.

I get a call from her sergeant, something suspicious happened at Exxon Guestation.

But to get right to that Michigan mom to vanish, a massive hunt for her right now.

“Everybody who's asking where is Jessica? What happened to Jessica?”

Have you seen Jessica? Can you find Jessica? And she's just a hard worker girl. She just needs to come home. You start to piece together that something violent happened in this location. She saw this silver minivan. She thought it was kind of weird. What these two individuals were witnessing in that parking lot was the abduction of Jessica Hernia.

But that wasn't their only mystery to solve when a different crime comes into play.

For this young mother on a run being shot and killed. This was that close range. This was certainly execution style. Here we have two females, one's missing, one's deceased. And one other who lived to tell. And he's just staring at me the entire time.

And I'm like let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out.

“At what point do you realize you're in real trouble and that you could die?”

This is Mesquigan in West Michigan. Just south is a small community of Norton Shore's beach towns on the sunset coast of Lake Michigan. I described Mesquigan as sort of a microcosm of the state of Mesquigan. We have our urban areas, our suburban areas, and then the eastern part of northern part of our county is more rural. Norton Shore is a nice community on the southern edge of our county.

It's one of the most beautiful areas of West Michigan because it's right near Lake Michigan. So that's the big draw. It's our Lakeshore, just absolutely gorgeous. I have a lot of pride of coming from Mesquigan County. I think it's just a really great place to live and grow up in. But the series of apparently unconnected crimes began to so fear into this quiet community.

It all begins in the final hour of an April night when a young woman named Jessica Herringa simply vanished, swallowed up or so it seemed in a mystery as vast and deep as the big lake itself. It's April 26, 2013 in Norton Shore's Michigan at the Exxon Station on East Sternburg Road. 25-year-old Jessica Herringa is supposed to be inside closing up. That night I needed gas so I stopped right here. It's the closest place from my employment.

It's pulled up to the gas station. Notice the door was open and looked inside and there was no

“Jessica Herringa. It's very strange that there's no one here. That's what alerted the police as a”

customer came in and realized that there was nobody in the store. Just speaking, I'm on one with your merchant seat. I don't know if it's emergency. I just got to work on that to expand the application on Sternburg Road and there's nobody here. It just is very suspicious by there's nobody here. There was nobody that would answer so I looked around the store. Why did you say when you looked around the store? I went into the

bathroom. I looked around. There was really no disturbance. Just nobody there. Okay, so did you yell or anything? Yeah, I didn't. I didn't walk around the building. But I don't see anybody on. I walked inside and hey, hey, it's anybody here. I even went inside the cooler and looked inside there and seen nothing abnormal. But in my gut said something's not right. I just, you know, you can turn dead and nobody

extra hours at the gas station because of financial problems and so she was covering out anybody who needed a time off. She covered their shifts and that that was her only job. And she was there by yourself. The ironic thing is that she really wasn't scheduled to work the day that she disappeared. She actually had taken over a shift from somebody.

The Jessica ever expressed concerns about feeling unsafe and work. Never. Never. Not once. She likes working there.

So North Shore's police department responded. At the time of the head of detectives was a gentleman by the name of my cacher. I get a call from our sergeant. Something suspicious happened at the Exxon gas station. It was about a mile, a half away from my house. From the crime scene photographs, when you take a first glance, the inside of the

store didn't look as though it had been disturbed. There didn't look like there had been a big

“struggle. There was no real crime scene. They find nothing. In fact, that's what's so weird. It's”

so I'm disturbed. All the cleanest applies and things were out so it appeared that she had been

cleaning and finishing up for the night. They go back into the store room and they find a cash register drawer with all the money, all the cash, all the change still intact. It didn't appear that she just grabbed her stuff and left. Her purse was still there with her jacket, cigarettes, lighter, still there. Inside that purse was a wallet. In a contained the identifying information for Jessica Herringa. Within that wallet, there was about $400 in cash. Similarly, undisturbed. Her car was

still parked out front. Whatever happened in this store, robbery was not the intent. There was really no explanation as to what happened to her. It was almost like she just left disappeared. And now is beginning the investigation into Jessica's disappearance. Police tonight say they have evidence that backs up their theory that a Norton Shore's woman was abducted from the gas station where she worked. I'm Julia Thregus, the new starts in one minute.

“It sounded very odd, you know, that she just disappeared. So we all wondered what is going on here?”

At the time that location did not have a camera system or anything. No security cameras and I don't think she should have been working by yourself. I used to talk to her about it. And you know, and ask her about it. And of course, you know, 25 years old, you think you're invincible. My goal was, at the beginning, is to establish a timeline because I figured it would help us at some point. So about 1052, we had a woman who had went in and

purchased a cigarette lighter. And that was the last person to see Jessica alive. The last sale that was recorded here was at 1052. You were here at the gas station, like 11/07, 11/07, 11/08. 11/07, he pulls up. He doesn't see anybody. So sometime between 1052 and 11/07, we have her missing. And that was the start, if you will, of what turned into be a very public and national cold case. Police continue to search for a missing woman from

Northern shores. The biggest story in all of West Michigan for months and months and months. The first

big break is a page out of Agatha Christie as they look and they keep looking they see a drop of blood. The no woman who worked another shift at the gas station approaches detectives. She and her husband saw this silver minivan back behind the ex-on gas station. She thought that was strange.

“It played an extremely important role in helping to move the initial investigation forward.”

A drop of blood, a silver minivan, and one more small caliber clue. The search for Jessica Herringer Ricochet is in a totally different and dire direction. We are now prepared to re-classify this case as an abduction. We're going to get right to that Michigan mom to vanish. Search for a young mom who vanished while working the lead ship vanished without a trace. Jessica Herringer disappeared. It was a very big deal in Herringer.

Everybody was asking where is Jessica? What happened to Jessica?

The media was very involved in this case. This expands beyond the

Bores of Mesquite and County becomes national news. The nation is looking for Jessica Herringer. A massive hunt for her right now. ABC's Alex Perez is in Norton Shore, is Michigan with the latest. Good morning, Alex. Good morning, Robin, overnight. Jessica's family does fully waited for any word from police but no lost. She was going to get out in 15 minutes. 15 minutes that store would have been closed and she would have been on her way home.

Flyers were presented to the community. They were everywhere.

“Somebody can see some and doesn't even know how important it is yet. Is there any more flyers that I can get?”

Because I will put them up for you. Like I'll stick them up around for you.

