You.

Three young women, one missing, one murdered, one kidnapped.

Now the hidden secrets that cracked this case in all new 2020 starts right now. I get a call from our sergeant. Something suspicious happened at Exxon gas station.

We're going to get right to that Michigan mom who vanished. A massive hunt for her right now.

Everybody was asking, where is Jessica? What happened to Jessica? Have you seen Jessica? Can you find Jessica?

She's just a hard working girl. She just needs to come home.

You start to piece together that something violent happened in this location.

She saw this silver minivan. She thought it was kind of weird.

What these two individuals were witnessing in that parking lot was the abduction of Jessica Herringa.

But that wasn't their only mystery to solve. When a different crime comes into play. Oh, my gosh. Who can hit a woman and just leave her to this young mother on a run being shot and killed?

This was at close range. This was certainly execution style. Here we have two females, one's missing.

One'S deceased, and one other who lived to tell. And he's just staring at me the entire time, and I'm like, let me out, let me out, let me out. At what point do you realize you're in real trouble and that you could sky this is Muskegon in west Michigan. Just south is the small community of Norton Shores, beach towns on the sunset coast of Lake Michigan.

I describe Muskegon as sort of a microcosm of the state of Michigan. We have our urban areas, our suburban areas, and then the eastern part and northern part of our county is more rural. Norton Shores is a nice community on the southern edge of our county.

It's one of the most beautiful areas of west Michigan because it's right near Lake Michigan. So that's the big draw, is our lake shore just absolutely gorgeous?

I have a lot of pride of coming from Muskegon County. I think it's just a really great place to live and grow up in.

But a series of apparently unconnected crimes began to sow fear into this quiet community. It all begins in the final hour of an April night, when a young woman named Jessica Haringa simply vanished, swallowed up, or so it seemed, in a mystery as vast and deep as the big lake itself. It's April 26, 2013, in Norton Shores, Michigan, at the Exxon station on East Sternberg Road. 25 year old Jessica Haringa is supposed to be inside.

Closing up that night, I needed gas, so I stopped right here. It's the closest place from my employment.

People pulled up to the gas station, noticed the door was open, and looked inside, and there was no Jessica Herringa.

It's very strange that there's no one here.

That's what alerted the police as a customer came in and realized that there was nobody in the store. Where's your emergency?

I don't know if it's emergency. I just got to work. I'm at the exon gas station on Sternberg Road, and there's nobody here. It just is very suspicious. Why there's nobody here? There was nobody that would answer, so I looked around the store.

And what did you see when you looked around the store?

I went into the bathroom. I looked around. There was really no disturbance, just nobody there.

Okay, so did you yell or anything?

Yeah, I hollered, hey, walked around the building, but I don't see anybody, hon. I walked inside and, hey, is anybody here? I even went inside the cooler and looked inside there and seen nothing abnormal. But in my gut said, something's not right. I'm just concerned that nobody heard her.

She has a young son that she's raising, and she was working hard trying to get extra hours at the gas station because of financial problems. And so she was covering anybody who needed a time off. She covered their shifts, and that was her only job, and she was there by herself.

The ironic thing is that she really wasn't scheduled to work the day that she disappeared. She actually had taken over a shift from somebody. Did Jessica ever express concerns about feeling unsafe at. Never. Never? Not at once. She likes working there.

So north Shore's police department responded.

At the time, the head of detectives was a Gentleman by the name of Mike Casher. I get a call from our sergeant. Something suspicious happened at Exxon gas station. It was about a mile, mile and a half away from my house from the crime scene photographs. When you take a first glance, the inside of the store didn't look as though it had been disturbed there didn't look like there had been a big struggle. There was no real crime scene.

They find nothing. In fact, that's what's so weird. It's so undisturbed. All the cleaning supplies and things were out. So it appeared that she had been cleaning and finishing up for the night.

They go back into the storeroom, and they find a cash register drawer with all the money, all the cash, all the change still intact. It didn't appear that she had just grabbed her stuff and left. Her purse was still there with her jacket, cigarettes, lighter, still there. Inside that purse was a wallet, and it contained the identifying information for Jessica Haringa. Within that wallet, there was about $400 in cash, seemingly undisturbed. Her car was still parked out front. Whatever happened in this store robbery was not the intent. There was really no explanation as to what happened to her. It was almost like she just left, disappeared. And now is beginning the investigation into Jessica's disappearance.

Police tonight say they have evidence that backs up their theory that a Norton Shores woman was abducted from the gas station where she worked. I'm Juliette Dragis. The news starts in 1 minute. It sounded very od that she just disappeared. So we all wondered what is going on here.

At the time, that location did not have a camera system or anything.

No security cameras. And I don't think she should have been working by herself. And I used to talk to her about it and ask her about it. And of course, 25 years old, you think you're invincible.

My goal was right at the beginning is to establish a timeline because I figured it would help us at some point. So about 1052, we had a woman who had went in and purchased a cigarette lighter. And that was the last person to see Jessica alive.

The last sale that was recorded here was at 1052. You were here at the gas station like eleven, 711, 1111, 811, seven.

He pulls up. He doesn't see anybody. So sometime between 1052 and eleven seven, we have her missing. And that was the start, if you will, of what turned into be a very public and national cold case. Police continue to search for a missing woman from Norton Shores.

The biggest story in all of West Michigan for months and months and months. The first big break is a page out of Agatha Christie. As they look, and they keep looking, they see a drop of blood. Then a woman who worked another shift at the gas station approaches detectives. She and her husband saw this silver minivan back behind the Exxon gas station. She thought that was strange.

Played an extremely important role, helping to move the initial investigation forward.

A drop of blood, a silver minivan, and one more small caliber clue. The search for Jessica Harringer Ricochets in a totally different and dire direction.

We are now prepared to reclassify this case as an abduction.

We're going to get right to that. Michigan mom who vanished.

Search for a young mom who vanished while working the late shift.

Vanished without her traits.

Jessica Herring had disappeared. It was a very big deal in her area. Everybody was asking, where is Jessica? What happened to Jessica? Have you seen Jessica? Can you find Jessica? How can we help?

The media was very involved in this case.

This expands beyond the borders of Mesquiten county and becomes national news. The nation is looking for Jessica Herringai.

A massive hunt for her right now. ABC's Alex Perez is in Norton Shores, Michigan, with the latest.

Good morning, Alex. Good morning, Robin. Overnight, Jessica's family desperately waited for any word from police, but no law.

She was going to get out in 15 minutes. In 15 minutes, that store would have been closed and she would have been on her way home.

