News Photo Illustration These News file photos show Brad Srebnik, left, and Joshua Wirgau in 26th Circuit Court in Alpena during a preliminary examination.

ALPENA — It began as a missing person case and quickly morphed into a double homicide investigation that landed two men in court, facing life in prison.

Brad Srebnik and Joshua Wirgau, both 36 years old, were last week bound over to 26th Circuit Court to face trial for the 2021 deaths of Alpena women Brynn Bills, 17, and Abby Hill, 31.

The bindovers happened following a weeklong preliminary examination hearing during which several new details of the case became clear.

Here’s what we know so far, based on police news releases over the last nearly two years and witness testimony from Wirgau and Srebnik’s preliminary examination last week:

TWO DEATHS

Police announced Bills missing on Aug. 26, 2021 and Bills’ father offered an award for any information on her whereabouts. She had last been seen in early August.

On Sept. 28, 2021, acting on a tip from Srebnik’s bail bondsman in a separate case, police searched Wirgau’s back yard and found Bills’ body — strangled, wearing nothing but a diaper — buried under a slab of concrete.

Days later, police reported Hill missing.

Wirgau on Oct. 15, 2021 told police where to find Hill’s body.

She was found with a single gunshot wound to the back of the head in a wooded area near the Holcim Alpena (formerly known as Lafarge) plant on Ford Avenue.

Check out the interactive graphic below. Story continues below the graphic.

Check out this interactive timeline of police’s investigation into the deaths of Brynn Bills and Abby Hill. Story continues below timeline.

A DRUG DEAL GONE BAD, KNOWING TOO MUCH

Prosecutors argue that Hill and Srebnik killed Bills in early August 2021 at Srebnik’s home, and that Wirgau helped Srebnik bury Bills’ body in Wirgau’s back yard with a rented excavator. In September 2021, Srebnik killed Hill, with Wirgau present, because she knew too much about Bills’ death, prosecutors allege.

During an hours-long interview with Michigan State Police detectives on Oct. 15, 2021, Wirgau told investigators that Srebnik had told him Bills attacked Srebnik with an ice pick or similar object when a cocaine transaction went south. Srebnik tried to defend himself and Hill began to choke Bills and eventually killed her, Wirgau told police that Srebnik told him.

Wirgau said he helped Srebnik dispose of Bills’ body because he owed Srebnik $5,000 for drugs and he feared what Srebnik would do if he didn’t help.

Wirgau then told police Srebnik shot Hill in the back of the head, execution-style, in a remote area behind the Holcim Alpena plant.

A cellmate of Srebnik’s testified that Srebnik told him he had no choice but to kill Hill because she knew too much. A friend of Wirgau’s and Srebnik’s, Bruce Kinsey, testified that he drove Wirgau, Srebnik, and Hill to the wooded area near the Holcim plant and picked up Wirgau and Srebnik a short time later.

Wirgau and Srebnik have both pleaded not guilty. Defense attorneys during the preliminary exam questioned the reliability of some of the prosecution’s witnesses — especially Kinsey, who pleaded guilty to originally lying to investigators and received what one defense attorney called “a sweetheart deal” from prosecutors to testify.

THE GUN

Someone had broken into the Wirgau home and stolen several guns, including a rifle, shotgun, and pistol from Wirgau’s wife’s gun safe. The prosecution is trying to link the alleged theft to Srebnik and prove one of the guns taken was used to murder Hill.

Kinsey testified that, after picking up Wirgau and Srebnik from the wooded area near the Holcim plant in September 2021, he started to drive the pair to Kinsey’s Hubbard Lake home, but he was directed to repeatedly stop and his two passengers threw what police now consider evidence into three rivers.

A Michigan State Police detective testified that divers found a barrel and a magazine for a 9 mm pistol in Wolf Creek and a pistol frame and slide to a similar gun in the Thunder Bay River in Herron.

Police reconstructed the weapon and fired it, but have yet to prove that gun was among those stolen from the Wirgau home.

THE CONNECTIONS

This is how those involved in the case are connected to one another:

* Brynn Bills, 17, of Alpena — who friends and family called a smart, caring, outgoing lover of the outdoors and music — was friends with Hill.

* Abby Hill, 31, of Alpena, was Srebnik’s girlfriend and friends with Bills and Wirgau.

* Joshua Wirgau, 36, was friends with Bills, Hill, and Srebnik and allegedly owed Srebnik $5,000 for drugs.

A judge in 2009 sentenced Wirgau to 43 months in prison for sexually assaulting a girl between the ages of 13 and 15, when Wirgau was 20.

A year before that, Wirgau pleaded guilty to third-degree retail fraud and an unrelated drunk-driving charge.

* Brad Srebnik, 36, was Hill’s boyfriend and friends with Wirgau and Bills.

Srebnik in 2021 pleaded guilty to obstructing a police officer in Osceola County and was sentenced to 211 days in jail. He also faced domestic violence charges in Alpena County.

Srebnik in 2007 pleaded guilty to charges of conducting criminal enterprises and receiving stolen property.

Several years later, he admitted to serving as an accessory in two 2012 break-ins and thefts of guns and drugs in Montmorency County.

He also has pleaded guilty previously to delivering marijuana.

Wirgau and Srebnik are in prison until at least September after pleading guilty in 2021 to weapons charges in a separate case.

A trial date for the murder charges for the two men has not been set.

This story has been updated to reflect that Lafarge is now known as Holcim Alpena. This was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.