More than two years after deaths, Srebnik to face a jury
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ALPENA -- The trial of Brad Srebnik, an Alpena man accused of killing two women in 2021, begins in Alpena's 26th Circuit Court on Monday.
Srebnik is charged in the deaths of Mio teen Brynn Bills and Alpena woman Abby Hill. Charges against him include two counts of premeditated murder, weapons charges, and disinterment and mutilation of a body.
He faces life in prison. He denies the allegations.
The court has moved back the trial several times to give attorneys time to review the vast amount of evidence and number of witnesses in the case and because one of the defense's expert witnesses died. The Michigan Attorney General's Office is overseeing the prosecution with assistance from Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski.
The trial is expected to last about two weeks.
A new judge will oversee the proceedings after Judge Ed Black assigned the case to 88th District Court Judge Allen Curtis earlier this month. Curtis oversaw jury selection earlier this month while the state considered whether Black should recuse himself in part because Black had prosecuted Srebnik in a previous case when Black served as Alpena County prosecutor.
While the state eventually ruled Black could continue overseeing the case, Black decided to step aside to offer continuity in the case because Curtis had overseen jury selection.
Check out this interactive timeline of police's investigation into the deaths of Brynn Bills and Abby Hill. Story continues below timeline.
Bills was reported missing in early August 2021 and police eventually found her remains buried in the back yard of Josh Wirgau's house.
Prosecutors also charged Wirgau in the deaths of the two girls, but he reached a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to plead guilty to accessory after the fact and disinterment and mutilation of a body in the death of Bills and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Hill. In exchange, charges of first-degree murder and felony firearm will be dropped.
Wirgau could face up to 30 years in prison. He originally faced up to life in prison. He will be sentenced after Srebnik's trial.
Wirgau is expected to testify against Srebnik during the trial.
Both Wirgau and Srebnik are currently lodged in the Alpena County Jail after being released from prison last year on an unrelated crime.
Prosecutors intend to prove Srebnik strangled Bills to death at his home and moved the body, renting an excavator to bury the body with Wirgau's help in the back yard of Wirgau's home.
Hill, Srebnik's girlfriend, was reported missing on Oct. 5, 2021, and her remains were found in a wooded area behind the Holcim Alpena plant on Oct. 15. Police say she was killed by a single gunshot to the head.
It is expected that many witnesses will take the stand during the trial, including Bruce Kinsey, a friend of Srebnik and Wirgau.
During the preliminary examination hearing last year, Kinsey said that, while Hill, Srebnik, and Wirgau were staying at his house in 2021, they asked him for a ride so they could camp behind the plant. Kinsey said he dropped them off in that area and they walked into the woods and he then returned to his home in Hubbard Lake.
A short time later, Kinsey said, Srebnik called him and told him Hill had left them with someone in a car and he and Wirgau needed a ride once more.
Kinsey said that, when he returned to Holcim, Srebnik and Wirgau climbed into the vehicle and he began to take them to his house, but they asked him to stop several times.
Kinsey told police the two men threw what police now consider evidence into three rivers.
Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Anthony Utt testified during the preliminary exam that divers located 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.
Other items were located in the Wolf Creek area.
News of the search for Bills, the discovery of the bodies, and the alleged involvement of Srebnik and Wirgau made headlines across the country and tributes to the girls flooded social media.
Both the prosecution and defense feared the spread of the news of the case could make it hard to seat a jury.
Earlier this month, the court held jury selection at the APlex and prosecutors and the defense narrowed hundreds of potential jurors down to 14. Twelve people will sit on the jury and deliberate after all of the evidence is presented, but the other two will attend the proceedings and only take part in deliberations if other jurors are excused for one reason or another.