Let's join together in prayer. To call upon you for Jessica's safe return. There were vigils. They passed out flyers. They were on our air very regularly. You know, saying, please Jessica, come home if you have her. Bring her home. You know, we want you back. She just needs to come home. The small Norton Shore police force gets reinforcements. Michigan State Police,

Muskegon County Sheriff, the FBI, and even the secret service. Our helicopter searches, police canines were involved in ground searches.

A lot of people in our newsroom thought did she just leave.

She having personal problems, could she have just done this because she just had to get away. It doesn't make any sense. She wouldn't take her purse. She wouldn't take her car. She loved her son. Her son's oven meant everything to her. Jessica may have vanished, but not without a trace. And one of the officers said, I think we need to look at something back here. It's kind of weird.

“And lo and behold, you know, they discover I think some very important pieces of evidence.”

Probably about three or four feet from the back door. We saw probably about half dollar size of a blood spot. Jessica Herringa. There's Jessica Herringa's blood. And then next to that was these two little round batteries that appeared at like watch batteries. There was a small black piece of plastic that had the words Carl Walthor right on it. That was later determined to be a cover for a laser sight from a handgun.

Detectives determine that battery powered Walthor laser sight is commonly attached to a specific gun. The Walthor P22 semi-automatic pistol. But it also could fit a couple other guns. It could have fed a BB gun I was told too at the same time. So it wasn't like okay, it's only for this specific gun. Then a woman named Susan Fawlet, who worked a different shift at the gas station, approaches detectives.

“She came up to me and she goes I think I, I think I saw something which I'm like okay,”

would you see? She and her husband were out riding motorcycles and she saw this silver minivan. She thought it was kind of weird. This happens right around 11 pm, right in that 15-minute window when Jessica disappeared. The van ducks behind the gas station. Does it go out in front with a pump saw, goes behind the gas station, which at that time of the night it's kind of weird. It turned off its lights and it parked the end of the store.

There's no reason for a customer to go back and park the car. Suspecting someone may be stealing. The worker and her husband stop nearby just watching. They say they only see the driver. He gets out of the minivan. He's doing something. They're not sure what. They see the tailgate of the van go up as they recall seeing the dome light. Pushes the tailgate down, doesn't go, pops it up and adjust something. Shots the tailgate, gets in the van and drives away.

Drives right by them. When the van was leaving Susan gets to look at the van driver, it's good as you can in the dark. It was a male. Somewhat heavy set, brownish, hair, beard, mustache, and they describe the van as being silver and color. I wish they would have at least gone and seen if Jess was okay. I'm sorry. It didn't see Jessica, didn't think anything. Well, maybe there's nothing to report.

are powerful evidence. When you couple how the witnesses described what was going on behind the

gas station with laser sight cover and a spot of blood, you start to piece together that's something

“violent happened in this location. I felt that the van was crucial because it was parked right where”

those parts were found. What these two individuals were witnessing in that parking lot was the abduction of Jessica Herringa. Police pull surveillance video from several businesses, shadowy images of that mysterious silver minivan driving by within minutes of Jessica Herringa's disappearance. We're able to determine that this van is now going northbound on Grand Haven Road. But that's where the trail of the silver minivan fades to black.

Good afternoon. My name is Daniel Shaw. I'm the chief of police for the Norton Shore Police Department. Two days later, police hold a news conference. We are now prepared to reclassify this case as an abduction or a kidnapping under Michigan law. But police don't reveal everything they found to the public. And we have parts of a gun that we didn't disclose to the public. So at this point our only clue is the white male that I described to you and the silver minivan.

“Anybody know is anything called a high line? Is it like to say?”

I think I'm done now, man. Who would have a motive to take Jessica Herringa? The investigation now turns to secrets of her love life, including a married man. He asked her to move away and she said no, she was going to stay put. Our later, she's missing. Today I want to tell you about an exciting new deal from our friends at Kozy Earth. Take a moment and close your eyes and think back to the best night of sleep you ever had. Did it feel like you'd

never sleep that well again? Well, good news, you can give yourself an amazing night of sleep every

night by upgrading your bedding to Kozy Earth. Kozy Earth offers luxury bedding at an incredible

“price. Their ultra-soft, temperature regulating sheets, coverlets, and duvet covers are the”

perfect companion for a night of uninterrupted relaxation. Their sheets come in all different colors and stripes so there's something for everyone, whether you're doing a big fall refresh of your master bedroom or updating a guest room in time for the holidays. And as comfy as they are on day one, they only get better from there because they're designed to get softer with every wash. Best of all, with our limited time deal, the already great prices are even better.

You can get 50% off of a wide assortment of bedding options by going to our unique link. That's right, 50% off. But hurry, this deal is only for a very limited time. Get yourself the bedding of your dreams. Right now, go to abcsecretsavings.com/2020 For 50% off, the best bedding you'll ever sleep on. That's abcsecretsavings.com/2020 Tell your best holiday in action matters, you?

September 3rd, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bundle Subscribers, term supply. It's just not knowing and not having the answers and not being able to be there for her. You know, I'm sure she's scared and doesn't know what to do or I just hope she knows that we're all looking for her and we're going to find her. The police did, I mean, they really did rely on the media for help, as everyone held out hope

that she could be found so they released a sketch of a gentleman. This is a man that they're looking for a man of interest, if you've seen him or if you recognize or the silver minivan,

that was always the prevalent thing looking for that silver minivan.

Due to the fact that there's no signs of his disturbance within the store, we tend to believe it is someone either that she knows, like in acquaintance or someone that she knows through the store, maybe a customer or someone that she has met before.

that great quality was probably a downfall in this situation, you know.

“They're here because we have not given up hope for Jessica's safe return.”

We're receiving numerous tips from the public, which we truly appreciate of what we need more. Employed did we get a lot of calls and a lot of sightings. To our news, we're probably hundreds and people thought they saw her at a campground up north, they thought they had seen her at a store. Hopefully, you're in sure it's a police department to just go hear your case. People were saying they saw her in Arizona and they saw her new jersey and I got somebody

in Chicago that acts suspicious. Every tip that was brought in was taken seriously and investigated. Yeah, there was quite a long list of potential suspects through when we were looking at the area case. She was abducted, someone took her. One of the first people they did talk to was her boyfriend and, you know, because he admitted to them that they did have a rocky relationship. I saw her right before she went to work

and they talked to her an hour before this happened. That she was going to be out earlier in

home quick. Obviously, we always think to the right off the bat, maybe there is a problem with

“the relationship. Anybody know is anything called a high line? Is it like to say?”

