Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #28

[SkipperKey3]

That's the witness I have the most trouble with. Isn't he the one who came forward 2-3 weeks later?

I thought it was only 2 days later, but just didn't get to MSM until 2 weeks later.

 

[Kapua]

She was either abducted on her jogging route or when she got back to the house. I'll bet she left the house unlocked. Doesn't matter there are NO CLUES and nothing going on. If her father is going back to California, that is really depressing. seems like he has been keeping everybody going.

There are clues. We just don't know what they all are.

 

[Dushi]

I feel sad that Mr. Tibbitts is going home also.
But I certainly understand
This family must be exhausted and devastated.
Maybe today...

 

[Ozoner]

My theory: Mollie leaves home around 7:30 p.m. for her jog with her fitbit, cellphone and wearing her jogging clothes. She heads east on Des Moines Street and makes turn to the south on West Pershing. She continues on to Clay Street where she turns south. At the time she makes it to the car wash at the corner of Clay and 2nd Street the perp has already came into town, passed the truck stop where he is captured on camera and is atop the railroad bridge on Clay Street where he sees Mollie make the turn on to 2nd street, passing the camera at the car wash. He knows the area and can see her jogging down 2nd and knows that 2nd Street ends at a cornfield and also has streets that run parallel. He sees her make the turn on to Mills Street and takes the first parallel street before Mills, which is Williams. He can see her across the park approaching the intersection of Pleasant and Mills. He even has time to wait at the park as she approaches. When she approaches he pulls in front of her and grabs her and heads down Pleasant heading west to Boundary Street. He turns north on Boundary Street and makes the turn to 385 heading east. He knocks her out near the corner of 385 and V21 and that is where the fitbit registers no movement or increased heartbeat. He takes her south on V21 and disposes of her and/or the cellphone around route 85. Perp either leaves area or goes back to Brooklyn a couple hours later and enters town the same way, passing the truck stop and maybe stopping to wash his car of all the dust on the way back in to town or stops at Casey's for a drink. This theory accounts for every red spot on the FBI map. I take the eyewitness testimony with a grain of salt. I posted the possible jogging routes below and of course, my theory has slight variations.

That's plausible if he's a local. If he's not a local, then I doubt whether he would have returned to Brooklyn immediately.

This case reminds me a little of the murder of Stephanie Bryan in California in 1955. She disappeared while walking home from school. There was no trace of her until some of her belongings were found in the home of Burton Abbot, a married accounting student, months later. A reporter found Stephanie's body buried in a shallow grave near Abbot's cabin almost 300 miles away. No one ever would have suspected Abbot. If he had tossed Stephanie's belongings, he would have gotten away with murder. He had no connection to Stephanie: he just saw her and grabbed her. (Abbot died in a California gas chamber a year or two later.)

People keep mentioning the fact that Mollie was home alone, but I'm not convinced that others' being home would have made any difference, assuming she was abducted during her jog. It is doubtful that anyone would have been alarmed until she was at least 20 or 30 minutes late, and by then the perp would have been in the wind with a subdued (possibly even unconscious or dead) Mollie.

 

[MsBetsy]

Carrying over from last post this by Earnjul11
53
New
↑
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.
Click to expand...
I kind of disagree with this. Yes, the point is to call the contact in case of an emergency. But, one night I was really sick and accidentally slept through my alarm the next morning. I am NEVER late to work, and because I am responsible, my co-workers became very worried after I didn't come in on time. They called my mom, and eventually someone got ahold of me to confirm I was okay. I feel like Mollie is very responsible, so being late to work, not showing, and not calling and explaining why would indicate a serious red flag that something is wrong.
------

Don't you think that on a normal day things would have been handled differently? I do. On that day, they were trying to load everyone for a trip and everything that entails with a group of children. It was not a normal day and no one reacted as they normally would have. As they were running around, watching children dart about eventually someone who had DJ's phone number in their own phone -- remember they were not back at the office with access to those records -- called DJ. Probably someone was back at the office, but that person might not have realized Mollie had not shown up for work. Nothing was done as it normally would have been. I wonder if maybe one or two of Mollie's co-workers or superiors might have had her phone number in their own phones, but probably not her emergency contact info. So, while they probably tried her a time or two, they likely didn't have any other number to try.

