Jessica Heeringa Case Analysis | Brazen Abduction by Serial Killer

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of jessica haringa just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel consider supporting me on patreon and check out my podcast bellagrande media i will put the irrelevant links for those items in the description for this video so first i'll look at the background in this case including the timeline of the crime and then i'll move to my analysis jessica haringa was born on july 16 1987 she lived in north shores michigan by 2013 jessica was engaged and had a son she worked at an exxon gas station in that same town on april 25 2013 jessica was working at the gas station a female customer who was a regular stopped at the station and commented to jessica that she should not be working at that station alone late at night the customer suggested that jessica should at least have her boyfriend with her a man who overheard the customer talking to jessica interjected saying she's got her customers looking out for her too the customer noticed that jessica reacted strongly to that comment she started shivering and shaking her head as if a chill went up her spine the customer also noticed that jessica was not as cheerful as usual the customer was so concerned she parked outside until the gas station closed she made sure the customer who interjected left the station the next day april 26 2013 jessica was again working at the gas station starting at around 4 30 pm at one point a witness noticed her talking to somebody in a silver minivan the van drove away without incident someone purchased a cigarette lighter at 10 55 pm it was the last transaction on jessica's register at 11 pm a manager at the gas station and her husband drove by and noticed a man next to a silver minivan parked behind the store the man kept opening and closing the rear hatch of the silver minivan after this he drove away the witnesses reported this information to the police later but did nothing at that time a silver chrysler town and country minivan was captured by the surveillance cameras of three other businesses between 1102 and 1105 pm on april 26th it was speeding away from the scene at 11 10 pm a customer pulled into the gas station and tried to pay for fuel but he couldn't find jessica in the store he called 9-1-1 the police arrived about 15 minutes later they could not find jessica either but they did find some of her property including her coat purse cigarettes lighter and 420 dollars in cash her car was parked outside no cash was missing from the register the police found a small blood stain behind the gas station near where the silver van had been parked just a few minutes before they also found a battery cover from a laser sight designed to be mounted to a firearm the police searched extensively for jessica but were unable to locate her over a year later on june 29 2014 a 36 year old jogger named rebecca bletch was shot three times in the head with a 22 caliber firearm near her home in dalton township she was found still alive in the middle of the road but died shortly afterward the police weren't sure if rebecca's case was connected to jessica's disappearance about 10 months later on april 16 2016 another serious crime occurred in the area specifically in laketon township a 16 year old girl became lost after leaving a party a man named jeffrey willis approached her driving a silver town and country minivan he told her that she could use his phone but she had to get in his vehicle to do so she agreed to these terms once inside the vehicle jeffrey locked the doors and pointed a gun at her she told him that she couldn't breathe and ask him if he could open her window he did this and this allowed her to escape she ran to a nearby house and the police were notified surveillance cameras captured the minivan the girl was able to select jeffrey willis from a lineup he was arrested and charged in connection with the incident after searching his residence and his vehicle the police found evidence that jeffrey willis was connected to the other crimes a walther p-22 which is a 22-caliber semi-automatic pistol was found in his minivan it was matched to the shell casings found near where rebecca was shot mounted to that weapon was a laser sight which was missing the battery cover this was matched to the battery cover found at the exxon gas station from where jessica disappeared the police found handcuffs rope zip ties chains viagra and syringes filled with what appeared to be a sedative they found a folder labeled vixx v-i-c-s on his computer this appeared to be short for victims in one subfolder they found pictures of rebecca in another subfolder they found pictures of jessica on may 25 2016 jeffrey willis was charged with murdering rebecca he would be charged with kidnapping and murdering jessica on september 20 2016. he was already in jail of course facing a number of other charges after jeffrey was charged with murdering rebecca but before he was charged with killing jessica his cousin kevin bloom was charged with lying to the police kevin had once been a prison guard in michigan he told the police a story about the case that he would later recant but of course it was too late kevin said that jeffrey called him the day after jessica disappeared and told him he had a woman and there was a party kevin went to jeffrey's grandfather's house where jeffrey was jeffrey had access to this house after his grandfather died kevin saw jessica without clothes on and tied up she had been struck in the head kevin said that jeffrey admitted to him that he knocked her unconscious to get her into the minivan kevin assisted geoffrey in disposing of the body which they did somewhere on sheridan road kevin said that when they arrived at the disposal site the hole in the ground was already prepared kevin would eventually plead guilty to being an accessory after the fact in 2018 he was sentenced to time served and five years probation now moving back to jeffrey willis in 2017 jeffrey was tried for the murder of rebecca he was convicted of first-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole now moving