He's the one who called me to tell me that she was missing. He's devastated about the whole thing. This is the mother of his child. They were in love. He had asked her to marry him and we think to quote a Dakota's part of the family. Dakota is quickly excluded as a suspect. Detectives turning their attention to other men in Jessica's life. Jessica Herringa was pretty. She was a pretty blind. People even would say there's a good look in lady who works at that gas station.

There were other people of interest in her life that would frequent the gas station. What we had heard is that she may have had a boyfriend or two in addition to the father of her baby. Police say Jessica was having a relationship with a regular at the gas station, a married man.

“His name came up multiple times. He was always in the gas station, always around.”

And he said that, you know, they had some type of an intimate type of relationship going. The week before Jessica's disappearance, police say the man's wife had come into the gas station to confront Jessica. She found out about the relationship and her then tried to make contact with Jessica kind of talk with her about it and Jessica got upset and told her to get out of the store. Which she did. Police say Jessica had a tearful talk maybe a break up with the married man

just hours before she vanished. Now we're before she went missing just an hour before him they had emotional his quote was we had an emotional discussion he asked her to go away with him to move away and she said no she was going to stay put. Our later she's missing. Is there love triangles or jealous lovers out there that you know got so enraged with jealousy that they've went to the extreme to solve the issue? I called him the suspect for a good

puppy year. We checked phone records, we got search horns, we brought in polygraph, twice for him and his wife.

But ultimately he's innocent and he had no involvement.

Detectives crossed the married man and his wife off their list. Another dead end. Started out as it looks really really good and it ends up melting right in your hand around tour. All those suspects all those tips to police here but still no Jessica weeks, months, a full year goes by with no word about the missing woman. The tips start windling so they're not getting as many tips. Not hearing anything more about the silver minivan. There is nothing more

investigators could do so. We also stopped covering it. As 2013 he comes 2014 her case colder than a west Michigan winter and then some miles away in another part of Mesquigan County another young mother, not lost, found dead.

We're going to turn on the road that Becky used to jog our walk on. This is automobile road. It was a Sunday evening late June 2014 when a couple was driving here along automobile road in Mesquigan County. In the middle of summer six o'clock in the evening. Suddenly they saw something in the road. Maybe a deer that soon discovered it was worse, much worse. I don't mind my own sharing emergency. It's on automobile road.

“We go up to this lady. She's laying in the road. I think she would hit my car.”

Okay, I had a head injury. Okay, we gotta start CPR if she's not breathing normally. I want

you to go ahead and start. This is Dashcam video from the first Mesquigan County Sheriff's

Deputy arriving on the scene. You can see an EMS worker rushing in to help the 911 callers. The wife is a nurse and she was trying to see what she could do. It started out initially a hit and run. She was found on the side of the road. She was in running gear so she'd been out for a run. Unfortunately, shortly after she was discovered, she succumbed her injuries and was pronounced

dead at the scene. The woman is Rebecca Bletch. She lives just down the road and as a

“place her in the ambulance, police are stunned to find her death was no accident.”

In the back of her head, she's got three bullet walls. Rebecca Bletch's case went from a hit and run to a homicide. So it was a shooting murder. People were crying. People were scared. People were scared. I was scared to be in my own yard. Rebecca Sister Jessica sees a report of a woman killed on Facebook.

And then I called her and she didn't answer. So when I called her again, no answers. So when I called her daughter, she called me and asked if my mom was home. I said, "No, I don't know where she's at." I said, "Where's her dad?" She said, "These outside talking to the police." And I knew it was her. Rebecca's daughter, Ellie, says her grandmother told her what happened.

My dad was outside and my grandma was inside. She's talking. She used to jog by here all the time. Very nice friendly girl.

Always would say, "Hi, how you're doing? What not when she went through?"

From all accounts, she was just a nice person. Everyone just loved Rebecca Blutch. Tell me about your sister. Becky was the oldest of the three of us sisters. Kind of more of a mother to us in times of need. Absolutely great spirit, big laugh, great smile.

Always the life of the party. You couldn't help. No, she was there. She opted to room you knew. What was she like as a mom? Very involved. It was very active with, with Ellie. She loved to go unruns, bike rides, locks, the woods. At the crime scene, police find Rebecca's belongings, cell phones, sunglasses, earbuds,

all in a neat pile across the road from her body. Why was her body on one side of the road? And these items in a nice little pile. On the opposite side of the road. I mean, it only seems that someone would have ordered her to take off everything that she had had and set it down. Investigators speculate that after the killer forced Rebecca to put her things down,

“she tried to get away. I think when she realized what was happening, I think she tried to run.”

There was a trail of caseings that went from the middle of the road and then toward her body

three different cases. I think he hit her with the first shot and it knocked her down.

The killer shoots her back at three times with a 22 caliber gun. Investigators recover

“CCI brand shell casings. This was at close range. This was certainly execution style.”

There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why on a Sunday afternoon that she would be targeted in killed in such a fashion. And the only witnesses are my horses. They absolutely stood at that fence and watched, did I can guarantee you if they could only talk. They would have got this solved a lot quicker.

Jessica Herring has disappearance and Rebecca Blech's murder were never really tied together.

I mean, people speculated and wondered. Here we have two females that are one's missing, one's deceased, but there were no real strong ties. I made a call. I always do. Hey, what kind of description do you have? He just couldn't see how these two were related.

“There was no mention of a silver minivan or any minivan of that nature being anywhere in that area”

at the time that she was shocked. There is one possible connection. Firearms experts say that the 22 caliber shell casings found near Rebecca's body may have been fired by a wall through 20 to pistol and that's the same kind of gun possibly involved in Jessica's case. It was explained to us that the characteristics left by the firing pin of the gun that was used to kill Rebecca Blech was very similar to what they've seen. A WALTER P22 would have left.

Unconvince their cases are related. Investigators turned their attention to the person closest to Rebecca. They were focused on her husband. They really decided that he must have done it.

At any point did you guys think maybe he did it? It never crossed my mind. You guys never thought

it was her husband. No. Because you'd never do anything like that. He's not like that. It was determined that he didn't have anything to do with this crime. With Kevin Blech cleared of any involvement in his wife's death, her murder is unsolved. I hate to call the cold case because we were still we were so actively working on it and we didn't stop. But we had no solid leads. We had nothing.