Flyers were presented to the community. They were everywhere. Somebody's seen something and doesn't even know how important it is yet. Is there any more flyers that I can get? Because I will put them up for you. I'll stick a couple around for you. Let's join together in prayer to call upon you for Jessica's safe return.

There were vigils. They passed out flyers. They were on our air very regularly saying, please, Jessica, come home. If you have her, bring her know we want you back. She just needs to come home. The small Norton Shores police force gets reinforcements. Michigan State police, Muskegon county sheriff, the FBI, and even the secret Service. Helicopter searches. Police canines were involved in ground searches. A lot of people in our newsroom thought, did she just leave? She having personal problems? Could she have just done this because she just had to get away? It doesn't make any sense. She wouldn't take her purse. She wouldn't take her car. She loved her son. Her son Zebin meant everything to her. Jessica may have vanished, but not without a trace.

And one of the officers said, I think we need to look at something back here. It's kind of weird. And lo and behold, they discover, I think, some very important pieces of evidence. Probably about three or 4ft from the back door, we saw probably about half dollar size of a blood spot.

Jessica Herringa. It was Jessica Herringa's blood.

And then next to that was these two little round batteries that appeared like watch batteries.

There was a small black piece of plastic that had the words Carl Walther.

Written on it that was later determined to be a cover for a laser sight from a handgun.

Detectives determine that battery powered Walther laser sight is commonly attached to a specific gun, the Walther p 22 semiautomatic pistol.

But it also could fit a couple other guns. It could have fit a bb gun, I was told, too, at the same time. So it wasn't like, okay, it's only for this specific gun.

Then a woman named Susan Follett, who worked a different shift at the gas station, approaches detectives.

She came up to me and she goes, I think I saw something, which I'm like, okay, what'd you see?

She and her husband were out riding motorcycles, and she saw this silver minivan. She thought it was kind of weird. This happens right around 11:00 p.m. Right in that 15 minutes window when Jessica disappeared.

The van ducks behind the gas station. Doesn't go out in front where the pumps are. Goes behind the gas station, which at that time of the night, that's kind of weird. It turned off its lights, and it parked behind the store. There's no reason for a customer to go back and park their car.

Suspecting someone may be stealing. The worker and her husband stop nearby, just watching. They say they only see the driver. He gets out of the minivan. He's doing something. They're not sure what.

They see the tailgate of the van go up as they recall seeing the dome light. Pushes the tailgate down, doesn't go, pops it up and adjusts something. Shuts the tailgate, gets in the van and drives away. Drives right by them. When the van was leaving, Susan gets a look at the van driver. As good as you can in the dark. It was a male, somewhat heavy set, brownish hair, beard, mustache. And they described the van as being silver in color.

I wish they would have at least gone and seen if Jess was okay. I'm sorry.

They didn't see Jessica. They didn't think anything. Well, maybe there's nothing to report, but.

For the police, what the witnesses say they saw, along with the blood and pieces of a gun, are powerful evidence.

When you couple how the witnesses described what was going on behind the gas station with laser sight cover and a spot of blood, you start to piece together that something violent happened in this location. I felt that the van was crucial because it was parked right where those parts were found. What these two individuals were witnessing in that parking lot was the abduction of Jessica Herringa.

Police pull surveillance video from several businesses. Shadowy images of that mysterious silver minivan driving by. Within minutes of Jessica Haringa's disappearance, we're.

Able to determine that this van is now going northbound on Grand Haven Road.

But that's where the trail of the silver minivan fades to black.

Good afternoon. My name is Daniel Shaw. I'm the chief of police for the Norton Shores Police Department.

Two days later, police hold a news conference.

We are now prepared to reclassify this case as an abduction or a kidnapping under Michigan law.

But police don't reveal everything they found to the public.

And we have parts of a gun that we didn't disclose to the public. So at this point, our only clue is the white male that I described to you and the silver minivan. Anybody knows anything, call it a highline. That's all I could say. I think I'm done now.

Man who would have a motive to take Jessica Haringa. The investigation now turns to secrets of her love life, including a married man.

He asked her to move away, and she said no. She was going to stay put. Hour later, she's missing. Jessica is described as a white female, 25 years of age, five foot one inches tall, approximately 110 pounds, blonde, shoulder length hair, and blue eyes.

We love her very much. We miss him is the most difficult part. It's just not knowing and not having the answers and not being able to be there for her. I'm sure she's scared and doesn't know what to do or. I just hope she knows that we're all looking for her and we're going to find her. The police did. I mean, they really did rely on the media for help as everyone held out hope that she could be found. So they released a sketch of a gentleman. This is a man that they're looking for, a man of interest. If you've seen him or you recognize, or the silver minivan, that was always the prevalent thing, looking for that silver minivan.

Due to the fact that there's no signs of a disturbance within the store, we tend to believe it is someone either that she knows, like an acquaintance or someone that she knows through the store, maybe a customer or someone that she has met before.

She was always trying to make people smile, be happy, love life. Sad to think that that great quality was probably a downfall in this situation.

We're here because we have not given up hope for Jessica's safe return. We're receiving numerous tips from the public, which we truly appreciate, but we need more.

And, boy, did we get a lot of calls and a lot of sightings to our newsroom. Probably hundreds. And people thought they saw her at a campground up north. They thought they had seen her at a store.

North Shores police department to the Jessica Harrington case. People were saying they saw her in Arizona, and then they saw her in New Jersey. And I got somebody in Chicago that acts suspicious. Every tip that was brought in was taken seriously and investigated. Yeah, there was quite a long list of potential suspects. When we were looking at the hearing, a case she was abducted, someone took her.

One of the first people they did talk to was her boyfriend, and because he admitted to them that they did have a rocky relationship.

I saw her right before she went to work, and I talked to her an hour before this happened. That she was going to be out early and home quick. Obviously, we always think right off the bat maybe there is a problem with the relationship. Anybody knows anything, call the highline is all I can say.

He's the one who called me to tell me that she was missing. He's devastated about the whole thing. This is the mother of his child. They were in love. He had asked her to marry him. And we think Dakota's part of the family. Dakota is quickly excluded as a suspect. Detectives turning their attention to other men in Jessica's life. Jessica Haringo was pretty. She was a pretty blonde. People even would say, there's a good looking lady who works at that gas station. There were other people of interest in her life that would frequent the gas station. What we had heard is that she may have had a boyfriend or two in addition to the father of her baby. Police say Jessica was having a relationship with a regular at the gas station, a married man.

His name came up multiple times. He was always in the gas station, always around. And he said know they had some type of an intimate type of relationship going.

The week before Jessica's disappearance. Police say the man's wife had come into the gas station to confront Jessica.

