Ronald Earl Williams

MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI -- An open murder charge has been filed in the disappearance and death of Bobbie Maples by the Muskegon County Prosecutor's Office two months after her buried body was discovered.

Ronald Earl Williams of Muskegon Heights, who currently is incarcerated, is expected to be arraigned Thursday or Friday, said Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson.

Williams was an acquaintance of Maples, and it is believed the Roosevelt Park woman died shortly after she disappeared in December 2014, Hilson said.

Williams, 35, is an inmate at Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility, where he is serving time for delivery/manufacture of narcotics.

Maples went missing in December 2014 after leaving her home near Muskegon. Her buried body was discovered more than a year later, on private property in northern Muskegon County's Fruitland Township after a tipster led police there on Jan. 22.

Hilson said it is believed that Maples was killed at a house in the 4900 block of Michillinda Road where Williams was staying at the time. Hilson estimated the date of her death as Dec. 15, 2014, the same day Maples went missing.

He would not say how she was killed.

Maples was 32 when she disappeared 11 days after she gave birth to her daughter. She was reportedly on her way to the hospital to visit the baby when she disappeared.

Maples' body was wrapped in some sort of material when it was unearthed by Michigan State Police, a law enforcement official said earlier. The body had been buried 4 to 5 feet deep and Hilson said a concrete slab was placed over the body.

The body was buried on property owned by the Glaser family, and Hilson said Williams' connection to the property likely was through the Glasers' daughter. He would not answer a question about whether the property owner had an culpability in Maples' death.

Her mother said earlier that Maples had a drug habit that she worried may have played a role in her daughter's disappearance.

Williams was sentenced as a third-time habitual offender in March 2015 by Muskegon County Circuit Judge Timothy Hicks to between 19 months and 20 years for controlled substance delivery less than 50 grams. He had been convicted of the same charge in 2013, and violated probation in that case, according to court records.

The open murder charge allows a jury to consider either first or second degree murder, and in some cases manslaughter, when deciding a defendant's guilt or innocence.

Williams has been a "person of interest" in the case since early on, Hilson said. When asked if Williams may have had an accomplice, Hilson said "that's hard to say."

"Certainly the investigation is ongoing," he said.

Lynn Moore is a reporter for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email her at lmoore8@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.