Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #15

[Wndrlst]

@allboys Impossible for two reasons, IMO:

(1) The sheriff was quoted as being confident that all such buildings and properties in the immediate area were thoroughly searched

(2) It didn't rain Wednesday evening, it rained Thursday

Just to clear up the rain confusion-- I am in Iowa and know several people in the Brooklyn area and ALL of the locals say it DID rain Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Started out as a drizzle around 1030 or so and then by morning they had received about 4 inches.

 

[CaraJay]

There are plenty of other possibilities of how Mollie was abducted if she was, besides her being on her cell phone not paying attention to her surroundings. She could have been hit by a vehicle, grabbed from behind and overpowered by a taser, or knife at her back or big strong hand over her mouth or chloroform, or jabbed with a hypodermic needle with fast-acting sedative.... SO many possibilities with no evidence publicly available.

Suggesting people (including Mollie, as this thread is for Mollie being missing) are apathetic & self-centered if they wear earbuds while running seems like it's headed in the direction of victim blaming. JMO

 

[SuziQ]

Still catching up this morning. FWIW, I don't think the SUV was circling for an hour an half. Just during that time frame. Maybe the witness could not remember exactly when?

 

[mountainguy777]

All the pressers do is irritate everyone a little more. I’m not anxious for it.

 

[ChuckMaureen]

Does anybody know what kind of location data LE could get from a cell phone ping? The reason I ask is that there is not a lot of overlapping coverage in this area. I know where the US Cellular tower is located that would provide coverage to WC’s property and that is the only tower a cell phone at that location could connect to. Is it correct to assume then that a cell phone at that location would only ping that tower? And would that provide distance from the tower? Maybe just distance and not direction with no other towers to triangulate from?

Pinging for "GPS", "Signal Triangulation" and "OTDOA" (Observed Time Difference Of Arrival) are methods for determining cell phone location.

Much about all you've ever wanted to know about location determination can be found at this link:

What is OTDOA | How OTDOA works,OTDOA applications,benefits

It is very technical, so be prepared if you're not of the tech-geek variety!

 

[PaulR]

Dear Otto,

The line in your post about the perp being knowledgeable about tech makes sense to me. It is intriguing and has be thinking about it.

If the perp has good knowledge of the latest tech, then he would know about Fitbits. It is common knowledge that many joggers wear Fitbits to track their runs.

Somehow the perp may have been able to disable Mollie's Fitbit - likely before they got too far down the road. How, though?

Telling her to give the Fitbit to him and he smashed it? Threw it out the window?

Could this be why the authorities are focusing on certain areas - because the data from the Fitbit company shows no movement after this?

Could this action have resulted in Fitbit data (which the authorities received from the Fitbit company) show this area to be the last area Mollie was in?


Otto said (Post #980, Thread #14) :

"So, assuming that she was abducted during her run, probably close to her mom's house, the person that abducted her apparently took her South on Highway 21 towards Guernsey. "

The last "ping" from her Fitbit may have been at a time when her Fitbit and Cellphone were separated, or perhaps when her sim card was separated from her phone."

"What if this predator has made a point of becoming a tech specialist who can use tech as an advantage. What if this predator knows to ditch the SIM card near the home of a stalker, thereby buying loads of time between abduction and body discovery."

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Ditching the SIM card with the intent that it be found - SIM cards are tiny and easily overlooked. The type of card in MT's phone would be much smaller than a postage stamp.

There are many Fitbit like devices, including those made by Garmin and others which are highly rated. Zero guarantee MT would own a Fitbit specifically unless you got a good look. Even then they kind of look alike, there is a Garmin model that looks a lot like the one in the photos of MT's wrist. But any device can be destroyed or simply turned off. They also could have disabled the cell phone which would have effectively disabled the Fitbit's ability to communicate with the servers.

I don't think dumping the cell phone in some way assuming she was abducted shows a level of technical ability, if you've heard about "cell phone pings" and guess that the cell phone somehow needs to be off or disabled, that is all you need to know. A techie may know other ways to disable it, but there's zero evidence that one of those methods was used.