She found out about the relationship, entered in and tried to make contact with Jessica, kind of talked with her about it, and Jessica got upset and told her to get out of the store, which she did.

Police say Jessica had a tearful talk, maybe a breakup with the married man just hours before she vanished, an hour.

Before she went missing, just an hour beforehand. They had emotional, his quote is, we had an emotional discussion. He asked her to go away with him, to move away, and she said no, she was going to stay put. Hour later, she's missing. Is there a love triangle? Is there jealous lovers out there that got so enraged with jealousy that they went to the extreme to solve that issue. I called him a suspect for a good probably year. We checked phone records, we got search warrants. We brought in polygraph twice for him and his wife. But ultimately he's innocent and he had no involvement.

Detectives crossed the married man and his wife off their list. Another dead end.

Started out as it looks really, really good, and it ends up melting right in your hand, right down to it.

All those suspects, all those tips to police here, but still no jessica. Weeks, months, a full year goes by with no word about the missing woman. The tips start dwindling. So they're not getting as many tips, not hearing anything more about the silver minivan. There was nothing more investigators could do. So we also stopped covering it as 2013 becomes 2014. Her case? Colder than a west Michigan winter. And then, some miles away, in another part of Muskegon county, another young mother, not lost, found dead. We come up to this lady.

She's laying in the road, oh, my.

Gosh, you can do this. Who can hit a woman and just leave her? Could there be a connection?

This show is sponsored by Betterhelp. As we step into 2024, let's switch things up a bit. Instead of the usual new year, new you mantra, how about we focus on what's already going right? What are those aspects of your life that you want to hold onto and expand upon this year? Maybe you've conquered the chaos in one corner of your space. Why not tackle another? Or perhaps you've nailed down that routine of taking supplements, and now you're eyeing that elusive breakfast goal. It's all about building on your strengths. Now, we often get caught up in drastic resolutions, but here's a thought. What if we leverage therapy to uncover our strengths and make changes that truly stick? Therapy isn't just for those who faced major traumas. It's about learning positive coping skills, setting boundaries, and empowering ourselves to be the best version we can be. Speaking of therapy, if you've had the chance to benefit from it, consider sharing your experience. Whether it's discovering coping mechanisms, setting boundaries, or just navigating the complexities of life, therapy has a way of bringing out the best in us. If you're contemplating diving into therapy or looking for a change, why not give Betterhelp a shot?

It's all online, making it super convenient and flexible to fit your schedule. With a simple questionnaire, you can get matched with a licensed therapist. And the best part? You can switch therapists at any time at no additional charge. So let's make 2024 a year of growth, building on what's working and embracing positive change with the help of Betterhelp. Celebrate the progress you've already made. Visit betterhelp.com 2020 today and get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp he Lp.com 2020. It's 2024, and in case you haven't heard, there's a presidential election this fall. Americans will head to the polls to make their voices heard. But between now and then, there's going to be a lot of news and a lot of noise. I'm Galen, Dr. Rook. And every Monday and Thursday on the 538 Politics podcast, we cut through the noise with data and research to get a clearer picture of the race for the White House what do voters really think? And which game changers will actually change the game? That's 538 politics. Every Monday and Thursday, wherever you get.

Your podcasts, you we're going to turn on the road that Becky used to jog or walk on. This is Automobile road. It was a Sunday evening, late June 2014, when a couple was driving here along Automobile Road in Muskegon county in the middle of the summer, 06:00 in the evening. Suddenly they saw something in the road, maybe a deer, but soon discovered it was worse, much worse. 901, where is your emergency?

It's on automobile Road. We come up to this lady. She's laying in the road.

I think she was hit by a car.

She's got a head injury.

Okay, we got to start CPR. If she's not breathing normally, I want you to go ahead and start. This is dash cam video from the first Muskegon county sheriff's deputy arriving on the scene. You can see an EMS worker rushing in to help the 911 callers. The wife is a nurse, and she was trying to see what she could do.

It started out initially a hit and run. She was found on the side of the road. She was in running gear, so she'd been out for a run.

Oh, my gosh. Who can hit a woman and just leave her?

And unfortunately, shortly after she was discovered, she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The woman is Rebecca bled. She lives just down the road. And as they place her in the ambulance, police are stunned to find her death was no accident. In the back of her head, she's got three bullet wallets. Rebecca Bletch's case went from a hit and run to a homicide.

So it was a shooting murder.

People were crying, people upset. People were scared. I was scared. I was scared to be in my own yard. Rebecca'sister Jessica sees a report of a woman killed on Facebook. And then I called her and she didn't answer. Then I called her again. No answers. Then I called her daughter. She called me and asked if my mom was home. I said, no, I don't know where she's at. I said, where's your dad? She said, he's outside talking to the police. And I knew it was her. Rebecca's daughter Ellie says her grandmother told her what happened. My dad was outside and my grandma was inside. Told me she used to jog by here all the time. Very nice, friendly girl. Always would say, hi, how you doing? What not when she went through.

From all accounts, she was just a nice person.

Everyone just loved Rebecca. Bledch, tell me about your sister. Becky was the oldest of the three of us sisters. Kind of more of a mother to us in times of need. Absolutely. Great spirit, big laugh, great smile. Always the life of the party. You couldn't help know that she was there. She walked in a room. You knew? Yeah. What was she like as a mom? Very involved. It was very active with Allie. She loved to go on runs, bike rides, walks through the woods. At the crime scene, police find Rebecca's belongings, cell phones, sunglasses, earbuds, all in a neat pile across the road from her body.

Why was her body on one side of the road and these items in a nice little pile on the opposite side of the road?

I mean, it only seems that someone would have ordered her to take know everything that she had had and set it down. Investigators speculate that after the killer forced Rebecca to put her things down, she tried to get away. I think when she realized what was happening, I think she tried to run. There was a trail of casings that went from the middle of the road and then toward her body. Three different casings. I think he hit her with the first shot, and it knocked her down, and she tried to crawl away. And this is where she made it until he walked over to her. The killer shoots Rebecca three times with a. 22 caliber gun. Investigators recover CCI brand shell casings.

This was at close range. This was certainly execution style. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why on a Sunday afternoon that she would be targeted and killed in such a fashion.

And the only witnesses are my horses. They absolutely stood at that fence and watched it. I can guarantee you, if they could only talk, they would have got this solved a lot quicker. Jessica Haringa's disappearance and Rebecca Bletch's murder were never really tied together. I mean, people speculated and wondered, here.

We have two females that are, one's missing, one's deceased, but there were no real strong ties. I made a call. I always do. Hey, what kind of description do you have?

