Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #27

[Jazz]

Fibit found Cedar Rapids post
Fitbit found on nw side

 

[bizzle2]

If I didn't show up to work I don't think my employer would call my emergency contact, at least not in the first 24 hours.

Exactly. The purpose of emergency contacts is not to track people down if they don't show up for work. Someone not showing up for work is not an emergency. They are really more there in case there is an emergency with the person while they are AT work.

 

[Mr. Obvious]

NHWF---Need help with facts

It has been
mentioned that Mollie was supposed to have dinner with mom and never showed
Now I hear she also was supposed to pick-up car.

Mother did not call when she missed dinner , ok, did she also not call after she did not get there for the car?...….and if so why did Mom not check in with Mollie that night to find out why she never showed.

Just saying--I know I would be on the phone the minute dinner was ready and my child didn't show with no call from them.
Don't get me started on still not calling Mollie after the car was not picked up.

Isn't that a strange thing or was their a reason she had no concern.

Have you ever heard of the phrase - "let sleeping dogs lie"?

 

[NineMilly]

Delete

 

[mommylicious]

Fibit found Cedar Rapids post
Fitbit found on nw side

Hopefully with all of the attention Mollie's case has gotten, they would turn it in to LE if they there was any chance it's hers.... But no guarantees. Worth submitting I would think?

 

[WideOpen]

JMO
Thanks for responding to my post 456. All of your thoughts resonate with me. Unbelievably. The amount of time that passed before Mollie missing became evident to everyone is alarming in regards to a positive outcome. So many questions.
Also, it does appear that LE had fitbit data;
JULY 26
The disappearance of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts: A timeline
Meanwhile, Iowa authorities were analyzing surveillance video from businesses in Brooklyn that are along the route Tibbetts usually jogs. They were also examining data from her FitBit, a GPS-enabled activity tracker, according to Poweshiek County Sheriff Thomas Kriegel.

"We do believe that there's going to be some useful information [from the Fitbit data] but [we are] not willing to share that," Kriegel told ABC News in an interview July 26.

Fitbit Inc., which makes the activity trackers, declined to comment at the time.

JMO

"My son, Scott, he gave me a call about 5:15 p.m. saying, 'Mom, did you know Mollie didn't go to work?' At which point I said, 'I will be right home," Calderwood said.



After 26 threads of mostly productive discussion my sense is we have a few viable theories but I think its safe to say we honestly have many more questions than answers at this point nearly 1 month after the disappearance. However due to absence of substantive new information from LE to confirm any theories its impossible at this point to assess the likihood of any of these theories IMO. In the last 3 threads it seems like we are increasingly spinning our wheels around the same information we have now had for weeks. We have all been working so hard to put together a timeline of events around the disappearance of MT but we still can't figure out what her jogging route was and whether she ever made it back to BF house. Eyewitness reports have been less than useful in our efforts to put it mildly.

I decided to go back to the beginning to figure out the early hours and days of the local LE effort to find MT and in many respects its more than a bit confusing to say nothing of being quite upsetting. It is quite disheartening to learn of the lag time in this case being reported to local LE and the slow response from local LE being what it was and the fact that DCI seemed to be brought in not be local LE but friend of the family. I am not saying any of this with a sense of blame but rather just putting the timeline out there to make it clear that if MT was taken from Brooklyn via car or truck when LE now says that she disappeared that the perp would have had at least a 12 hr jump on LE. I am still baffled about the extent of FBI involvement in this case but I am not at all certain that even the FBI resources can overcome the sizable time and information gaps that sadly seem to be present in this case from its inception.

In trying to understand why we haven't advanced much from where we started I went back to when and how the family figured out MT was missing and what the early local LE response was to locate MT. I keep reading and re-reading about how the family and eventually LE figured out MT was missing and have to admit I'm a bit baffled. Early hours in any case are crucial and the more I tried to figure out what had happened in the early hours of this case the more confused I became. What is so disheartening about the first few days of the case is that it is during this period when the digital devices might still have been active and of great use to investigators and CCTV/Video would have been most available and accessible. As time went on in the early search it became clear that friends of MT were very concerned and that searches were initiated before local LE even seemed to have a plan to search. Locals wanted to help and turned up to do so in large numbers which was so encouraging. There was also a report of members of the family trying to access fitbit data to find MT and were told by local LE to stop. Local LE did initiate some searches using local citizens but these were called off and people were sent home. Why?

