(WWJ) The search for an 18-year-old Northern Michigan woman ended in tragedy this week, when her body was found buried behind a home.
At a news conference Wednesday, Michigan State Police said they've reclassified the case of Brynn Bills of Alpena as a suspicious death investigation, following the discovery on Tuesday.
Acting on a tip, troopers with a search warrant dug in freshly overturned soil on property owned by 34-year-old Joshua Wirgau, on W. Naylor Road, in Alpena Township.
Police had asked the public for tips help to find the missing teen, offering a $10,000 reward for information about Bills, who disappeared in early August. She was last seen alive in the Alpena area, police said, but exactly when and where remains unclear.
MSP 1st Lt. John Grimshaw said Bills' body was identified based on her tattoos. He did not say how long it appears she has been dead, or how police believe she may have died.
"The cause of death has yet to be determined, and at this point we can only rule her death as suspicious," MSP said, in a release.
An autopsy was scheduled to take place Wednesday at Western Michigan University, although Grimshaw said it may be several months before a conclusive cause of death is known.
Meanwhile, MSP troopers took Wirgau into custody Monday night.
Police said he is being held without bond in the Alpena County Jail on separate charges of Unlawful Imprisonment and Felonious Assault from an incident earlier this week and is unrelated to Bills' disappearance.
Stopping short of calling him a suspect, police said Wirgau is a "person of interest" in Bills' death.
As the investigation continues, police are asking for tips. Anyone with information should call the MSP Alpena Post at 989-354-4101.
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