What happened was an incident that blew the case open. That changed everything.

This new pick-up blueberry farm seems an unlikely place to solve cold cases. The Jessica

Herringa disappearance, the 22 caliber killing of Rebecca Blech, but police say an incident that happened just down the road from here and what the security cameras see puts it all into focus.

“What kind of plan was it? What kind of plan was it? What kind of plan was it?”

What kind of plan was it? What kind of plan was it? That was the turning point. Now, the one where is your emergency? It's coming immediately. We have a man with his sister, Michelle, and he has a gun and he's outside the shoot. They're in the line with me, who has a gun? April of 2016, we received a 911 call from a homeowner who just had a young lady come running up for her house screaming saying that somebody was trying to kidnap her.

Is it a female? Is it a girl? Is it a girl? Is it a circle right now and I'm shaking? Okay, can I talk to her? Yeah, here she is. Hello. Hi, this is 911, okay? This is Tommy. What are you talking about? I guess I'm out there. That phone call. That was the turning point. Jessica Herringa vanished in April 2013. Rebecca Blech, shot and killed in June 2014,

tried as they might frustrated detectives in northern shores and Mesquigan County cannot solve either crime. Two cold cases, unsolved for years, no arrest, until a scary 911 call after a teenage girl runs for her life on this very road. I had a job on the car. I don't even know and I'm saying, please let me out, right now, please let me out. A young teenager, by the name of Madison Niagara, finds herself walking home in a rural part of the skiing county after attending

We had a big old bonfire and then everyone left and went to a different party.

So then I shared walking home. Oh, so you were out all night all night all night all night. It's early in the morning. She's walking along the road. Did you know where you were? No, but I figured, like I'll be a little figure out. Do you have a cell phone? I did have a phone, but it was dead. By now, Madison is lost and in tears.

Inside of taking the left and going towards town, I took a right and went towards the lake. I'm crying at this point. A silver mini van pulls up.

Hey, do you need a ride? The man in the mini van said to her.

“I was like, no, absolutely not. Can I please as was your phone?”

I was like, yeah, just come on get in. Okay. So I got in. She got in the car and he took off. I don't know why she decided to happen that car, but I think she was just really desperate at that point. So you get in the car. You get in the car, he rolls up the window and likes the doors. I'm still crying and I feel bad because I think he's a nice guy. So I'm like, I am sorry, like, I'm not trying to be mean, but please normally go back down.

The man in the mini van turns off the main road onto more isolated North Green Creek road.

Not where Madison wants to go. She didn't know where she was, but she knew enough to where

that was definitely the wrong direction. I asked he was a cell phone and he was like, it's dead. And he's just staring at me the entire time and I'm like, let me out, let me out, let me out. And he's just staring at me. And then that's when he returned her and grabbed his gun. He's now pointing a gun at her. She has two choices, really. One just submit and hope for the best or two wrong. As soon as I saw the gun, I was out.

And I'm out the door and jumped. You said you were in the vehicle and jumped out? Yes. All right. When she jumped, she jumped right out of her shoes, rolled, got road-washed, they felt broken fingernails. She was going to get away from this man. You haven't been back over here. No. Madison has moved on. So she has not been back to the scene

of her death-defying leap until this moment when she agreed to go back to show us what happened.

“I remember running completely down this road. Did you look back?”

I did look back and that's when he was like standing there with his gun named at me and I'm just like, don't kill me. Please don't kill me. Did you say that to him? Yeah. I was like, please do not. Like, I have family and he was like, it's just a joke. Come back. Come back. It's a joke. Yeah. It's a guy who is not. It's good running. There were two unspent 22 cartridges lying in the road.

I think those two lie rounds were because of the gun itself jammed. We believe we pulled the trigger. It jammed up and so you rack it. Get that round out. So you get the next round. Somehow it jammed up again. Were you assaulted at all? No. Okay. I need to put a house on my job out of his car. Why are you looking? Do you want an ambulance?

She was very lucky. She was very bold to be able to help jump out of a vehicle. I don't know how many people it have done that. It takes a lot of fortitude and she had had what it took to save herself. Now deputies are on a vanhunt driving up and down country roads looking for telltale surveillance cameras. When they said they were looking for anyone with video

I thought they're not going to find anyone with video, especially in that stretch where she was. Police figure find the silver minivan solved the Madison NY guard case.

“But what the types of never figured on finding that ordinary minivan would be the key to”

solving two more cold case mysteries. The detective asked if you could see the video as

lot. When Madison got away and they were able to connect the dots. Re-surprise. I was very shocked

“that one individual could have been responsible for three women. He really is a monster. Who lives”

with secrets that dark? To become a real lion came, a curved named Kio is about to find out. From executive producers John Favreau and my company. And with music by Hans Zimmer. National Geographic and Disney present. Lion. The story of a cub who could be king.

National Geographic's Lion is now streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu. A new series from the streets of Snowfall. I can't not do this. Ethics presents the drop. A Snowfall Saga.

The left-hand is the new gold rush.

Hey, run that man. You go down his road, you won't kiss yourself cute. Who want to real taste the do something? Ethics is the drop. A Snowfall Saga. New series premier September 8 on Ethics and Hulu. Jessica Haringa's disappearance and Rebecca Blech's murder.

Here we have two females that are one missing one's deceased.

“But how do they connect and how do they connect to a new victim?”

They showed the 16-year-old girl and she said, "That's the man who pointed it on at me who tried to kill me." I'm trying to tell you, all right, I'm just a doll. We're not in your own business with you. I got a couple more things to say. Bells and whistles started going off. I've hold the cats. What have we stumbled upon here?

That's a medical diagram on where to inject someone. They discovered a file folder labeled "Vix VICS." Inside the house, we found some recording equipment, almost like a covert hidden type camera. A significant amount of bleach bottles in the basement of this house.

They found evidence after evidence after evidence. I mean, it did blow the case wide open. He's saying he didn't kill her, but he was there. Can you tell me anything? Big question. He's so hard.

He just kept saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it makes me shutter." I get goosebumps to think what they found.

The first questions are easy. What's your name?

Madison. And spell out for me. And AD, I also weren't. We have the 911 car. I want to play it for you. Okay. You can know what was your emergency. He just told me that he was going to let me with his phone.

So I got evidence that he wouldn't give it to me. And then he said, "It was dead, so I was like let me out." And he reached it further, so I got his car. It is very clear, based on the evidence that we collected at this particular crime scene that Madison threw divine intervention as a life.

