The Muskegon County prosecutor called it probably the most disturbing case he's ever handled.

After a harrowing two hours of testimony Wednesday, June 22, a district judge found probable cause that Jeffrey Thomas Willis murdered jogger Rebekah Sue Bletsch. Visiting Judge Richard Kloote ordered Willis to stand trial in circuit court.

Willis, 46, of Muskegon Township is charged with open murder and felony firearm in the long-mysterious June 26, 2014, shooting death of Bletsch, 36, while she was jogging on Automobile Road near her home in Dalton Township.

Willis was arrested May 17 as a suspect in the April 2016 kidnapping of a 16-year-old girl on River Road in Fruitland Township. A search of his minivan and then of his home led to the charge of murdering Bletsch. He's also a "person of interest" in the April 2013 disappearance of Jessica Heeringa.

After the hearing, Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson, who prosecuted it himself, told reporters, "I've been doing this for 17 years, and this is probably the most disturbing thing I've ever (dealt with).

"This man is a very disturbing individual, and I'm very glad we got him off the streets. I don't know how many lives were saved."

Assistant Muskegon County Public Defender Paula Baker Mathes represented Willis at the hearing. She presented no defense witnesses - that rarely happens at a hearing like Wednesday's - and confined herself to cross-examining prosecution witnesses.

The preliminary examination in Muskegon County District Court included, in addition to evidence already made public, testimony about significant and disturbing details never before reported.

Most startling:

Sex with the dead, victim's images

Computer analysts found many downloaded Internet videos of necrophilia - sex with dead people - and of "kidnap and kill" scenarios, both acted and in some cases apparently "real life," from Willis's external hard drive, a police expert testified.

They also found a folder on the hard drive labeled "VICS," believed to be short for "victims," with a subfolder labeled "RSB" - the shooting victim's initials - and what appeared to be a coded reference to the date of her death. The folder contained Internet images of Bletsch including reward posters.

None of those videos or pictures were taken by Willis himself, Detective Sgt. Chris Prevette of the Michigan State Police testified.

Stolen handgun, panty requests

A co-worker of Willis's at Herman Miller's Spring Lake Township plant testified that she repeatedly spoke with Willis about a .22-caliber Walther handgun she purchased in 2012.

The last time she saw her gun was the weekend of Feb. 22-23, 2013, Michelle Schnotala testified. That was about two months before Jessica Heeringa vanished from the Norton Shores gas station where she worked.

And Schnotala believes Willis entered her home without permission more than once while she was gone. She said she confronted him several times about snowmobile tracks in her yard, and he readily admitted they were his.

Under cross-examination, Schnotala admitted she never reported her gun stolen. She said she seldom used it and had a habit of hiding it different places in the house when she left town, so she long assumed it had gotten lost in some attic insulation over the rafters.

Schnotala also testified Willis repeatedly asked her to give him her panties. She always refused.

"He asked for my panties quite a bit. He always wanted a pair of my underwear," she said. On cross-examination, she said she never reported that to her supervisors.

On the allegedly stolen gun issue, a Michigan State Police firearm expert testified about the .22-caliber Walther handgun seized from Willis's minivan after his arrest. That gun had its external serial number obscured, but an internal number remained, and experts were able to retrieve the external number as well.

Both were used to identify the legal owner of the gun, Lt. Jeff Crump testified. But he couldn't remember that person's name when Hilson asked, saying his job was only to pass it along to the task force investigating Bletsch's homicide.

The murder weapon

As reported earlier, Crump also testified to what may be the most important piece of evidence against Willis in the Bletsch case: The three .22-caliber shell casings found at the Bletsch death scene were fired from the gun seized from Willis's van, he testified.

The same was true of the bullet fragments found in Bletsch's body during her autopsy, he testified.

"I can exclude all other guns" from having fired the Bletsch shots, Crump testified under cross-examination by the defense attorney.

Horrible trove

Also as reported previously, Detective Sgt. Tom Flowers of the Michigan State Police Crime Lab testified about the sinister contents of Willis' silver minivan that he inspected.

One item was new to the public record: among the items recovered was a vial of insulin, Fowers testified.

Flowers said the items were found in several locked metal boxes concealed under seats.

Recovered items included the gun, ammunition, rope, chains including a length of chain with handcuffs attached, other handcuffs, a hook, a "ball gag," other bondage gear, syringes, two batteries, lubricant, several pairs of black gloves, blue pills, Polaroid photos, two videocameras and other items.

Finding Willis

Muskegon County Sheriff's Detective Matt Schultz, lead investigator on the kidnapping case that led to Willis's arrest, described that investigation, also reported before.

He said that, based on the 16-year-old victim's description of the minivan her abductor drove, the direction it went and the man himself, investigators looked for security videos that might show the suspect.

They found one at a blueberry farm. It showed a silver minivan with a heavy white driver matching the girl's description, Schultz said.

Detectives brought the images to car dealers skilled in identifying vehicles and narrowed down the model years and vehicle models. Based on that they had a manageable number of vehicles registered in the area and created a photo lineup to show the girl.

She identified Willis, resulting in the traffic stop that ended with his being taken into custody and the van search, pursuant to a search warrant.

Other deputies testified about the scene of Bletsch's death, at first thought to have been caused by a hit-and-run crash while she was jogging.

A medical examiner investigator later noticed small-caliber bullet holes in the back of Bletsch's head. Deputies eventually recovered three .22-caliber shell casings from the area where she was found.

After the hearing ended, Willis waived his pending preliminary examinations in two felony child-pornography cases. He was bound over for trial in circuit court on those cases as well.

Last week he waived his prelim in the kidnapping case. That case was bound over to circuit court first.