News File Photo Defense attorney Bill Pfeifer is seen in his Alpena office in this April 2021 News archive photo.

ALPENA — Anticipated murder charges related to the deaths of two Alpena residents could mean extra attorney costs — and more than two people may need lawyers, an attorney told Alpena County commissioners on Thursday.

Alpena attorney Bill Pfeifer, who manages grant money that funds the Northeast Michigan Regional Public Defender Office, said that office anticipates extra expenses in the coming year because attorneys will probably have to represent defendants accused of killing Alpena women Brynn Bills and Abby Hill. Police found the women’s bodies in two separate searches in Alpena Township last fall.

The county’s Courts and Public Safety Committee authorized Pfeifer to ask for extra funds from the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission to cover such costs.

No one has yet been charged in the deaths, though law enforcement officials have called two men, Joshua Wirgau and Brad Srebnik, persons of interest in the case. Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski has said she will not comment on when she might charge someone in the case, which remains under investigation.

Pfeifer will ask the MIDC to grant $60,000 for capital case defense, up from the $24,000 allotted to his office for that purpose in last year’s grant.

The $36,000 increase includes budgeting for three capital cases.

While police and court officials have publicly connected only Wirgau and Srebnik to the deaths, Pfeifer budgeted for more than two possible arrests because police may have discovered other suspects in their investigation, he said.

If police charge two or more people related to the deaths and those defendants need a court-appointed attorney, the Public Defender Office could only represent one defendant to avoid a conflict of interest.

Pfeifer would have to assign another attorney to any other defendants. That attorney would be paid by the hour, unlike attorneys in Pfeifer’s office, who draw salaries paid mostly by the Indigent Defense Commission.

Pfeifer recently used funds from that state agency to pay Mike Vogler, a Rogers City-based attorney who defended Srebnik in a hijacking case police call unrelated to the deaths of Hill and Bills.

Pfeifer had to assign the case to Vogler because Rick Steiger, chief defender at the Public Defender Office, represented Wirgau, Srebnik’s co-defendant in the hijacking case.

On Monday, 26th Circuit Court Judge Ed Black sentenced Srebnik and Wirgau to two years in prison related to the hijacking case.

Srebnik was transferred to prison on Thursday. Wirgau, because the police could not transport the two men together, remained at the Alpena County Jail as of Thursday evening.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.