Trial Set For Man Charged With Killing Jessica Heeringa

MUSKEGON (WWJ/AP) - A western Michigan man who's charged with killing a 25-year-old gas station clerk is now scheduled to face trial nearly five years after she disappeared.

Court officials have set the trial for Jeffrey Willis to begin March 6. He faces murder and kidnapping charges in the April 2013 disappearance of Jessica Heeringa from the gas station where she worked in Norton Shores. Her body hasn't been found.

Willis has denied having anything to do with her disappearance.

Jurors convicted Willis of first-degree murder last month for the 2014 fatal shooting of Rebekah Bletsch while she was jogging in Muskegon County's Dalton Township. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance for parole.

Heeringa's disappearance received nationwide attention. She hasn't been seen since just before she was closing up an Exxon Station where she worked in Norton Shores on April 26, 2013. Her body has not been found, but investigators believe she was killed within 24 to 48 hours of her abduction. Willis was formally tied to the case in May 2016.

Investigators have said they think Heeringa was taken against her will by someone she likely knew. There was no indication of a robbery, as her purse, vehicle and other items were left behind at the scene. DNA testing showed a small amount of blood found outside the gas station belonged to Heeringa.

Investigators have said Willis' van resembles a vehicle seen by witnesses parked behind the gas station on the night Heeringa went missing. Hilson said Willis' van was even searched in the days following Heeringa's disappearance, but "there was nothing at that point in time to suggest at all that he was involved in any criminal activity."

When Willis' van was searched again following his arrest in Bletsch's death, investigators found a pistol, ammunition, syringes with liquid, a ball gag, chains, a mask and a bar with wrist restraints inside the vehicle. Child pornography and videos of bound women were also found in his home.

Willis' cousin Kevin Bluhm pleaded no contest last month to being an accessory after the fact of murder in Heeringa's death.

© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.