We discovered that there were two unspent 22 cartridges lying in the road. It's only that the gun jam and not once but twice that she's able to make it to this house alive. Nobody knew I'd left. The target that I was at. So if his gun didn't jam up, he would have just left me. I don't even know anything.

Investigators are able to determine that it's a 22 cartridge manufactured by the CCI company. Those bullet casings and Madison's details about the van will become

“more important than police in this area realize.”

Police are searching the area for cameras that may have caught something that could be useful to this investigation. When they said they were looking for anyone with video, I thought they're not going to find anyone with video, especially in that stretch where she was. It's Madison's description of her would-be captain and his silver van that brings detectives

here to the Saldini blueberry farms. Locals and visitors come here to pick blueberries. But detectives are picking through surveillance video, hoping security cameras captured that mysterious man and his silver van. He asked if the cameras are real and if you could see him so I was sure anything you want. It had two security cameras. One that kind of pointed to the semi-circle drive they had

and the other that kind of pointed out to the roadway. And he wasn't up there four or five minutes and he says I see it.

One of the chances the blueberry farm has a surveillance video that shows a silver minivan.

“The cameras only have a 30-day loop. If a week would have gone by I think it would have been too late.”

It gave really good close-up images of this particular silver minivan. He turned in on a salt drive and went out the north drive. He turned around in the blueberry farm to go back and watch me. What did he look like? The man that pulled up. He was heavier than that and he had dark facial hair and dark hair.

Kind of normal. Yeah and it looked normal to me. You didn't think anything of him when you saw him pull up. He didn't look creepy. Madison is also able to remember some specific details from inside the van. In the middle there was like this little netted thing so there was a bit of stuff in there.

I remember seeing his phone in the net thing and it was a flip phone which I thought was really weird because who has flip phones nowadays. While the video is pretty clear authorities can't make out the license plate. So they're now searching for a proverbial needle in a haystack.

The first step is to identify the van's make and model.

And for that they turned to a local car dealer. My name is Mike Cring and I was the owner of Rich's Auto Mart which was a minivan car line. I was able to establish that it was 2004 to 2007 Dodge Caravan.

“I think all of a soccer mom vehicle for a reason.”

It just was a grocery getter and they went to the soccer game football games and families would buy them. Cring notices the van has some unique features. Similar to the ones he demonstrates on this Dodge Caravan. The door handles were not painted so these these door handles are not painted as well.

So that's very similar.

So my new it was an SC package but I knew it had stone go seedings.

And then they would have a compartment in the floor that you could flip these down and then turn them into the floor. When they're up in this position the compartment is completely empty to stole whatever you'd like to stole. More importantly the moldings on the side of the van and a black antenna

catch the minivan expert to eye. I saw that little antenna that was on the roof and that told me that van was more

“likely made in Canada because of that the detectives were able to involve the secret service”

and find some database that told them how many minivans were in the county that were made in Canada and they were able to take the the van numbers from those vehicles and compare them to registered vans here in Michigan. And then from that narrow the list down by geographic area. We were able to establish that there are roughly 33,000 vehicles in the state of Michigan that match

those attributes. That's a number now that investigators can take and they can start ticking off vehicles in the skiing county and so that's exactly what they do. And they go from 33,000 silver minivans all the way down to just one and most importantly to the man behind the wheel and all the different clips and pictures that we had seen this silver minivan that was dark shadowy and they found it.

Now authorities wanted to see if Madison could confirm this was the man who allegedly attempted to kidnap her so they put together a photo line up. When you saw the pictures that they showed you go line up and pick them out right away. They showed the 16-year-old girl and she said that's the man who pointed it on at me who tried to kill me. And that man was Jeffrey Wills. Jeff Willis happened to work that this manufacturing plan at the time and a detective

walked through the parking lot discovered the vehicle and noticed through the window that this vehicle had cargo netting in the center console area. This netting that had a bunch of stuff in it that seemed to be similar to what Madison had described. And Jeffrey Willis is a name police have heard before. Three years earlier an ex-on gas station employee Jessica Herringa vanished. At the time,

detectives got a tip about a man named Jeffrey Willis who owned a silver van so they went to talk to him. We asked him how long his own his van, if he'd ever been to the ex-on gas station, if he knew Jessica Herringa. And witnesses in that case describe seeing a silver minivan. The same type of minivan detectives recognize unservalance images from so-deeny blueberries. It turns out Willis was a regular at the ex-on and when police catch up to him again,

this time it's about the alleged kidnapping of 16-year-old Madison. You just have to say you drive a pretty man. You're excited for that. And Willis is about to offer up something jaw-dropping, something that takes the detectives by surprise.

that leads Feliz to 46-year-old Jeffrey Willis. After Madison picks him out of a photo line-up, Feliz Holomon for questioning.

“When Mr. Willis is getting off a work at 6.30 in the morning, he's being pulled over by a”

state trooper and then ultimately taken into custody his van is then secured and taken to a location

where it can be searched. He walks in very relaxed sort of matter of fact. Jeffrey Willis was a worker at a furniture manufacturer in nearby spring like he worked the overnight shift. He was well under the radar. He had no criminal history. He was a middle-aged guy married, kind of here, Donald Hartnery, person in the community, regular guy next door. Willis grew up in Michigan, attending high school in Mesquigan County.

He has a daughter from a previous relationship. Turns out he's also a grandfather.

“He is no criminal history, but a work history of being a janitor at two local elementary”

schools back in the '90s. According to school district records, Willis was eventually fired for allegedly using a school computer to look at adult websites. He appears to want to cooperate. It was like, "Oh man, what's this all about?" And yeah, he finds the opportunity to make small talk or even flirt a little bit with the female

detectives. Well, police are questioning him. Willis makes a surprising admission.