to the charges for murdering jessica the state had a good deal of evidence against jeffrey willis in this case just a few examples the testimony of his cousin kevin bloom jeffrey was a frequent customer at the exxon gas station where jessica worked he matched the description of a man who was described by a witness as flirting with jessica the night she disappeared he had a minivan that matched what witnesses saw it looked like the minivan that jessica was near on the day she disappeared and the minivan that was parked behind the gas station later on jeffrey was scheduled to work the night jessica disappeared but he never showed up to work that night he didn't return to work until april 28th a co-worker noticed that jeffrey had deep scratches on his face and even jokingly accused him of taking jessica the story was all over the news and he had heard about it jeffrey became angry at the co-worker and said that the scratches were from doing a brake job on his vehicle probably one of those rare vehicles that have fingernails on the brake pads instead of screeching when the brake pads are low on those models the brakes screech all the time not surprisingly the co-worker didn't believe the story about the brakes he thought that jeffrey was not mechanically inclined enough to change his own brakes instead he believed that jeffrey was in a fight with his wife and simply didn't want to talk about it cell phone data from jeffrey's phone put him near the exxon gas station on the night of jessica's disappearance the laser sight on his firearm was missing a battery cover it was matched to the one found at the exxon gas station photographs of jessica were on his computer in that folder jeffrey also had a number of other photographs and videos depicting violence against women in may of 2018 willis was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering jessica later he would be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole so he had that sentence for killing both rebecca and jessica it seems unlikely jeffrey will ever get out of prison now moving to my analysis there was evidence as far back as the 1990s that suggested jeffrey willis was a dangerous criminal he had worked in an elementary school but was fired for looking up inappropriate images using one of the school's computers in 2011 he was charged with having illegal photographs on his computer the victims were two girls who lived next door to him jeffrey willis can be thought of as a serial killer even though by one definition technically he is not some definitions for a serial killer require two homicides with a cooling down period in between he of course would meet that definition others require three homicides with a cooling down period in between it seems clear that jeffrey would have killed his third victim if she did not escape so again i really do picture him as a serial killer jeffrey was fairly disorganized like many serial killers or those who would have been serial killers jeffrey was sporadic in his efforts to avoid arrest he was careful sometimes but other times careless an example of him being careful would be how right after the kidnapping and murder of jessica he cleaned his van the police noticed this when they were looking at it 12 days after jessica disappeared they were looking at several silver town and country minivans in the area an example of him being careless would be how he continued committing crimes using that same minivan after murdering jessica in addition to demonstrating behaviors that align with psychopathy and narcissism jeffrey appeared to be socially awkward and creepy he had visited the exxon gas station where jessica worked several times before her disappearance about 15 times he communicated with her on a few occasions the night before the disappearance it is believed he was the one who made that statement that sent a chill up her spine and caused that female customer to become so concerned she waited in the parking lot until jessica was finished work on the day of the disappearance is believed jeffrey was the driver of the silver minivan who spoke with jessica briefly for whatever reason jessica became the object of jeffrey's desire his visits to the gas station only reinforced his determination to attack her he was building up a fantasy and preparing to turn it into a reality even though jessica had a clear sense that jeffrey was dangerous she continued working alone in the gas station she needed money and the probability of any one creepy guy being a killer is fairly low what amazes me is that there was no one else working with her in the store and there were no security cameras although the law has changed in michigan since then in regard to both of those items do this case in the court proceedings we see that jeffrey appeared to lack any insight and was unable to empathize one time when he was walking out of the courtroom he blew a kiss to the family members of jessica he launched a desperate attempt to escape consequences coming up with these ridiculous ideas in his defense he really couldn't understand how other people viewed him he somehow thought that he was fooling everybody the last time i want to cover in this case is the role of kevin bloom again this is jeffrey's cousin of all the occupations kevin could have had he was a prison guard one would think that this line of work would reinforce the idea that crime can result in unpleasant consequences why on earth would a prison guard want to end up in prison was he walking around the cell block during his shifts looking in the cells of inmates and saying things like hey you guys got it made how did you end up with this sweet deal i work in this place but you get to live here it's frightening that not only do criminals like jeffrey willis exist but criminals like kevin bloom exist people who are willing to help murders it's worrisome to imagine how many people like this are loose in society not yet living their dream of a life in prison those are my thoughts in the case of jessica haringa please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Id: EXI1ik1vVQI

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021