Police: Man Charged With Kidnapping Had Syringes Possibly Filled With Sedatives

MUSKEGON, Mich. (WWJ/AP) - A prosecutor says a western Michigan man charged with trying to abduct a girl is also being investigated in the disappearance of a gas station clerk and the fatal shooting of a jogger.

Jeffrey Willis was charged Wednesday with kidnapping and other crimes in an April incident involving a 16-year-old in Muskegon County's Fruitland Township. She told investigators that she jumped out of Willis' van.

Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler said the descriptions of both the suspect and his silver minivan in the recent abduction are similar to witness descriptions in the Heeringa case.

Willis' Muskegon-area home was searched Tuesday and another property was searched Wednesday.

Bond was set at $1 million, and Willis asked for a lawyer. Prosecutor D.J. Hilson says police are "following up leads" between Willis and the disappearance of Jessica Heeringa in 2013 and the 2014 death of Rebecca Bletsch.

Heeringa hasn't been seen since just before she was closing up an Exxon Station where she worked in Norton Shores on April 26, 2013.

Hilson says police found handcuffs and syringes possibly filled with sedatives in Willis' van.

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