He just couldn't see how these two were related.

There was no mention of a silver minivan or any minivan of that nature being anywhere in that area at the time that she was shot and killed.

There is one possible connection. Firearms experts say that the 22 caliber shell casings found near Rebecca's body may have been fired by a walther 22 pistol. And that's the same kind of gun possibly involved in Jessica's case. It was explained to us that the characteristics left by the firing pin of the gun that was used to kill Rebecca Bletch was very similar to what they've seen. A Walther p 22 would have left unconvinced. Their cases are related. Investigators turn their attention to the person closest to Rebecca. They were focused on her husband. They really decided that he must have done it at any point. Did you guys think maybe he did it? It never crossed my mind. You guys never thought it was her husband? No, because he would never do anything like that. He's not like that.

It was determined that he didn't have anything to do with this crime.

With Kevin Bletch cleared of any involvement in his wife's death, her murder is unsolved.

I hate to call it a cold.

Case because we were still actively working on it and we didn't stop. But we had no solid leads. We had nothing. Well, what happened was an incident that blew the case open. That changed everything. This upic and blueberry farm seems an unlikely place to solve cold cases. The Jessica Herringa disappearance, the 22 caliber killing of Rebecca Bletch. But police say an incident that happened just down the road from here and what these Security cameras see puts it all into focus. And it jumped out of the car.

What kind of car was it?

A van.

What color was the van?

Silver. That was the turning point.

Where's your emergency?

It's come immediately. We have a man that has picked up a girl, and he has a gun, and he's outside the house.

Stay on the line with me. Who has a gun? April of 2016, we received a 911 call from a homeowner who just had a young lady come running up to her house screaming, saying that somebody was trying to kidnap her.

Is the female the girl right now? And I'm shaking. Okay.

Can I talk to her?

Yeah. Here she is. Hello?

Hi, this is 911. Okay, yeah, we're going to get some help there.

That phone call, that was the turning point. Jessica Haringa vanished in April 2013. Rebecca Bletch, shot and killed in June 2014. Try as they might, frustrated detectives in Norton Shores and Muskegon county cannot solve either crime. Two cold cases unsolved for years. No arrest until a scary 911 call after a teenage girl runs for her life on this very road. I had to jump out of a car. I had a wonder.

Who was it?

I don't even know him. I was like, please let me out right now. Please let me out.

Young teenager by the name of Madison Nygard finds herself walking home in a rural part of Muskegon county after attending an all night party.

Walk us through what that night was like, what was this party? I had a big old bonfire, and then everyone left and went to a different party. So then I started walking home. Oh, so you were out all night? All night long. All night.

It's early in the morning. She's walking along the road.

Did you know where you were? No, but I figured, like, I'll be able to figure it out. Did you have a cell phone? I did have a phone, but it was dead by now. Madison is lost and in tears. Instead of taking the left and going towards town, I took a right and went towards the lake. I'm crying at this point. A silver minivan pulls up. Hey, do you need a ride? The man in the minivan said to her. I was like, no, absolutely not. Can I please just use your phone? And he was like, yeah, just come on. Get in. Okay. So I got in. She got in the car, and he took off. I don't know why she decided to hop in that car, but I think she was just really desperate at that point. So you get in the car. Get in the car. He rolls up the window and locks the doors. I'm still crying, and I feel bad because I think he's a nice guy. So I'm like, I am sorry. I'm not trying to be mean, but please roll my window back down. The man in the minivan turns off the main road onto more isolated north Green Creek road.

Not where Madison wants to go. She didn't know where she was, but she knew enough to where that was definitely the wrong direction. I asked you his cell phone, and he was like, it's dead. And he's just staring at me the entire time, and I'm like, let me out. Let me out. Let me out. And he's just staring at me. And then that's when he reached under and grabbed his gun.

He's now pointing a gun at her. She has two choices, really. One, just submit and hope for the best. Or two, run.

As soon as I saw the gun, I was out. I knocked the door and jumped.

You said you were in the vehicle and jumped out. Okay.

When she jumped, she jumped right out of her shoes, rolled, got road rash. They found broken fingernails. She was going to get away from this man. You haven't been back over here? No. Madison has moved on, so she has not been back to the scene of her death defying leap until this moment when she agreed to go back to show us what happened. And I remember running completely down this road. Did you look back? I did look back, and that's when he was, like, standing there with his gun aimed at me. And I'm just like, don't kill me. Please don't kill me. Did you say that to him? Yeah, I was like, please do not. Like, I have family. And he was like, it's just a joke. Come back. Come back. It's a joke. Yeah. Absolutely not. Just kept running.

There were two unspent 22 cartridges lying in the road. I think those two live rounds were because the gun itself jammed. We believe we pulled the trigger. It jammed up. And so you rack it, get that round out so you get the next round. Somehow it jammed up again. Were you assaulted at all?

No, but I need to go to the hospital. I jump out of his car.

Do you want an ambulance?

She was very lucky. She was very bold to be able to jump out of a vehicle. I don't know how many people would have done that.

Takes a lot of fortitude. And she had what it took to save herself.

He chased me. He was chasing me.

Where was he chasing you? And you don't know where he went?

No. Now deputies are on a van hunt, driving up and down country roads looking for telltale surveillance cameras. When they said they were looking for anyone with video, I thought, they're not going to find anyone with video, especially in that stretch where she was. Police figure find the silver minivan, solves the Madison Nygard case. But what detectives never figured on finding that ordinary minivan would be the key to solving two more cold case mysteries.

The detective asked if he could see the video. Sure he wasn't up there four or 5 minutes. And he says, I see it.

He just pulled through the lot when Madison got away. And they were able to connect the dots. Were you surprised? I was very shocked that one individual could have been responsible for three women. He really is a monster who lives with secrets that dark Jessica Herringa's disappearance and Rebecca Bletch's murder.

Here we have two females that are once missing, once deceased.

But how do they connect? And how do they connect to a new victim? They showed this 16 year old girl and she said, that's the man who pointed a gun at me, who tried to kill me.

I'm trying to tell you. All right, I'm going to go. We're not here to have a fishing match with you. I got a couple more things to say. Bells and whistles started going off of. Holy cats. What have we stumbled upon here? That's a medical diagram on where to inject someone. They discovered a file folder labeled vix, V-I-C-S. Inside the house, we found some recording equipment. Almost like a covert, hidden type camera. A significant amount of bleach bottles. In the basement of this house.

They found evidence after evidence after evidence. I mean, it did blow the case wide open.

He's saying he didn't kill her, but he was there.

Can you tell me anything?

They questioned me so hard.