He tells them he was questioned back in 2013 about the unsolved disappearance of Jessica Herringa at the Exxon gas station. "I got bugged about another one. See yourself." "Oh really?" "Well I'm in there doing their retreat." "Sit around." "Yeah." "It's fire, it's also an accident came here health." "Yeah." "I somehow can't see a couple of questions." Back in 2013, I told him that we're investigating silver vans and registered owners that are in the area due to the Jessica Herringa investigation. He said he had heard about that

and understood. "Receite showed that Willis was actually a regular at the Exxon, and many of his visits happened during Jessica's shifts, including on the very night she disappeared. He had actually stopped into the gas station that night and Jessica was working. He recalls seeing her there. He said that he didn't have a relationship whether didn't talk to her a lot just

“had seen her working in the gas station. "Remember, police were talking to many potential suspects,”

and when they searched it, Willis's van appears clean." "We asked if we could see it. It was empty and it smelled of cleaning products." "They asked him about what he was doing that night." "He had an alibi. He was home with his wife. He was at the gas station earlier in the evening, but at that time he was home." "They did a really good job at that point in time of following up and helping establish his relationship or what he had done that night." "I was angry. I was

emotional. I was upset about what we might have stopped. Had we brought him in, sat him down, polygraphed him, and went at him." "They had him right there. He was right under their noses. But if you don't have evidence, how can you arrest him?" "They're not to be blamed for not having arrested him initially because they didn't have probable cause initially. It happens often that police speech suspects in these kinds of cases early in a screen like this and only come back to a suspect later."

But Madison Nigard's alleged attempted kidnapping puts Jeffrey Willis back on police's radar. And now they're grueling him about his whereabouts on that morning. "I didn't even think of him." "So you're saying that I took her?" "You think I took her?" "You need finding her left."

I wasn't there with whatever happened here. I was really telling you. I might have been there. I wasn't forever

“lonely." Willis is comfortable demeanor, changes when detectives tell him they have his”

minivan on surveillance video. "Everybody thinks I'm gonna have to leave." "So, where were you?" "I don't know. I thought it was up there for you. I don't know why I didn't do that, sir." "Obviously something happened about this." "All right. When you go from there with home." "Well, you asked me where I went and I said, "I don't know." "I don't know. I don't know why I don't know the door. I don't know why I don't know the door." "And I'm not trying to." "If I get up and walk out,

you're gonna slam me down." "No, like this." "Jerry Willis, heads for the door." "Well, then I'm going to walk."

"We did it." "Just relax." "We did it." "I mean, just sit down, please." "We please sit down." "Okay." "But I'm trying to tell you." "All right. I'm going to go. We're not going to have a piss and mess with you. I got a couple more things to say.

“And I want you to hear me out. All right. Okay? It's that simple."”

Investigators tell Willis that he is not free to leave and not only that, but they are searching his home and that silver mini van. They got the two search once. "Oh, and boy." Willis seems worried about what police will find. "I guess what's in search of force?" And what they're about to uncover would shock even the most seasoned investigator,

evidence of a dark, double life. "It makes me shutter. I get goosebumps to think what they found." Detectives have been talking to Jeffrey Willis for hours about the alleged kidnapping of Madison Nightguard. And now they tell him they're also searching his home and his van. "The search was the search force. It wasn't on this patent. I was just heading down to get help separate nights. And we're going to learn how to search at the house and the tower.

"Evon, I was going to go with you. I was going to go with you. It turns out that that model of minivan had hidden compartments." And in that they find this metal toolbox that is padlocked. It's locked. And the things that were in the toolbox are disgusting. We find things that you would use in a bonded situation like chains and rope, what they call a J-Hug, which is something that you hang from the rafters and you kind of hook a rope or chain to so you're kind of dangling with your arms

spread. They also find some rubber gloves. There were syringes, along with the syringes where vials of insulin. So on the inside cover of this toolbox is a laminated small laminated diagram of a human body. That's a medical diagram on where to inject someone with insulin. So it's a

diagram of a human torso showing the injection points. And so ultimately, he had this map if you

will. If I wanted a low dose, where would I inject somebody? If I wanted a high dose or something to move rapidly, where would I inject somebody in order to make that happen? Insulin for a non-insulin taking person can have some very detrimental effects. It can literally render you unconscious. It was at that point in time that lightbulb started and bells and whistles started going off of holy cats. What are we still in the pond here? Investigators also find a second box in the

minivan hidden under the driver's seat. And then this one, they find a gut, a walthor P22. It's a different gun from the bursa 380. Willis told police about during his interrogation.

“I own a, um, brigade burp of 380. Also found in the secret lock box is a box of 22”

caliber CCI brand ammunition. We recovered the 22 casings from Rebecca Bletch's scene. The lab was able to conclusively show that the shell casings and bullet fragments collected at the Rebecca Bletch scene were fired from the gun that was recovered from Jeff Willis to the end. So Bingo, that's when they started to put everything together when it all started to add up. Now, investigators have evidence connecting Jeffrey Willis to both Jessica Herring as

disappearance and Rebecca Bletch's murder. We get a search warrant, we go back to his house. During the search of Willis's house, investigators speak to his wife. She had no idea about anything, a ferris that he was involved in. There was nothing that suggested to her

In the second search warrant on his house, we found a kind of hard drive that was hidden.

“We checked the duck work and up inside the furnace cold air returned, stuck to the wall,”

was a portable hard drive. In his hard drive, they discovered a file folder labeled Vix. VICS. Inside that folder there were two subfolders. One containing the initials of Rebecca Bletch, the other containing the initials of Jessica Herringa. Vix, we automatically assumed stand for victims. Jessica Lynn Herringa, and in that folder it was all these little pictures of her. Things from the internet, things from the news, anything that he found he would put in that folder.

The other one was R.B. Rebecca Bletch, and in there was all these pictures, different pictures,

and different articles of her. Why we were at his home doing the search warrant there and talking

with his wife, we'd learned about the Bailey Street address, which was his grandfather's home that he had access to, and his grandfather was deceased, so he had pretty much sole access to that property. There was a significant amount of the leach bottles in the basement of this house. To the point where you'd really question why somebody would have that many empty leach bottles in a rundown abandoned house. Jeffrey Willis is accused of the attempted abduction of a 16-year-old

girl last month, and his under investigation in the murder of Rebecca Bletch two years ago, and the disappearance of Jessica Herringa, Willis pleaded not guilty to the attempted abduction

of Madison Nygard as they continued to investigate, and they arrested Jeffrey Willis,

and they found evidence after evidence after evidence. I mean, it did blow the case wide open. While Willis sits in jail, the investigation continues. Detectives talk to family and friends, trying to figure out who the sky is. You're asking, "Who's Jeffrey Willis, where did this guy come from?" and interviewing friends and relatives and all that kind of stuff. One of the names that came up was boom.

Well, Kevin Bloom is his cousin. They say they were like brothers, they were very close.

“We then went to his house, talked to him about Jeffrey Willis, and how do you know him?”

