MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) – The man who told police he helped Jeffrey Willis dispose of Jessica Heeringa’s body has entered a no-contest plea to an accessory charge one day before his trial was set to begin.
Kevin Bluhm, Willis’ cousin, entered the no-contest plea to one count of accessory to a crime after the factMonday morning in Muskegon County Circuit Court. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but will be treated as such at the time of sentencing in January.
According to an affidavit, Bluhm told investigators he was invited to Willis’ late grandfather’s home in Norton Shores the day after Heeringa’s abduction in April 2013. He told detectives as he got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw a woman with an obvious head wound, lying face down with her hands out and tied, the affidavit reads. He said he knew she was dead because she was not moving. Bluhm said Willis was standing next to the unclothed body and told him he had tortured her.
Bluhm said he helped Willis wrap up Heeringa’s body and placed it on a plastic sheet in the back of Willis’ van, the affidavit states. Bluhm had parked behind Willis’ vehicle, potentially to block any view of them loading the body, the court files show.
Bluhm told investigators he then helped carry Heeringa’s body to a hole that had already been dug near an old set of railroad tracks not far from Willis’ home. Bluhm said he said he parked his vehicle at a nearby business and rode with Willis to the site where shovels were already sitting. Investigators searched that area, but never found Heeringa’s body.
Earlier in November, Willis was found guilty of murdering another Muskegon County woman, Rebekah Bletsch. He has yet to be sentenced in that case and his trial for Heeringa’s murder has not yet been set.