The case shows kids are closer than parents think to potential danger, police say.

In interviews after the disappearance of Bills, who was found murdered and buried in an Alpena-area back yard in 2021, police learned of the 17-year-old’s numerous connections to people convicted of dealing methamphetamine and other drugs, according to police and court records.

Those connections led Bills to Alpena woman Abby Hill and then, according to reports, to Brad Srebnik, the man police believe killed both Bills and Hill.

During the murder trial that begins Monday, the prosecution will attempt to prove that Srebnik, 37, and Hill, 31, strangled Bills in an Alpena home in summer 2021. They believe Srebnik executed Hill in a wooded area north of town several weeks later.

Josh Wirgau

Police say Srebnik buried Bills’ body at the home of his friend, Josh Wirgau, 36. After evading police for more than a month, the two men allegedly panicked, decided to go on the run, and ultimately shot Hill to cover up Bills’ murder.

In November, Wirgau accepted a plea deal and agreed to testify against Srebnik.

Srebnik denies the charges.

Police say Bills and Hill fell victim to the worst possible end to an all-too-common story.

Drug networks like those in Northeast Michigan welcome and intentionally ensnare teenagers, gang and drug experts say. Those networks attract people prone to violence, like the crime-connected motorcycle club linked to Bills’ alleged killer.

Parents who think their kids are safe from bad influences are wrong, said Lt. Detective Stuart Sharp, commander of the Huron Undercover Narcotics Team.

Alpena teens regularly get drawn into circles of drug-using adults, where they are emotionally and physically at risk. Even for a young person from a supportive family, the connection to drugs and crime can be as close as a boyfriend or the kid at the next desk, Sharp said.

When young people succumb to such influences, the results could be tragic, he said.

“People put themselves in a position of doing bad things with bad people,” Sharp said, “and it culminates in someone’s death.”

CONNECTIONS

In mid-August 2021, Bills’ mother contacted the Alpena Police Department, asking them to search for her daughter among known drug traffickers in Alpena, according to the original missing persons report obtained by a reporter via a request through the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

Reports from the Michigan State Police, which conducted the bulk of the murder investigation, were not immediately available. The Alpena County Sheriff’s Office also aided in the investigation immediately before the discovery of Bills’ body.

According to sources in numerous police interviews, Bills left her Mio home sometime near the end of her high school career because of a meth addiction. In Alpena, the teen lived transiently in mobile homes and trailer parks, couch-surfing with numerous people convicted of possessing and selling meth, cocaine, and other drugs in Alpena County.

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

Police believe Bills’ boyfriend introduced her to people involved in drug distribution in Alpena, and to a residence used as a drug house, where Bills met Hill, Anthony Utt, the Michigan State Police’s lead detective in the investigation, said in an August interview.

The 20- to 40-somethings with whom Bills spent time told police she used meth heavily when she was with them. Several told police Bills had been threatened with violence and thrown out of the drug house at least once by a woman who was jealous of the young, pretty girl.

Multiple people reported seeing Hill at the drug house with Bills, the young woman Hill allegedly took to Srebnik for what at least one witness would call a drug deal gone bad.

The state has not charged Srebnik with a drug charge in this case. Autopsies indicated the presence of cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana in Bills’ system and similar drugs in Hill’s system.

Wirgau told police he and Srebnik both sold cocaine prior to their arrest for the murders.

‘VERY HORRIBLE THINGS’

A 17-year-old amid a 30-something crowd of drug dealers doesn’t surprise those familiar with drug trafficking networks, said Detective Lt. Sean Street, commander of an undercover narcotics team in Lenawee County with expertise in drug trafficking and violent crime in both rural and urban areas.

Street was not involved in the investigation into Bills’ and Hill’s deaths but commented in general on the dynamics of rural drug distribution and the involvement of young people in such networks.

Trafficking requires greater stealth in places like Alpena than in cities, where users can buy meth on street corners. To fly under police radar in rural areas, dealers need extensive networks of carriers fulfilling orders placed by local kingpins who orchestrate the distribution, Street said.

The most powerful dealers, some extremely violent, are usually smart businessmen or businesswomen who keep their hands clean enough to evade arrest for long periods of time, he said.

Adults operating a drug ring often welcome teens who, with no adult criminal record, can be used to commit crimes. The acceptance and attention of older people gives the teens a sense of belonging and acceptance they often lack — especially if they came to the group with an addiction that separated them from their families and other support systems, Street said.

Involvement in a circle of adult users means free drugs, a place to shower and sleep, and access to a vehicle. Dealers use those tools to manipulate young people into staying while feeding their plummeting self-esteem and belief nobody will help them.

Trading on the new recruits’ drug cravings and sense of isolation, traffickers often sell young women for sex, a lucrative way to gain more customers using a product they can use over and over again, Street said.

In Northeast Michigan, unsuspected by their parents, young people “are going to very dangerous places, doing very horrible things for their drugs,” according to Sharp, the HUNT commander in Alpena.

The team has uncovered local young women used as drug mules to deliver meth and heroin brought north from downstate. HUNT officers have surveilled teenage girls taking money into drug houses filled with known violent offenders.

Recently, HUNT detectives learned a teenage Alpena girl was seen at a Flint drug house, being sold for sex at $125 an hour and too far under the influence of drugs to object.

“There’s a ton of it that goes on,” Sharp said. “But who are they going to tell that to? They’re not going to tell it to me. They’re not going to tell mom and dad.”

REPUTATION FOR VIOLENCE

At a preliminary examination last June, Srebnik’s friend, Bruce Kinsey, affiliated himself and Srebnik with the Pagans Motorcycle Club, saying they go by the street names of “Q” and “Streetz,” respectively.

Police reports and witness testimony indicate Srebnik and Hill were frequent visitors to a Pagans clubhouse in Flint and to the home of a member of the Pagans. An alleged Pagan member and a woman he lives with posted bond for Srebnik by offering their Harley-Davidsons as collateral.

The U.S. Department of Justice categorizes the Pagans as an outlaw motorcycle gang and considers it one of the nation’s most dangerous biker clubs, on par with the Hell’s Angels, Mongols, and Outlaws. The government links those clubs with organized and often violent crime, particularly drug trafficking.

At a hearing in 2021, Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski also linked Srebnik to the Rock Machine, a Canadian motorcycle club known for its extreme violence.

Big-city street gangs would stand out in small towns, but biker groups can go unnoticed in rural areas, where members’ mostly white, tattooed, leather- or denim-clad appearance doesn’t draw the attention it might in downstate metro areas, according to Detective Lt. Craig MacDonald, a member of the FBI Detroit Violent Gang Task Force.

While he was uncertain of the Pagans’ reach in northern Michigan, MacDonald said rural areas provide “fertile ground” for motorcycle gangs on the lookout for new territory where they can make a profit. Such organizations watch for booming meth sales and move in when they sense a ripe meth market, MacDonald said.

The clubs typically try to keep a low profile — although a single, new member or recruit may act out violently to prove his worthiness for membership, according to noted motorcycle club researcher James F. Quinn. Outlaw clubs won’t hesitate to turn violent toward one another, however. In a worst-case scenario, two rival clubs claim the same market and, MacDonald said, “it ends up becoming a shooting war.”

Many motorcycle clubs are social or recreational organizations not associated with crime. Even within outlaw gangs, some chapters may show less inclination for violence than others, MacDonald said.

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