And it was really, if anything, a fact will be called a fact with this, and somebody that was really not of interest to us other than that. Well, then the information came out. I believe in the news that we were located the gun shortly after that. One of the detectives gets a phone call from Mr. Bloom. Mr. Bloom tells us this detective, "Hey, you know, I just wanted to tell you something. I had this really weird dream about handling this particular weapon."

"You probably touched it, or you had a dream that you bought and touched it." "You don't know exactly why." So, police are now wondering, is it possible their prime suspect, Jeffrey Willis, had a partner in crime? And a proof daily wherever you get your podcasts.

There is so much NFL on ESPN right now, Monday night football,

“plus pregame and postgame, NFL Live, NFL Primetime, everything you need to stay on top of”

every game, every week. Unbelievable. And now, NFL Network is on the ESPN app, more football, more coverage, more ways to watch. Football is on. All season long on ESPN and streaming on the ESPN app. While Willis sits in jail awaiting trial, investigators wanting to learn more about his past, track down his cousin and close confidant, a man named Kevin Bloom.

Kevin Bloom at the time that this was all happening, worked for the Department of Corrections. He was a corrections officer at one of our local prisons here in town. He was talked to just as a witness that might be familiar with Jeff Willis. We then went to his house, talked to him about Jeffrey Willis and how do you know him? Well, I haven't seen him in a long time. And we didn't think much about it. It's like, okay,

what's really interesting about this is that shortly after that interview, one of the detectives gets a phone call from Mr. Bloom. Mr. Bloom tells this detective, "Hey, you know, I just wanted to tell you something. I had this really weird dream about handling the his particular weapon and Jeff being there."

Yeah, I'm not sure if I touched it or it was in a dream, but I think I touched it. So I'm not sure. It's you who's played it cool. She was okay. Well, come over and talk to you about it. This detective had been around for a while and the red flags just went screaming

off in her head. Basically, two detectives go, "We're not buying this. Would you do a polygraph?"

He was interviewed for a long period of time. He had taken a polygraph. He had failed. But Kevin Bloom continues to talk to police and eventually tells them that his cousin Jeffrey will has told him that he was the person who abducted and killed Jessica Herringa. I get a call

“at about two in the morning at home from the detectives. They said, "You need to get here.”

He's starting to talk about Herringa and what they did with the body." I was like, "This can't be happening. Do I finally have somebody talking?" Let's go back to that gun, Kisper. That's the only time I've ever seen him have here. He had told them that he was around Saturday night when he saw Jessica Herringa saw a body at the grandpa's house and he believes that he might have seen that she was dead and helped him move the body. He said, "If you don't do this,

you're not going to end up hurting your family." Then I came down and helped him wrap her up and he carried her into his bed. He's crying. He's up, emotionally upset. He's saying he didn't kill her, but he was there. And he states that he was with Jeffrey Willis when he buried her body and that he knew where that or her body was buried. I felt confident. I didn't think anybody would be lying about this. So he talks about getting rid of the body and how they carried her out

in a gray sheet out to the van. And I followed him and he went here and we put him somewhere in there. I felt like I finally have a witness to this. I said, "Well, can you bring me to the body?" He said, "Absolutely. I can do that." I thought, "Okay. Finally, we're going to have really good closure all the way around." So we go out there and brought out cadaver dogs from the state place. Everybody's got a shovel and we're looking and we're walking up and down and up and down.

“You know, I just can't remember. So I went in there and I confronted them.”

I thought, "Okay. If I found her, I'd be bringing her home right now." That's what I mean. Don't. Can he stop? He looks and he goes, "I'm lying." I go, "Yeah. I know you're lying." And I go, "Let's get to the truth." He goes, "No, I'm lying about everything." I wasn't at Jeffrey. I didn't see the body. I didn't move the

body. Everything. He retracted. He just said he made it up. So that doesn't have to be very much. That's not that common that somebody makes up a story with, puts themselves directly involved in it. He was charged with lying and then accessory after the fact. He was convicted of both. In those interviews, he did with police. He also mentioned Rebecca Blech. He didn't implicate

himself and her murder and he was never charged in relation to the case. But it did leave Rebecca's

sister Jessica wondering, "If maybe he knew more about what happened to her than he'd said." So I went to the jail to talk to him. Who's this? I'm Rebecca Blech's sister. Hi.

“He just kept saying, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Can you tell me anything?”

Um, I'm all men and say is the police were wrong when they investigated me and when they questioned me and that day they questioned me so hard. I lied. I made it up. I'm not that kind of person. I didn't know anything about it. All made up. What were you hoping to get from him talking to him in jail? You know more than you're telling us. I don't know what I wanted. I just felt I needed to go see him

and see what information he would give me. It's time for Jeffrey Willis's day in court and at the Rebecca Blech trial, he surprises everybody by taking the stand to testify.

We're never told whether Defending's going to testify.

You will. You're a sheriff. This day's, uh, killing the splash. Did you have a fact in death? Nobody does that. That's not normal.

Jeffrey Willis has now been charged with the murders of both Jessica Herringa and Rebecca Blech.

“He pleins not guilty to both and his first trial up is the Blech case.”

It's not just another murder and it's not just another trial. It was a big stage. There were a lot of people paying attention. The physical evidence was better in the Rebecca Blech case. Part of the forensic examination of the handgun and athletic type clubs were able to find blood in various locations and that blood matched the DNA profile of Rebecca Blech.

Prosecutors made a very smart strategic decision to try Rebecca Blech's murder case first. There they had a body and they could prove up the facts very clearly for first-degree murder. They called it a stand Kevin Blech. At the time the defense was, I didn't do it. I being Jeff Willis, but my cousin did. We knew going into this that because Kevin had his own case going at the time that he was not going

to testify in fear of incriminating himself and so he took the fifth.

Kevin Bloom had an alibi for the Blech murder and was never charged in connection with that crime

in any way. He was a non-player in this. He wasn't a person who was going to impact the outcome from my client one way or the other. When Willis appears in court, he looks like a different man than the one who sat in the interrogation room a year earlier. He looked different. It lost a lot of weight and now he was trimmed and fit. You may call your next witness Mr. Johnson. Yeah, no, we call Jeffrey Willis to the

stand. In the Blech case, we put my client on the stand. The defendant almost never takes the witness stand in a criminal case. To see Jeff Willis get up on the witness stand and try and

talk his way out of a conviction is pretty astounding. The penalty for first-degree murder

in this state is you spend the rest of your life in prison with no possibility of getting out. We so see the state in the record. Jeffrey Thomas Willis. When you have that much on the line, ultimately you leave that call to him.