He just kept saying, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It makes me shudder. I get goosebumps to think what they found. The first questions are easy. What's your name? Madison. And spell that for me. M-A-D-I-S-O-N. We have the 911 call. I want to play it for you. Okay? He just told me he was going to let me use his phone. So I got in, and then he wouldn't give it to me. And then he said it was dead. So I was like, let me out. And he reached for the gun and jumped out of the car.

It is very clear, based on the evidence that we collected at this particular crime scene, that Madison, through divine intervention, is alive. We discover that there were two unspent 22 cartridges lying in the road. It's only that the gun jammed not once, but twice that she's able to make it to this house alive.

Nobody knew I left the party that I was at. So if his gun didn't jam up, he would have just left me. No one would have known anything.

Investigators are able to determine that it's a. 22 cartridge manufactured by the CCI company.

Those bullet casings and Madison's details about the van will become more important than police in this area realize.

What kind of car was it?

A van.

What color was the van?

Silver. Police are searching the area for cameras that may have caught something that could be useful to this investigation. When they said they were looking for anyone with video, I thought, they're not going to find anyone with video. Especially in that stretch where she was. It's Madison's description of her would be captor and his silver van. That brings detectives here to the Saldini blueberry farms. Locals and visitors come here to pick blueberries. But detectives are picking through surveillance video, hoping security cameras captured that mysterious man and his silver van.

He asked if the cameras were real and if he could see him. So I said, sure, anything you want. It had two security cameras. One that kind of pointed to the semicircle drive they had and the other that kind of pointed out to the roadway. And he wasn't up there four or 5 minutes. And he says, I see it right.

There on that surveillance footage. A silver minivan what are the chances the blueberry farm has surveillance video that shows a silver minivan? The cameras only have a 30 day loop. If a week would have gone by, I think it would have been too late.

It gave really good close up images of this particular silver minivan. He turned in on a south drive and went out to north Drive.

He turned around in the blueberry farm to go back and watch me. What did he look like, the man that pulled up? He was heavier set, and he had dark facial hair and dark hair. Kind of normal? Yeah, and just looked normal to me. You didn't think anything of him when you saw him pull up? He didn't look creepy. Madison is also able to remember some specific details from inside the van. In the middle, there was, like, those little netted things. There was a bit of stuff in there. I remember seeing his phone in the net thing, and it was a flip phone, which I thought was really weird, because who has flip phones nowadays? While the video is pretty clear, authorities can't make out the license plate, so they're now searching for a proverbial needle in a haystack. The first step is to identify the van's make and model, and for that, they turn to a local car dealer.

My name is Mike Kring, and I was the owner of Rich's automart, which was a minivan car lot. I was able to establish that it was a 2004 to 2007 Dodge Caravan. They call it a soccer mom vehicle for a reason. It just was a grocery getter, and they went to soccer games, football games, and families would buy them.

Kring notices the van has some unique features similar to the ones he demonstrates on this Dodge caravan.

The door handles were not painted. So these door handles are not painted as well. So that's very similar. So I knew it was an Se package, but I knew it had stow and go seatings. Then they would have a compartment in the floor that you could flip these down and then turn them into the floor. When they're up in this position, the compartment is completely empty to stow whatever you'd like to stow.

More importantly, the moldings on the side of the van and a black antenna catch the minivan expert's eye.

I saw that little antenna that was on the roof, and that told me that that van was more than likely made in Canada. Because of that, the detectives were able to involve the secret service and find some database that told them how many minivans were in the county that were made in Canada. They were able to take the VIN number from those vehicles and compare them to registered vans here in Michigan. And then from that, narrow the list down by geographic area, we were able to establish that there are roughly 33,000 vehicles in the state of Michigan that match those attributes. That's a number now that investigators can take. And they can start ticking off vehicles in Muskegon county. And so that's exactly what they do.

And they go from 33,000 silver minivans all the way down to just one. And most importantly, to the man behind the wheel. In all the different clips and pictures that we had seen, the silver minivan that was dark and shadowy, they found it. Now authorities wanted to see if Madison could confirm this was the man who allegedly attempted to kidnap her. So they put together a photo lineup. When you saw the pictures that they showed you, the lineup, I picked them out, like, right away. Yes. They showed the 16 year old girl, and she said, that's the man who pointed a gun at me, who tried to kill me. And that man was Jeffrey Willis.

Jeff Willis happened to work at this manufacturing plant at the time. And a detective walked through the parking lot, discovered the vehicle, and noticed through the window that this vehicle had cargo netting in the center council area, this netting that had a bunch of stuff in it that seemed to be similar to what Madison had described.

And Jeffrey Willis is a name police have heard before. Three years earlier, an Exxon gas station employee, Jessica Haringa, vanished. At the time, detectives got a tip about a man named Jeffrey Willis who owned a silver van, so they went to talk to him.

We asked him how long he has owned his van, if he'd ever been to the Exxon gas station, if he knew. Jessica Herringa.

And witnesses in that case describe seeing a silver minivan, the same type of minivan detectives recognize on surveillance images from Sodini blueberries. It turns out Willis was a regular at the Exxon. And when police catch up to him again, this time it's about the alleged kidnapping of 16 year old Madison.

We've established that you drive a gray van, your side of what happened, and.

Willis is about to offer up something jaw dropping, something that takes the detectives by surprise.

So you're just saying that I sucked her? Thinks I sucked her.

Search for a silver minivan leaked to an alleged attempted kidnapping leads police to 46 year old Jeffrey Willis. After Madison picks him out of a photo lineup, police haul him in for questioning.

When Mr. Willis is getting off of work at 630 in the morning, he's being pulled over by a state trooper and then ultimately taken into custody. His van is then secured and taken to a location where it can be searched. He walks in, very relaxed, sort of matter of fact.

Jeffrey Willis was a worker at a furniture manufacturer in nearby Spring Lake. He worked the overnight shift.

He was well under the radar. He had no criminal history. He was a middle aged guy, married, kind of your normal, ordinary person in the community. You're a regular guy next door.

Willis grew up in Michigan, attending high school in Muskegon county. He has a daughter from a previous relationship. Turns out he's also a grandfather. He has no criminal history, but a work history of being a janitor at two local elementary schools back in the 90s. According to school district records, Willis was eventually fired for allegedly using a school computer to look at adult websites.

He appears to want to cooperate. It's like, oh, man, what's this all about? And yet he finds the opportunity to make small talk or even flirt a little bit with the female detective familiar.

I do.

Trying to think.

While police are questioning him, Willis makes a surprising admission. He tells them he was questioned back in 2013 about the unsolved disappearance of Jessica Haringa at the Exxon gas station.

