Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #13

[Deleted member 227095]

I have participated in a similar type of search, and I can assure you that you feel like throwing up every step of the way....afraid of what you might find. It's horrible, but necessary. Thank you to these good people who are doing this. Horrible situation.

Super interesting comment about 'nothing unusual' being seen by store manager. Will have to listen to these interviews!

 

[Doghairrules]

I have wondered the same thing. Has LEvsaid anything about the rest of the public being in any danger? I’m surprised the press haven’t asked or perhaps I just missed it.

I think they asked in the first press conference and Winker said that everyone should always take precautions and then listed the precautions. So he didn’t really answer the question.

 

[Cortne]

I’m so sorry. I just saw my post was altered. I apologize. I thought by using initials and not listing the site or poster, I was not in violation. I’m very sorry and respect your monitoring.
I regret registering and posting. I really did think it might be of importance and was not in anyway slandering.
Again, I’m sorry about this.
Thank you.

Yeah no don’t regret. Mollie needs everybody and everybody was once new here.

 

[Dogmen]

I think you should forward this to the tip line just so they can eliminate any connection. I doubt it is someone taunting the wedding party whose event they just ruined, but...stranger things have happened. For now, I'm sticking to the known acquaintance abducts/manipulates her on jog/walk theory.

Not “taunting” the wedding party because the date of post is before missing reports were made and we’ll before the wedding was cancelled. My thought was much more along the lines of someone appearing very caring either in an attempt to divert suspicion or in actual sense of regret. <modsnipped- please do not discuss comments on sites>

 

[MntnHiker]

Regarding her open social media/Twitter page. What I could see happening is someone in town is intrigued by her from seeing her around running or at Church, at the grocery, etc. It's a small enough town that they probably know or can easily find out her name.

So they take to Google and voila. Tons of info on her routine, the fact she is alone often at the house, runs routinely, etc. And I could see that person using her SM to stalk her that way and figure out a time to pursue her.

 

[Deleted member 227095]

MOO but this is not some random internet stalker. The problem with that as I see it is that in this small town a person loitering around whom nobody in town knew would be immediately noticed and pointed out by locals and we would already have reports of locals reporting a stranger in town. I have had experience in small towns both as resident and as outsider and everyone in town knows when someone new is hanging around, and locals aren't shy about asking who you are, where you come from and what you're doing there. Even if you're just a family passing through for lunch on a family road trip. As far as locals protecting Mollie as one of their own too, I think that this is exactly the strategy LE is going for and whether someone steps forward or not will depend on the perceived power structure of the town... and where Mollie and the potential perp fit in.

I agree. But I wonder if this particular group of locals is used to seeing people pass through due to interstate and the private lake outside town (weekend/summer resident/maybe even renters). I've seen small towns where people just put their heads down and stick to themselves and other where its old home week when you go into the cafe or grocery store. What kind of town is Brooklyn? I'm not sure I've read enough yet to truly understand the locals. IMO LE has their hands full answering this question!

 

[clearskies1]

I'll be surprised if this turns out to be someone she knew. I don't think I've ever seen a case where a jogger was attacked or abducted by an known acquaintance.

And, sadly, these cases usually end up with the search for a body. She didn't just jog away from her life. These cases are almost cookie cutter in a way: young woman goes out for a jog, sometimes in the late afternoon/evening. Someone sees her -- it's a crime of opportunity and they decide to strike. Usually a sexually motivated crime.

There are a lot of creepy people in the world and there's no lack of them in all kinds of places, even small rural towns. It's one reason why girls and women are advised to run with a buddy in less populated areas.

Agree totally. But usually in such cases the body is located close by and is found fairly quickly. That is the unusual part here and it makes me think the location of the attack would have clued LE into who it was, and thus the body may have been moved. Hoping I am totally wrong about this of course.

 

[Onescout]

Refresh my memory here, is there actually any surveillance video of Mollie on her jog?

 

[PaulR]

I should probably know this after being a member here so long, but has LE ever cleared someone all the while actually thinking they are a POI or suspect? Only "clearing" them to make them feel more comfortable?

This was discussed many threads ago. I don't believe there was any example of the police publicly clearing someone just to get them off their guard.

 

[El Mago]

I'm a newbie to this stuff but IMO, one of the biggest reasons LE is keeping this so close to the vest is because there is real fear in them not recovering the body, at least for a long while. It's more difficult to convict someone without a body, especially when there's as little evidence as in this one.

You leak out the only details you possess and you get false confessions, the real perp building a convenient case of doubt/innocence before an arrest, etc.

Like I've said before, we're in this for the long haul unfortunately; a marathon, not a sprint. Truly hope this isn't the scenario and everyone involved can get closure asap, preferably a happy one.

 

[Deleted member 227095]

rom the Iowa Department of Public Safety Missing Person Information Clearinghouse:

Missing Persons

bbm

Mollie Tibbetts was reported missing to the Poweshiek County SO, in Montezuma on Jul 18, 2018.
July 18?

URGH! Just more sloppiness from STATE folks or the SHERIFF dept actually dated the report wrong?

I have wondered about the actual time of day they drove to Montezuma and made that report. Someone has to sign a missing person report right? Could the date have been placed on the report by one of the family because that was the last day THEY knew where she was?

Can you tell when they posted this? LE has been mostly clear in the PC's about disappearance date being the 18th but I'm confused about the 18th being the reported date as everything I'd seen said it was the 19th? Is this an error or is this correct? Ideas?

 

[tokyorose]

This town is pretty close to the Interstate, and just south of US Highway 6. There are going to be strangers driving through, taking the interstate exit to get gas/food, or driving through to get to other nearby farm towns, etc.