“Willis, you're a charter. This case, killing the splutch. Did you have a fact in death?”

I did not. I did not kill my splutch. I wasn't even there at home. You have the other regulations about that day in general? Well, I cut the grass that day. Between four and I want to say 630, I was cutting the grass. The problem with it is once you take the stand you got to answer questions too. And if you have a highly skilled prosecutor as they did, he's going to have some questions that you may not want to

have asked. And there's nobody else that can verify that book. Well, my wife, she was home. By this time, Willis and his wife had divorced. Over three years have passed. His wife doesn't remember and she doesn't remember whether he was home or not. She has no real independent memory about that particular evening. So what I'm saying is if your wife has the right election of that, you only want to verify that as you. Yeah, I guess.

I remember when he got on the stand. He said, when they asked him about the toolbox in his van, he chuckled his own. It's kind of a funny story. My great. My grandson would come over on Wednesdays. That toolbox is full of adult toys. And he laughs it off like, oh, my grandson got into there.

“So I put it in the van. That's how it ended in the van.”

Nobody does that. That's that's not normal. To laugh it off like he's so innocent to that jury. Nobody was buying that line. Do you think he was trying to be charming? Yeah. Mm-hmm. A complete debacle on the witness stand, not charming, not convincing, and not telling the truth. Ultimately, the jury deliberates for about 90 minutes. Do you have given the signal that you have arrived at the front? And they find him guilty of first degree murder in the death of

Rebecca Bletch. With one trial finished, Willis's defense now prepares for the next, the murder of Jessica Herringa. If you read those two trials, the evidence coming in is almost identical in both cases. You try again and see if you can't figure out a different argument that might be more effective this time. I believe you will have information that paints him as a evil person and then that may be your judgment, but you will not have evidence that you feel

or kidnap the spirit. The victim's body is never discovered. So under those circumstances,

powerful evidence and they tell jurors about those pieces of plastic and batteries from a laser

“site found at the Exxon Station where Jessica vanished. They explained that the gun recovered from”

Jeffrey Willis's van was originally sold with a laser site on it, but when the gun was recovered, that laser site was missing. Usually you can't talk about a defendant's prior alleged bad acts to prove that he did the bad act in this case, but there are exceptions. In this case, the judge allows prosecutors to call Madison Nygarb, the 16-year-old police say Willis attempted to abduct that only does she help establish a pattern of behavior on Willis's part,

but she is also able to link him to that silver minivan. Because she was a minor at the time, she was not shown on camera. Jeffrey Willis pulled up. Did you know Mr. Willis? Yeah. The first time I had a test by a side in my prime of writing, I didn't want to do this. I don't want to. I have to do it. Where you stand? I have to stick. Where are you going? I'm not going jump top. This child being traumatized. That was the bit of evidence, I think,

which locked them in to a course that we couldn't turn the ship around.

“Good guys. It's over every time as well as the top one on the murder, you have to be a first”

three months. We're almost seems unreal. We're looking at a guy that's a potential serial killer that, at a minimum, has killed two people, was probably in line to kill a third.

We never did a trial for your case. You know, the prosecutor serves the waste of their time.

He's already going away for life. What would you have liked to have seen happen? I think I would have just liked to have the option of things. That was kind of a huge slap in my face. Madison had played a key role up to this point, but he had been convicted of two separate counts of first-degree murder, so he's essentially going to die in prison. Ultimately, he made the decision that there wasn't a need to move forward with the criminal

“prosecution. At the sentencing of the victim or her family,”

is allowed to look at the defendant, the eye and tell him this is what you did to my loved one, this is what you did to me. I was looking forward to him being there to hear what I had to say. But Jeffrey Willis had one last sickening surprise in store. About six weeks after Willis's found guilty of murdering Rebecca Bletch, he sentenced a standard part of any trial, but this time it's different. Usually at the sentencing, the victim comes in

or her family. There's allowed to look defendant in the eye and you get to tell him this is what you did to my loved one, this is what you've done to her children, this is what you did to me. Mr. Willis knew that was coming. I get approached by his lawyer. It would basically says, "Hey, my client, this isn't going to be present." In my 24 years of doing this, this was a first for me. That was a moment I had waited two years for, you know, to have my chance to look him in the

eyes and talk to him and say what I want to just say, not only is it my time, but it was looking forward to him being there to hear what I had to say. The victim's family is sitting there and he looks over at them and he blows the kiss to them. When he blew the kiss in your direction, shock, it couldn't believe it. Again, he got his way and got to walk out and not listen to us. It's one of the lowest points in my career.

It was just a horrible thing to do. It was just a horrible thing to do. Shortly after the sentence the sheriff came to me and said, "Hey, look, do you think there would be an issue if when we transport Mr. Willis?" And on that trip, if my guys just played the victim impact statement, the entire trip, I said, "I see no issue with that, go for it." He claims that he's got a monster, but it's actually

to be clouded and burnt. They played it loud. "She was amazing, inside and out. She would

use your love and take a look to be around her." And they played it from over and over again.

Your three names are always connected. You were the reason that they figured all this out.

“For a long time, I know everyone would be like, "You're like a hero, you put the salt dead."”

And I was like, "I didn't want to be the one to salt that." I didn't want to look that.

I mean, it feels good that I'm the one that got away, but I wish it didn't happen.

For their part, Jessica Herringet's family didn't support Willis's prosecution

“and have never believed he's the person responsible for her abduction and murder.”

The family still, they still have their Facebook page. They still help us find Jessica.

They still have not acknowledged that Jeffrey Willis had anything to do with her disappearance or her death. They're still holding out hope that she might come home.

“So this is a memorial that was sent up for Becky after she passed.”

A friend of the family made the cross, so the plaque says Becky Bletch 1977 to 2014, and then it says sister, next to it with a heart, and an infinity sign on it. When I'm in the area, I try to stop. I share a little moment with her and let her know I'm thinking number. We haven't forgotten her. Oh.

And we should point out tonight that she's now remembered in a new Michigan law, the Rebecca Bletch law, which ensures that a defendant is present in the courtroom when a victim in Pax statement is read. And as for that silver minivan, which played such a big role in the case, a judge ruled that it could be sent to a scrapyard where it's now been destroyed. And you can find all new broadcast episodes of 2020 Friday nights at nine on ABC.

Exclusive True Crime Content, search 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts and start your free trial. Terms apply.