I got bugged about the other one, too. Oh, really? Well, I mean, they're doing their routine as far as. So someone actually came to your house? I just come to the house and ask me a couple of questions. Back in 2013, I told him that we are investigating silver bands and registered owners that are in the area due to the Jessica Herringa investigation. He said he had heard about that and understood.

Receipts show that Willis was actually a regular at the Exxon. And many of his visits happened during Jessica's shifts, including on the very night she disappeared.

He had actually stopped into the gas station that night, and Jessica was working. And he recalls seeing her there. He said that he didn't have a relationship with her, didn't talk to her a lot. Just had seen her working in the gas station.

Remember, police were talking to many potential suspects, and when they searched it, Willis'van appeared clean.

We asked if we could see it. It was empty, and it smelled of cleaning products. They asked him about what he was doing that night.

He had an alibi. He was home with his wife. He was at the gas station earlier in the evening, but at that time, he was home.

They did a really good job at that point in time of following up and helping establish his relationship or what he had done that night. I was angry. I was emotional. I was upset about what we might have stopped had we brought him in, sat him down, polygraphed him, and went at him.

They had him right there. He was right under their noses. But if you don't have evidence, how can you arrest him? They're not to be blamed for not having arrested him initially because they didn't have probable cause initially. It happens often that police speak to suspects in these kinds of cases early in a spree like this and only come back to a suspect later. But Madison Nygard's alleged attempted kidnapping puts Jeffrey Willis back on police's radar. And now they're grilling him about his whereabouts on that morning.

Going home. I don't know.

We know that you were at river, okay? That girl was taking that exit, okay? At all the same time that we were there.

So you're saying that I took her? You think I took her?

We want to know what happened.

I can't tell you. I don't know. I wasn't there. Listen, you know, I mean, I wasn't there with whatever happened to her. That's what I'm telling you. I might have been there, but I wasn't wherever that was.

Willis's comfortable demeanor changes when detectives tell him they have his minivan on surveillance video. Everything on video.

Why were you. I don't know. I haven't been up there. Obviously something happened up there. All right, when you go from. I was home. Well, you asked me where I went and I said I don't. I got my oil change, and I'm not trying to. If I get up and walk out, are you going to slam me down?

Jeffrey Willis heads for the door.

Well, then I'm going to walk. We did a. Just relax. We did a. You wrestling me. Just sit down, please. Will you please sit down? Okay, listen, I'm trying to tell you. All right, I'm going to go. We're not here to have a pissing match with you. I got a couple more things to say, and I want you to hear me out. All right? Okay. It's that simple.

Investigators tell Willis that he is not free to leave. And not only that, but they are searching his home and that silver minivan. They got the two search warrants. Oh, and, boy, Willow seems worried about what police will find.

May ask what you're searching for and.

What they're about to uncover would shock even the most seasoned investigator. Evidence of a dark double life. It makes me shudder. I get goosebumps to think what they found. Detectives have been talking to Jeffrey Willis for hours about the alleged kidnapping of Madison Nygard. And now they tell him they're also searching his home and his van.

The search was the search patent. I was just patting down and getting all the stuff. Search at the house and the car. Evidence, evidence, always evidence. Well, obviously, you're looking for something.

It turns out that that model of minivan had hidden compartments.

And in that, they find this metal toolbox that is padlocked. It's locked.

And the things that were in the toolbox are disgusting.

We find things that you would use in a bonded situation, like chains and rope, what they call a jhook, which is something that you hang from the rafters and you kind of hook a rope or chain to. So you're kind of dangling with your arm spread. They also find some rubber gloves. There were syringes. Along with the syringes were vials of insulin. So on the inside cover of this toolbox is a laminated, small laminated diagram of a human body. That's a medical diagram on where to inject someone with insulin. So it's a diagram of a human torso showing the injection points. And so ultimately, he had this map, if you will, of where. If I wanted a low dose, where would I inject somebody? If I wanted a high dose or something to move rapidly, where would I inject somebody in order to make that happen? Insulin, for a non insulin taking person, can have some very detrimental effects. It can literally render you unconscious. It was at that point in time that light bulbs started and bells and whistles started going off of, holy cats, what have we stumbled upon here?

Investigators also find a second box in the minivan hidden under the driver's seat. And in this one, they find a gun, a Walther P 22. It's a different gun from the Bursa 380 Willis told police about during his interrogation.

I own a 380. Bursa 380.

Do you own any other gun?

I do not.

Also found in the secret lockbox is a box of 22 caliber CCI grand ammunition.

We recovered the 22 casings from Rebecca Bletch's scene. The lab was able to conclusively show that the shell casings and bullet fragments collected at the Rebecca Bletch scene were fired from the gun that was recovered from Jeff Willis''so.

Bingo, that's when they started to put everything together, when it all started to add up. Now investigators have evidence connecting Jeffrey Willis to both Jessica Herringa's disappearance and Rebecca Bletch's murder.

We get a search warrant, we go back to Ms. House.

During the search of Willis's house, investigators speak to his wife.

She had no idea about anything nefarious that he was involved in. There was nothing that suggested to her that there was anything creepy, weird, or evil going on in Jeff's life. In the second search warrant on his house, we found a kind of a hard drive that was hidden. We checked the ductwork, and up inside the furnace, cold air return. Stuck to the wall was a portable hard drive. In his hard drive, they discovered a file folder labeled vix V-I-C-S. Inside that folder, there were two subfolders, one containing the initials of Rebecca Bletch, the other containing the initials of Jessica Haringa. Vicks, we automatically assume stand for victims, Jessica Lynn Haringa. And then in that folder was all these little pictures of her. Things from the Internet, things from the news. Anything that he found, he would put in that folder. The other one was RB Rebecca Blatch. And in there was all these pictures, different pictures and different articles of her. While we were at his home doing the search warrant there and talking with his wife, we learned about the Bailey street address, which was his grandfather's home that he had access to.

And his grandfather was deceased, so he had pretty much sole access to that property. There was a significant amount of bleach bottles in the basement of this house, to the point where you would really question why somebody would have that many empty bleach bottles in a rundown, abandoned house.

Jeffrey Willis is accused of the attempted abduction of a 16 year old girl last month and is under investigation in the murder of Rebecca Bletch two years ago and the disappearance of Jessica Haringa. Willis pleaded not guilty to the attempted abduction of Madison Nygard as they continued to investigate. And they arrested Jeffrey Willis, and they found evidence after evidence after evidence. I mean, it did blow the case wide open. While Willis sits in jail, the investigation continues. Detectives talk to family and friends, trying to figure out who this guy is.

