Bills was last seen on August 1, less than two weeks before her 18th birthday.
The remains believed to be those of a missing 18-year-old woman have been found in what cops say was “fresh dirt” outside a Michigan home, Fox News reported.
Brynn Bills has been missing since August, and the remains found this week were linked through tattoos on the body after it was recovered in Alpena Township on Tuesday, Michigan State Police said.
Her cause of death was pending the results of an autopsy.
Bills was last seen Aug. 1 and investigators say they got a tip about where to look.
“The tip led us to an area where we had seen that there was some fresh dirt and something that looked like it had been dug up recently,” First Lieutenant John Grimshaw said at a press briefing Tuesday. “So it was easy to locate, there were several spots on the property like that, so we narrowed our search to those and that’s where we found the body.”
“It took us a long time to find the remains and to get her out of there,” he added.
Police said the home where the remains were found on Alpena Road belongs to Joshua Wirgau, 34, who is a person of interest in the death of Bills, The Independent reported.
“He is a person of interest, obviously. He is the homeowner where there was a deceased body found on it, so he is a person of interest,” Lt. Grimshaw said. “He has an attorney.”
Wirgau was not at the home when police searched the property, but was in police custody following an unrelated incident that allegedy took place earlier in the week on charges of unlawful imprisonment and assault with a dangerous weapon, the Independent reported. His attorney's office tells Inside Edition Digital he has plead not guilty to both charges.
Police said that there are other persons of interest in the investigation, according to The Independent.
Grimshaw added that Bills' family is coping “as well as can be expected.”
Bills’ friend Jessica Eaves spoke to local news outlet WBKB and said she is heartbroken and said she has no idea why anyone would want to harm her friend but said said the victim may have been too trusting.
“The only thing that comes to my head is trusting the wrong people,” Eaves told WBKB.
“All I know is that she was friends with someone who was close with [Wirgau],” she added in her interview to WBKB.
Bills would have turned 18 on August 12, less than two weeks after she was last seen, However, her father, Duane Bills, told The Alpena News that he doesn’t think she reached her birthday.
“They found her, so, obviously, somebody’s got some answering to do on the subject,” he told the outlet.
A candlelight vigil honoring Bills has been planned for October 23, WBKB reported.