 

[margarita25]

checking in. lock up you daughters. MOO

(AC/DC TNT: “Lock up daughters, lock up your wives!)

 

[Wndrlst]

so it was a hit and run situation, geez poor girl. RIP Sadie

The very sad thing is Sadie and the person arrested BOTH have their profile pics as picture of them together. So they were well aquainted. Breaks my heart.

 

[SharonNeedles]

To where? Disappearing without a trace would take an insane amount of planning. She needs money, food, and a place to stay. And she'd have needed to set it up without using any social media, phone, or email because all of those have been checked at this point. It takes a heck of a lot more than flashing a smile at someone with a car so they drive you somewhere.

This is not a mob boss or a hedge fund manager with a private plane we are talking about. This is a 20 year old girl from a small town in Iowa who has never been out of the country. She may be a very smart girl, but disappearing without a trace takes an understanding of banking records, technology, the underworld, and law enforcement that she could not possibly be capable of.

From personal experience - no. My father did just that many years ago. I’ll never forget the FBI giving me a two hour interview (and yes, they interview family that they do not consider suspect too). And while we were searching Iowa he gave up and called home from California. Point being, it’s totally easy to just leave without a trace. It’s not so easy to stay disappeared for long - and personally I think Mollie and a person unknown are having that very discussion hundreds of miles away right now.

 

[margarita25]

Can somebody please clarify for me exactly what time the vandalism incident occurred and how far from Mollie’s known data points? Tia. Also what is the source of this info, tia.

 

[oviedo]

Sorry if already answered...still anonymous!

Online Web Tip
Tipsters now have the option of giving us tips online. The process is completely secure and anonymous. Click here for the Online Web Tip Form.

FAQ
This local CS non-profit publishes how they keep the tipster anonymous online - and since each crimestoppers program is individual - I would think Iowa's has a similar set up. I just can't figure out the 200 tips received (over a 3 week period perhaps?) and CS now saying so many are coming in we can't answer all of them and we are taking the tips online now. I would think there would be plenty of volunteers to answer the phone in this case. If they do have so many coming in now, why isn't the number more than 200? Maybe LE just isn't sharing how many tips for good reason.

 

[Mr. Obvious]

I was indirectly responding to your post as well, with my comment about people always having their heads in their phones, and would not notice a strange vehicle, and I also was not inferring that Mollie was. In all the years I have been here, my posts will speak for themselves. I do not victim-blame.

I agree with you SteveP - and people certainly have the choice to determine their actions in our free society - and hopefully those actions aren't illegal and/or lead to infringing on anyone else's rights or safety.

 

[poohgranma]

I am far behind. Has the body that was found that was not MT been identified?
This has probably already been posted but it was brought to my attention that these two are also missing.
+Mickeala Brady 2-16-18 Des Moines IA Age 17 6-28-18 +Taylor Foley 6-28-18 Davenport IA Age 17
Sorry if this isn't complete or up-to-date or has already been posted.

Lee County Body Identified, Suspect Arrested for Allegedly Leaving Scene of Deadly Accident

 

[margarita25]

IOWA - Crime Stoppers of central Iowa can no longer keep up with the number of growing phone calls on tips of Mollie Tibbetts whereabouts. They've asked people submit their tips online at:

Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa

Website for information on Mollie Tibbetts whereabouts

(so no longer anonymous?)

I do believe CS is anonymous.

 

[another-amateur]

Dear Otto,

The line in your post about the perp being knowledgeable about tech makes sense to me. It is intriguing and has be thinking about it.

If the perp has good knowledge of the latest tech, then he would know about Fitbits. It is common knowledge that many joggers wear Fitbits to track their runs.

Somehow the perp may have been able to disable Mollie's Fitbit - likely before they got too far down the road. How, though?

Telling her to give the Fitbit to him and he smashed it? Threw it out the window?

Could this be why the authorities are focusing on certain areas - because the data from the Fitbit company shows no movement after this?

Could this action have resulted in Fitbit data (which the authorities received from the Fitbit company) show this area to be the last area Mollie was in?