You're asking, who's Jeffrey Willis? Where'd this guy come from? And interviewing friends and relatives and all that kind of stuff. One of the names that came up was, boom.

Well, Kevin Bloom is his cousin. They say they were like brothers. They were very close.

We then went to his house, talked to him about Jeffrey Willis, and how do you know him? And it was really, if anything, what we call a fact witness, somebody that was really not of interest to us other than that. Well, then the information came out, I believe, in the news that we located the gun. Shortly after that, one of the detectives gets a phone call from Mr. Bloom. Mr. Bloom tells this detective, hey, you know, I just wanted to tell you something. I had this really weird dream about handling this particular weapon.

You probably touched it, or you had a dream that you thought you touched.

It, you know exactly what happened.

So police are now wondering, is it possible their prime suspect, Jeffrey Willis, had a partner in crime? While Willis sits in jail awaiting trial, investigators wanting to learn more about his past, track down his cousin and close confidant, a man named Kevin Bloom.

Kevin Bloom, at the time that this was all happening, worked for the Department of corrections. He was a corrections officer at one of our local prisons here in town. He was talked to just as a witness that might be familiar with Jeff Willis. We then went to his house, talked to him about Jeffrey Willis. And how do you know him? Well, I haven't seen him in a long time, and we didn't think much about it. It's like, okay, what's really interesting about this is that shortly after that interview, one of the detectives gets a phone call from Mr. Bloom. Mr. Bloom tells this detective, hey, you know, I just wanted to tell you something. I had this really weird dream about handling this particular weapon and Jeff being there. I think I might have touched that gun. You think you might have touched the gun? Yeah. I'm not sure if I touched it or it was in a dream, but I think I touched it, so I'm not sure. She was. Played it cool. She goes, oh, okay, well, we'll come over and talk to you about it. This detective had been around for a while, and the red flags just went screaming off in her head.

Basically, two detectives go, we're not buying this. Would you do a polygraph? He was interviewed for a long period of time. He had taken a polygraph. He had failed.

But Kevin Bloom continues to talk to police and eventually tells them that his cousin, Jeffrey Willis, told him that he was the person who abducted and killed Jessica Haringa.

I get a call at about two in the morning at home from the detectives, and they said, you need to get here. He's starting to talk about herringa and what they did with the body. I was like, this can't be happening. Do I finally have somebody talking? Let's go back to that gun. That's the only time I've ever seen him have. He had told them that he was around Saturday night when he saw Jessica or saw a body at the grandpa's house. And he believes that he might have seen that she was dead and helped him move the body. And he says, if you don't do this, I'm going to end up hurting your family. And then I come down and helped him wrap her up, and he carried her into his band he's crying, he's emotionally upset. He's saying he didn't kill her, but he was there. And he states that he was with Jeffrey Willis when he buried her body and that he knew where her body was buried. I felt confident. I didn't think anybody would be lying about this.

So he talks about getting rid of the body and how they carried her out in a gray sheet out to the van.

I opened the van and I followed him. And then we went here and we put her somewhere in there. I felt like I finally have a witness to this. I said, well, can you bring her me to the body? He said, absolutely. I can do that. I thought, okay, finally we're going to have really good closure all the way around. So we go out there. We brought out cadaver dogs from the state police and everybody's got a shovel and looking and we're walking up and down and up and down. I just can't remember. So I went in there and I confronted him. I thought you would have found. No, I did not find her. No, if I found her, I'd be bringing you home right now. That's what I'd be doing. And he stopped. He looks and he goes, I'm lying. I go, yeah, I know you're lying. I go, let's get to the truth. So you weren't there at all?

At all?

Nothing? All this was a lie. And he goes, no, I'm lying about everything. I wasn't at Jeffrey. I didn't see the body. I didn't move everything. He retracted. He just said he made it up. So that doesn't happen very much. It's not that common that somebody makes up a story with themselves directly involved in it. He was charged with lying and then accessory after the fact. He was convicted of both.

In those interviews he did with police, he also mentioned Rebecca Bletch. He didn't implicate himself in her murder and he was never charged in relation to the case. But it did leave Rebecca'sister Jessica wondering if maybe he knew more about what happened to her than he'd said. So I went to the jail to talk to him.

Who's this?

I'm Rebecca Bletch's sister.

Hi.

He just kept saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Can you tell me anything?

All I'm going to say is the police were wrong when they investigated me. And when they questioned me that day, they questioned me so hard, I lied.

I made it up. I'm not that kind of person. I didn't know anything about it all made up. What were you hoping to get from him? Talking to him in jail? You know more than you're telling us. I don't know what I wanted. I just felt I needed to go see him and see what information he would give me. It's time for Jeffrey Willis's day in court. And at the Rebecca Bled's trial, he surprises everybody by taking the stand to testify.

We're never told whether a defendant's going to testify. Mr. Willis, you're charged with this case, killing Ms. Fletch. Did you in fact, do that?

Nobody does that. That's not normal. What he thought was funny, nobody was buying that line. Jeffrey Willis has now been charged with the murders of both Jessica Haringa and Rebecca Bletch. He pleads not guilty to both. And his first trial up is the Bletch case.

It's not just another murder, and it's not just another trial. It was a big stage. There were a lot of people paying attention. The physical evidence was better. In the Rebecca Bletch case, part of the forensic examination of the handgun and athletic type gloves, we were able to find blood in various locations, and that blood matched the DNA profile of Rebecca Bletch.

Prosecutors made a very smart, strategic decision to try Rebecca Bletch's murder case first. There they had a body, and they could prove up the facts very clearly for first degree murder.

They called it a stand. Kevin Blum, at the time, the defense was, I didn't do it. I being Jeff Willis, but my cousin did. We knew going into this that because Kevin had his own case going at the time, that he was not going to testify in fear of incriminating himself. And so he took the fifth.

Kevin Bloom had an alibi for the Bletch murder and was never charged in connection with that crime in any way.

He was a non player in this. He wasn't a person who was going to impact the outcome for my client one way or the other.

When Willis appears in court, he looks like a different man than the one who sat in the interrogation room a year earlier. He looked different. He'd lost a lot of weight, and now he was trimmed and fit.

You may call your next witness, Mr. Jeff. We call Jeffrey Willis to the stand in the bledch case. We put my client on the stand.

The defendant almost never takes the witness stand in a criminal case. To see Jeff Willis get up on the witness stand and try and talk his way out of a conviction is pretty astounding.