We talked endlessly about this early period of the disappearance in earlier threads but I still don't understand how a non-family member appeared to be the typical work 'emergency contact' to get the call that MT didn't show up for work at 8 am and that this message somehow filtered through the various people in the family to eventually get to Mom at 5:15 pm? Given the small staff of the camp and the fact that they were going on an outing where staff/camper ratios were important, I would have thought that they would have kept calling and calling to figure out where MT was that day especially as she didn't call in sick? Knowing what we know now MT might have already been missing for 12 hrs before the 8 am work start time was missed. Even with the manpower and resources of the FBI how is it possible to overcome a sizable information gap during such a crucial stage of the case?

I don't understand why MT Mom wasn't the designated emergency contact to get the call and why the employer didn't contact her directly much earlier in the day? At any camp I worked at while MT's age attendance of staff and campers was a very big deal and phone calls would be made immediately to figure out why people were not present and accounted for as security of camers and staff was important. The idea that almost an entire working day goes by before a person such as the Mom with the legal authority and ability to file a missing persons report on behalf of her daughter is something that doesn't make sense to me at all. By all accounts the camp called the BF to ask about MT. Did BF call Mom if he for some reason was contacted by camp? The BF had the disadvantage of being out of area due to work so maybe work left him a voicemail and he wasn't able to access it until mid-day or later? Other brother was supposedly at the movies with a cousin later in the afternoon when they received multiple texts/contacts via SM that MT wasn't at work. Did they call Mom at any point? Why did she just find out at 5:15-5:30 pm? Where did the family think that MT could possibly be if she wasn't at work? In everything I've read I didn't get the sense of much urgency on the issue of MT location until over 8 hrs after she was reported to not have shown up at work. Why? Local LE by all accounts didn't start thinking about what to do until the following day after local citizens had already begun to search. Why?

I am posting this because I believe that even with the vast resources of the FBI that very sadly too much time was lost at the front end of the investigation to ever find out what happened or to gather the necessary evidence and eyewitness accounts needed to locate MT or make a conviction. The nearly 2" of rain in the area also probably ruined the possibility of obtaining much forensic evidence outside if this was where she went missing. Early on I was very optimistic that the digital footprint would be large enough to locate MT. It seems this was not at all the case. I am also not completely convinced that people in Brooklyn will remember much 3 weeks after the fact and will come forward with solid recollections for the FBI to work with (Question the red dots on the map process and asking people to remember what they saw 3 weeks after the fact?). I have great respect for the LE professionals that have been working this case and I hope that they are able to find MT with the information that is available. But when I look at the timing of their involvement and what information seemed to be available to the DCI and FBI when they entered the case on their back feet I am sadly not at all optimistic we will see a break in this case anytime soon. I wish I shared the optimism of MT Dad and I do hope he has some information that we don't have because based on what we have I cannot share his optimism and this makes me extremely sad.

 

[Christineisfab]

I feel like this is all too coincidental. She didn't have a car. She apparently had to jog (or walk, or whatever) to get one. She was staying alone. Her family wasn't expecting her. The homeowners weren't around to expect her. No one would realize she was missing until she didn't go to work.

IMO, this is someone that knew her. There is almost 24 hours before anyone really knew she was missing. That's a HUGE head start. I don't think this is a person getting lucky. It's someone who knew what they were doing.

 

[cluciano63]

No one ever said if she planned to pick up the car that night as far as I know. It sounds like lots of things were up in the air, and that no one was especially concerned not to hear from Molly presumably after her mom around 7:30pm. I think this is odd only because she seemingly did not text call or message any friends, BF, brother or anyone all evening, or in the morning, yet no one was alarmed. I struggle to see this as normal for any 20-yr old.

 

[mommylicious]

I feel like this is all too coincidental. She didn't have a car. She apparently had to jog (or walk, or whatever) to get one. She was staying alone. Her family wasn't expecting her. The homeowners weren't around to expect her. No one would realize she was missing until she didn't go to work.

IMO, this is someone that knew her. There is almost 24 hours before anyone really knew she was missing. That's a HUGE head start. I don't think this is a person getting lucky. It's someone who knew what they were doing.

I go back and forth. Sometimes I think it the same - that someone had to have known she was alone.... Other times I go back to crime of opportunity - someone saw her out jogging, in the middle of nowhere/farm country and took advantage and just lucked out that no one was at home waiting for her. Goodness knows we've seen enough of both on this site.

 

[cody22]

Is this web site running slow and erratic for anyone else this morning ?.... Thank you.

 

[duster1979]

NHWF---Need help with facts

It has been
mentioned that Mollie was supposed to have dinner with mom and never showed
Now I hear she also was supposed to pick-up car.

Mother did not call when she missed dinner , ok, did she also not call after she did not get there for the car?...….and if so why did Mom not check in with Mollie that night to find out why she never showed.