Otto said:

"So, assuming that she was abducted during her run, probably close to her mom's house, the person that abducted her apparently took her South on Highway 21 towards Guernsey. "

The last "ping" from her Fitbit may have been at a time when her Fitbit and Cellphone were separated, or perhaps when her sim card was separated from her phone."

"What if this predator has made a point of becoming a tech specialist who can use tech as an advantage. What if this predator knows to ditch the SIM card near the home of a stalker, thereby buying loads of time between abduction and body discovery."

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The fitbit device by itself doesn't track the run. If you link your fitbit to your iPhone and use the fitbit app on the phone, then the fitbit app will use the GPS chip in your phone to track your run.

After the data is synced, this gives you the ability to see a pretty map to show where you ran, what speed you ran and also your heart rate.

The data is synced to fitbit's servers using either the phone wifi or cell phone connections. Until the data is synced it's not on fitbit's servers and therefore not available to LE.

So, it's not a live tracking device, you only have location, heart rate data up to the point of the last sync.

I haven't yet established how often the data is synced when using a cellphone, I read one post on fitbit's forum's that suggests every 15-30 minutes, but I'm not convinced yet. I hope to do some testing tomorrow.

This also assumes you have all-day sync switched on, if not, then syncing is a manual task, it will do a sync when your start the app on your iPhone - which may be before you go for a run. But again, LE will only have data up to the point of the last successful sync.

 

[margarita25]

IA - Selena Hernandez, 20, Council Bluffs, 30 July 2018.

IA - IA - Michaela Cook, 26, Dubuque, 8 July 2018

-thanks again Pixie Dust

 

[Veracity]

I think it is a bold assumption to think that anyone is actually looking past Mollie. If I was LE posted to this case, I would find that assumption very offensive.

What about the cart return areas?

She parked so her driver's door was next to a cart return. He used the bars on that return to help overpower her.

 

[Gussified]

So a question for those who are in the camp that a PC that answers no questions is fine (I’m not sure how I feel at this point so I don’t consider it bad. I just don’t know if I consider it good/useful.).

What about the case could be compromised about confirming they suspect foul play? That’s the one thing that keeps me from being 100% in the camp that LE is doing this to protect the investigation. They won’t even say that. To me ‘this is out of character’ is not the same thing. Sure the volume of resources pretty much answers the question but then why the heck not just answer the question? What am I missing about the ramifications of answering at least that question.

Pure speculation, with some confirmation bias sprinkled in...

Maybe her electronic data shows her communicating with an individual, back & forth, right up to the moment that she vanished, then all communication stopped. Theyve identified the individual and brought him/her in for questioning. They’re hoping Mollie is still alive, so they tell this person that they think Mollie left voluntarily, to give this person a false sense of security. “Did you pick her up that night? Were you with her at all? Did you see her? Maybe you picked her up and took her somewhere?” So they’re trying to break this person down, to eventually admit that, okay, maybe I did see her that night, but I dropped her off at DJ’s House and I don’t know what happened after that. Breaking down, little by little.

If they come out publicly and say they believe there was foul play, it could jeopardize their ability to get anything out of their POI.

Again, the above is pure speculation on my part.

 

[poohgranma]

Not yet. And Emily Tipsword was found in July.

Good morning Chi!

Lee County Body Identified, Suspect Arrested for Allegedly Leaving Scene of Deadly Accident

 

[who knew?]

Pinging for "GPS", "Signal Triangulation" and "OTDOA" (Observed Time Difference Of Arrival) are methods for determining cell phone location.

Much about all you've ever wanted to know about location determination can be found at this link:

What is OTDOA | How OTDOA works,OTDOA applications,benefits

It is very technical, so be prepared if you're not of the tech-geek variety!

I am definitely NOT the techy-geeky type, so I didn't read your link. But on pinging (and I know this may be a stupid comment since I don't really understand it), my iphone reads my location as 30 miles away from here. I have to think if I ever went missing, my phone would be of no help in locating me. Like I said - I really don't "get" tech stuff.