The penalty for first degree murder in this state is you spend the rest of your life in prison with no possibility of getting out. We serve seats. Say your name for the record. Jeffrey Thomas Willis. When you have that much on the line, ultimately, you leave that call to him. Mr. Willis, you're charged with this case, killing Ms. Fletch. Did you, in fact, do that? I did not kill Ms. Fletch. I wasn't even there.

I was home.

Do you have any other recollections about that day in general? Well, I cut the grass that day between four, and I want to say 630. I was cutting the grass. The problem with it is, once you take the stand, you got to answer questions, too. And if you have a highly skilled prosecutor, as they did, he's going to have some questions that you may not want to have asked. And there's nobody else that can verify that book here? Well, my wife, she was home by this time.

Willis and his wife had divorced.

Over three years have passed. His wife doesn't remember, and she doesn't remember whether he was home or not. She has no real independent memory about that particular evening. So what I'm saying is, if your wife has no recollection of that, the only one that can verify that is you. Yeah, I guess I remember when he.

Got on the stand. He said, when they asked him about the toolbox in his van. He chuckles oh, it's kind of a funny story.

My grandson would come over on Wednesdays.

That toolbox is full of adult toys, and he laughs it off like, oh, my grandson got into there.

So I put it in the van. That's how it ended in the van.

Nobody does that. That's not normal, to laugh it off like, he's so innocent to that jury. Nobody was buying that line. Do you think he was trying to be charming? Yeah. A complete debacle on the witness stand. Not charming, not convincing, and not telling the truth.

Ultimately, the jury deliberates for about 90 minutes. You have given the signal that you've arrived at a verb. And they find him guilty of first degree murder in the death of Rebecca Bletch.

With one trial finished, Willis'defense now prepares for the next, the murder of Jessica Haringa.

If you read those two trials, the evidence coming in is almost identical in both cases. You try again and see if you can't figure out a different argument that might be more effective this time. I believe you will have information that paints him as an evil person, and that may be your judgment, but you will not have evidence that he killed or kidnapped his hearing. The victim's body is never discovered. So under those circumstances, we're able to pursue the argument that the person is not deceased.

The prosecutors have some powerful evidence, and they tell jurors about those pieces of plastic and batteries from a laser site found at the Exxon station where Jessica vanished. They explain that the gun recovered from Jeffrey Willis's van was originally sold with a laser sight on it. But when the gun was recovered, that laser sight was missing. Usually you can't talk about a defendant's prior alleged bad acts to prove that he did the bad act in this case. But there are exceptions. In this case, the judge allows prosecutors to call Madison Nygard. The 16 year old police say Willis attempted to abduct. Not only does she help establish a pattern of behavior on Willis's part, but she is also able to link him to that silver minivan. Because she was a minor at the time, she was not shown on camera. Jasper Willis pulled up.

Did you know Mr. Willis?

No. The first time I had a testify, I sat outside and cried and cried. And I was like, I do not want to do this. I don't want to. I had to do it.

Were you scared?

I was still scared, yeah.

What did you do?

I unlocked the door and jumped out.

This child being traumatized, that was the bit of infidence, I think, which locked them into a course that we couldn't turn the ship around. Jeffrey Thomas Willis murder. Guilty of first degree murder. It almost seems unreal. We're looking at a guy that's a potential serial killer that at a minimum has killed two people, was probably in line to kill a third.

They never did a trial for your case. Nope. The prosecutor said it's a waste of their time. He's already going away for life. What would you have liked to have seen happen? I think I would have just liked to have the option of things. Yeah, that was kind of like a huge slap in my face.

Madison had played a key role up to this point, but he had been convicted of two separate counts of first degree murder. So he's essentially going to die in prison. Ultimately made the decision that there wasn't a need to move forward with the criminal prosecution. At the sentencing, the victim or her family is allowed to look the defendant in the eye and tell him, this is what you did to my loved one. This is what you did to me.

I was looking forward to him being there to hear what I had to say. But Jeffrey Willis had one last sickening surprise in store. About six weeks after Willis is found guilty of murdering Rebecca Bletch, he's sentenced a standard part of any trial. But this time, it's different.

Usually at the sentencing, the victim comes in or her family is allowed to look the defendant in the eye, and you get to tell him, this is what you did to my loved one. This is what you've done to her children. This is what you did to me. Mr. Willis knew that was coming. I get approached by his lawyer, who basically says, hey, my client doesn't want to be present. Your honor, it is the position of defense that we are hereby requesting that my client be allowed to leave these proceedings at this juncture. In my 24 years of doing this, this was a first for me. I desired to be relieved.

That was a moment I had waited two years for, to have my chance to look him in the eyes and talk to him and say what I wanted to say. Not only is it my time, but I was looking forward to him being there to hear what I had to say.

The victim's family is sitting there, and he looks over at them, and he blows a kiss to them.

Oh, he blew a kiss. When he blew the kiss in your direction. Shock. I couldn't believe it. Again, he got his way and got to walk out and not listen to us.

It's one of the lowest points in my career. It was just a horrible thing to do. It was just a horrible thing to do. Shortly after the sentence, the sheriff came to me and said, hey, look, do you think there would be an issue if, when we transport Mr. Willis that. On that trip, if my guys just played the victim impact statement the entire trip? I said, I see no issue with that. Go for it.

And he claims that he's not a monster, but his actions be louder than words.

They played it loud.

She was amazing inside and out. She was easy to love, and people.

Wanted to be around her, and they played it for him over and over again. He didn't stand up there and take it, but he heard it's.

Your three names are always connected. You are the reason that they figured all this out. For a long time. I know everyone would be like, you're like a hero. You put the solved it. And I was like, I didn't want to be the one to solve it. I didn't want to go through mean. It feels good that I'm the one that got away, but I wish it didn't happen. For their part, Jessica Haringa's family didn't support Willis's prosecution and have never believed he's the person responsible for her abduction and murder. The family still. They still have their facebook page. They still help us find Jessica. They still have not acknowledged that Jeffrey Willis had anything to do with her disappearance or her death. They're still holding out hope that she might come home. So this is a memorial that was set up for Becky after she passed. A friend of the family made the cross. So the plaque says Becky Bletch, 1977 to 2014. And then it says sister next to it with a heart and an infinity sign on it. When I'm in the area, I try to stop, share a little moment with her and let her know I'm thinking of her.

We haven't forgotten her.

And we should point out tonight that she's now remembered in a new Michigan law, the Rebecca Bletch law, which ensures that a defendant is present in the courtroom when a victim impact statement is read.

And as for that silver minivan, which played such a big role in the case, a judge ruled that it could be sent to a scrap yard where it's now been destroyed. Void that's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts.

And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night. Bye.