Just saying--I know I would be on the phone the minute dinner was ready and my child didn't show with no call from them.
Don't get me started on still not calling Mollie after the car was not picked up.

Isn't that a strange thing or was their a reason she had no concern.

That subject has been bandied about quite a bit here. Apparently she had a standing invitation for supper and mom would usually let her know what she was having, but it wasn't unusual for her not to show.

It seems like the situation with the car varied from day to day, so it's hard telling what might have been expected. At any rate it doesn't seem like they were concerned.

 

[gliving]

Here's a thought. Maybe the perp vehicle is spotted coming in to town on the cam at the truck stop then a few hours later the same vehicle is spotted coming in to town again and also at the car wash.

The surveillance cameras at the truck stop and car wash could be used to prove or disprove someone's alibi. Say someone said they weren't in Brooklyn, but they are seen on camera.

 

[mommylicious]

No one ever said if she planned to pick up the car that night as far as I know. It sounds like lots of things were up in the air, and that no one was especially concerned not to hear from Molly presumably after her mom around 7:30pm. I think this is odd only because she seemingly did not text call or message any friends, BF, brother or anyone all evening, or in the morning, yet no one was alarmed. I struggle to see this as normal for any 20-yr old.

Yes and no. I think this is one of those hindsight things. It sounds like it wasn't unusual for her to not show for casual dinner plans like that and while we know now that she wasn't texting anyone, they didn't at the time. Unless she was normally in constant contact, a friend may not have thought anything of the fact that she hadn't texted that night. BF may have figured she was already asleep in preparation for the field trip, etc. I text with my sister nearly every day... but don't worry if a day passes without hearing from her.

 

[Ozoner]

NHWF---Need help with facts

It has been
mentioned that Mollie was supposed to have dinner with mom and never showed
Now I hear she also was supposed to pick-up car.

Mother did not call when she missed dinner , ok, did she also not call after she did not get there for the car?...….and if so why did Mom not check in with Mollie that night to find out why she never showed.

Just saying--I know I would be on the phone the minute dinner was ready and my child didn't show with no call from them.
Don't get me started on still not calling Mollie after the car was not picked up.

Isn't that a strange thing or was their a reason she had no concern.

Most people do not monitor their adult children nearly that closely. That would be enough to make most people change their numbers or at least block incoming calls from their parents' numbers.

 

[Deleted member 227458]

I'm trying to decide if the Dad & BF appearing together in more media interviews vs Dad, BF, sons all at once, has any significance?

NM, this is only speculation obviously, but my guess is that MT's parents are trying to spare their sons the added stress of having to stand up in front of the cameras, the media, etc. This family is under extreme emotional duress as it is, and I suspect the parents are just trying to shield their sons from the media onslaught. I'm sure after MT's disappearance, every protective parental instinct is exponentially heightened right now.

 

[Mellowmelly]

Fibit found Cedar Rapids post
Fitbit found on nw side

I hope this will help to bring Mollie home to her family, even if it’s not the way they would like. Is Cedar Rapids far from Brooklyn ?

 

[Christineisfab]

I go back and forth. Sometimes I think it the same - that someone had to have known she was alone.... Other times I go back to crime of opportunity - someone saw her out jogging, in the middle of nowhere/farm country and took advantage and just lucked out that no one was at home waiting for her. Goodness knows we've seen enough of both on this site.

It's of course possible that they got crazy lucky but I personally can't shake the coincidence.

 

[Dushi]

About the car.

I can't remember all that I have read in all of these threads.

For me, I think it has morphed into she was picking up the car just because we know they shared one and there has been nothing said about how she was getting to work and then the brother's text.

Opinion/thought all becomes fact after awhile.
Hope I haven't confused anyone

JMO

 

[duster1979]

I hope this will help to bring Mollie home to her family, even if it’s not the way they would like. Is Cedar Rapids far from Brooklyn ?

Half hour away, maybe a little more than that. Good sized city, probably thousands of people with Fitbits. Chances of it being hers are about as slim as they could possible be, but you never know.

 

[borndem]

Jmo do we even know that anyone thought it was a big deal that she was going to be alone in the house for a day or two? Maybe it only became a big deal after?

And how many people knew that she would be by herself for a few days? A friend of a friend? Someone she ran into in a grocery store, gas station, post office, church or at Casey's, etc.? A family member's co-worker or friend or neighbor? The friend of a co-worker? A parent of a child at the summer camp? Someone who overheard bf or a housemate speaking of it? Someone who happened to overhear her talking to someone?

If someone with bad intentions knew this, he/she would also know that discovering her missing would not be till the next day? A good head start for someone with evil intentions.
It's a small town.