News File Photo Brynn Bills and Abby Hill appear in this undated News photo collage.

ALPENA — Testimony and evidence in the alleged murder of two Alpena women in 2021 will begin to be known beginning on Monday during a weeklong preliminary examination for the suspected killers in 88th District Court in Alpena.

Brad Srebnik, 36, and Joshua Wirgau, 35, are accused of murdering Brynn Bills and Abby Hill in the summer of 2021 in a case spearheaded by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office and local prosecutors.

A preliminary examination allows the prosecution and defense an opportunity to submit evidence and witness testimony to the court. At the end of the hearing, Judge Alan Curtis will rule whether prosecutors presented sufficient evidence to bind the accused over to 26th Circuit Court for trial.

Srebnik faces two counts of premeditated murder, weapons charges, and disinterment and mutilation of a body, while Wirgau faces one count of premeditated murder, disinterment, weapons charges, and a count of accessory after the fact to a felony in the deaths of Hill and Bills.

Both men have pleaded not guilty and are currently in prison on unrelated charges.

In October, an Assistant Attorney General in Michigan, said police believe Srebnik killed Bills shortly after she was last seen, around the beginning of August 2021, when she was 17. Police found her body buried in Wirgau’s backyard the following month.

Police believe Srebnik and Wirgau killed Hill, 31, in September 2021 because she knew too much about Bills’ death, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

At a motion hearing last month, prosecutors said Srebnik strangled Bills to death and Hill was shot in the head, execution style.

The case has been of high interest locally and around the country after Bills was last seen alive in early August 2021.

Police and the teen’s father, Duane Bills, of Fairview, sought the public’s help in finding the girl beginning Aug. 27. Duane Bills offered a reward that climbed to $20,000 for any information leading to a break in the case.

Acting on a tip, police searched a wooded area behind Wirgau’s home on Naylor Road on Sept. 28 and found Bills’ body, which they identified through tattoo markings.

On Oct. 5, 2021, police said Hill had gone missing and might be in danger and 11 days later police said they’d found Hill’s body following a search of a wooded area in Alpena Township.

Police say Hill participated in an alleged hijacking with Srebnik and Wirgau on Sept. 21 and was wanted on felony warrants related to the alleged hijacking. She was allegedly killed after that and never faced trial, but Srebnik and Wirgau were sentenced to two-year prison sentences after admitting to possessing firearms in the commission of a felony.

The court hearings will begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday and are slated to run through Friday.