MUSKEGON, Mich. -- A friend who was with a Muskegon County teen just minutes before she was abducted says he wishes he had done more to keep her safe.
Jake Hall says the regret he feels continues to haunt him as he learns more about suspected kidnapper Jeffrey Willis.
"I felt horrible," Hall said. "I felt like I had dropped the ball so much, never messed up that bad."
Willis is charged in the April 17 kidnapping of that 16-year-old girl. Muskegon County officials say the teen was walking home when she became lost on West River Road near Green Creek Road north of Muskegon.
The teen said that a silver minivan stopped and the driver offered to let her use his cell phone. The teen said she got into the vehicle and the man drove off without giving her the phone.
She unlocked the door and jumped out of the moving van after the man reached for what appeared to be a handgun. She was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Hall says he is still replaying that morning in his mind, wondering if he could have done anything differently. He said the teen was looking for a ride home after a party the night before, and that she took off without letting him know.
He said he woke up the next morning and learned about the abduction.
"I woke up the next morning to an officer actually in the home I was sleeping in, saying 'Hey, we got a report of a girl being abducted around here,'" he said.
Hall says he's talked to the teen since she was abducted, and says she does not blame him and is not angry.
Since Willis was charged in connection with that abduction, investigators say they have also connected him to the 2014 murder of Rebekah Bletsch. He was charged Wednesday with open murder in connection with that case.
Norton Shores Police say Willis is also considered a person of interestin the 2013 disappearance of Jessica Heeringa.