I can only speak to my experience, but even being just "pretty close" to the interstate changes the dynamic. The gas stations and fast food places that are on the interstate ( meaning right off the exit ramp) are the places locals are used to see people just passing through. Five miles off the interstate is usually further than most people travel to eat and gas up. Having been on many family road trips we occasionally will find ourselves in a local restaurant further from the interstate and in nearly every instance we are asked where we are from, what brings us to town and where we are headed. JMOO.

 

[Kapua]

Refresh my memory here, is there actually any surveillance video of Mollie on her jog?

An article stated that LE was reviewing surveillance video, (I will look for a link) but there has been no indication that Mollie was seen on any surveillance video. We know that she jogged through town. I think there's a fair likelihood that video exists but we do not know that for a fact.

Here is one link that mentions surveillance video: Investigators turn to social media accounts and GPS data in Mollie Tibbetts' disappearance

 

[Deleted member 155000]

This is a 2003 study, but I've read this general pattern still holds true. If so, it suggests in 76% of known cases, people are kidnapped by someone they know (family or acquaintance) and in 24%, it's random/stranger.

This (in addition to no signs of struggle, as of yet) leads me to lean toward known acquaintance.

"Based on the identity of the perpetrator, there are three distinct types of kidnapping: kidnapping by a relative of the victim or "family kidnapping" (49 percent); kidnapping by an acquaintance of the victim or "acquaintance kidnapping" (27 percent); and kidnapping by a stranger to the victim or "stranger kidnapping" (24 percent)."

Thursday Edition: Kidnapping Facts

 

[ptandj]

Knowing that Mollie typically picked up the car in the evening before dusk, it places her outside and alone on the streets twice: once for her 45 minute run, and once to collect the car.

Given that the dogs were in the basement, it's seems more likely that she was abducted when she was picking up the car. That means no crime scene except perhaps something on the side of the street between the house-sit and her mom's house. Has anyone local seen searches along the route that she would typically take when going to her mom's house?

We haven't heard much specific about search locations from the original searches with a ton of people in the early days and some later rumors and of course the pig farm/ Highway 21 searches. However, I imagine there was a lot of searching in those first few hours and days along that route, but it would be hard to know what you could find given the bad weather. Probably not a lot, unfortunately, with all the wind and rain.

I don't think this falls into rumor, just speculation, but in one of the early threads someone Google Mapped the route from her house to her mom's and we noticed that the route showed traffic right in front of the high school. I'll see if I can go back and find that. We speculated it might have been searches but I can't remember if any locals weighed in on that.

 

[pamelado2]

With everything we know, I think this was her route for the jog.
Starting at the house,
East on W Des Moines
Take West St to
East on W Pershing
East on E Pershing
South on Mills
West on 2nd
North on Jackson

 

[Meem]

I can’t remember where the crime happened, but within the past year, a woman was found in a shipping/storage container and had been kept there on some land by a man who killed her boyfriend. That my sound vague, sorry. I just can’t remember specifics, but they found her alive in the container. I just was traveling yesterday and saw a place along the highway that was selling these big containers and advertising them as underground bunkers. Anyway I’m praying that Mollie is alive. Maybe she’s being kept by someone out in a field somewhere??? I live in the country and I know of some pretty remote places where my family hunts that very few people probably ever see or know about.

 

[Deleted member 155000]

I agree. But I wonder if this particular group of locals is used to seeing people pass through due to interstate and the private lake outside town (weekend/summer resident/maybe even renters). I've seen small towns where people just put their heads down and stick to themselves and other where its old home week when you go into the cafe or grocery store. What kind of town is Brooklyn? I'm not sure I've read enough yet to truly understand the locals. IMO LE has their hands full answering this question!

Right, pass-through traffic would be expected. And also, location of where she disappeared is important. In the center of the town, where houses are close together, people would notice outsiders more quickly. But, in the small rural town where I grew up, if you are on the outskirts of town...you might get away with throwing a huge party for minors and serving alcohol without anyone even knowing. Bc you're out among the corn fields, where cars frequent much less, and where outsiders could conceivably arrive and leave without being noticed.

 

[Vedder]

I wanted to respond to @Safeguard’s post in the last thread regarding Mollie’s SM accounts being public.
There could very well be someone on the periphery of Mollie’s life stalking her, an acquaintance of sorts.

It’s so important to safeguard your info online. If you use Snapchat, make sure you’re on “ghost mode”. I’ll give you an example: I have a “friend” on insta and snap who I don’t know in person. We chat often and he said a couple things that set off my BS meter. His snap location is not hidden. From that little bitmoji standing on a map, I found his home address, phone number and email, his last name, his Facebook (of which he said he didn’t have), down to his family’s FB accounts and his wedding pictures. Prior to his triggering my BS meter, I didn’t even know his last name.

Now imagine I had nefarious intentions rather than being just a nosy sleuther?

 

[ptandj]

This is a 2003 study, but I've read this general pattern still holds true. If so, it suggests in 76% of known cases, people are kidnapped by someone they know (family or acquaintance) and in 24%, it's random/stranger.

This (in addition to no signs of struggle, as of yet) leads me to lean toward known acquaintance.

"Based on the identity of the perpetrator, there are three distinct types of kidnapping: kidnapping by a relative of the victim or "family kidnapping" (49 percent); kidnapping by an acquaintance of the victim or "acquaintance kidnapping" (27 percent); and kidnapping by a stranger to the victim or "stranger kidnapping" (24 percent)."

Thursday Edition: Kidnapping Facts

To the extent that "family kidnapping" probably includes non-custodial parents and family members and younger children, I would love to see the data broken down for adult women as well. Maybe it's there, I find that site hard to read for whatever reason (font, way it's worded) so I just skimmed.