Yes, this is all so true! I know from experience theses trips can be very hectic, especially prep time and upon arriving at your destinaction. Although a supervisor would bring the emergency contact list, it is in case of an emergency, such as an employee being injured and having to go to the hospital, certainly not to call in the event someone doesn't show up for work. In this case, someone WAS concerned, didn't want to alarm emergency contact person ( may have been her mom) and called her boyfriend to see what was going on. We all wish someone had called sooner or some action was taken sooner but unfortunately this was not to be. I certainly wouldn't place any blame anywhere that they didn't follow procedure.

 

[Jeng1810]

O.K. lets go with that; but it's been suggested that she did homework on a laptop after her run; also there might be other mobile phone data that might contradict your scenario.

O.K. lets go with that; but it's been suggested that she did homework on a laptop after her run; also there might be other mobile phone data that might contradict your scenario.

I think they assumed early on that she returned home and was doing homework. Based on the fact that her phone, Fitbit arm band and running clothes are not accounted for it is highly unlikely she ever returned home after the run. No one keeps all of that on their possession while doing homework.

 

[otto]

That's the witness I have the most trouble with. Isn't he the one who came forward 2-3 weeks later?

That witness came forward long before the information hit MSM.

 

[CheetosDust]

I thought it was only 2 days later, but just didn't get to MSM until 2 weeks later.

That witness came forward long before the information hit MSM.

Ah yes, nonetheless, to me he reads as a bit unreliable.

 

[Blissful12]

MOO


There’s usually a 2-5 minute warm up, and another 2-5 minute cooldown before and after workouts. So, I think that she likely would have been an easier target during those times. I wish we could use her average speed and a verified route and do the math as to where she would be at those times...

 

[FindHG]

I-80 passes over Hwy 21 with exit ramps to get on or off from either direction.

How are doing, SharonNeedles? Take good care of you and yours. So very grateful to you for being a sleuther here with us and sharing all you see and know of the area. You've been of epic help.

I imagine the sense of awareness is pretty intense around the hotspots.

 

[CheetosDust]

That's plausible if he's a local. If he's not a local, then I doubt whether he would have returned to Brooklyn immediately.

This case reminds me a little of the murder of Stephanie Bryan in California in 1955. She disappeared while walking home from school. There was no trace of her until some of her belongings were found in the home of Burton Abbot, a married accounting student, months later. A reporter found Stephanie's body buried in a shallow grave near Abbot's cabin almost 300 miles away. No one ever would have suspected Abbot. If he had tossed Stephanie's belongings, he would have gotten away with murder. He had no connection to Stephanie: he just saw her and grabbed her. (Abbot died in a California gas chamber a year or two later.)

People keep mentioning the fact that Mollie was home alone, but I'm not convinced that others' being home would have made any difference, assuming she was abducted during her jog. It is doubtful that anyone would have been alarmed until she was at least 20 or 30 minutes late, and by then the perp would have been in the wind with a subdued (possibly even unconscious or dead) Mollie.

Right. Lots of variables. If he wasn't local he could have kept on driving, stashed her somewhere, etc.

 

[otto]

Ah yes, nonetheless, to me he reads as a bit unreliable.

My initial reaction was that he was not credible, but after viewing the interview with him, and the fact that he didn't inject himself into the investigation but rather noticed a couple of days later that he hadn't seen the regular jogger, I believe him. I think he did see Mollie jogging along his road, although we don't know 100% whether it was on July 18 based on his description of what she was wearing.

 

[str8nightowl]

From the previous thread:

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


That assumes all the people MT communicated with via phone are people who can be located by LE. What if one or more of those people are unknowns?

If MT had communicated with a someone who was purposely using a throw-away phone and that someone was not a known person LE would not have access to that someone's phone and therefore, no access to content, and LE is unable to review text message content on MT's phone because it is still missing.

Actually I was just thinking about that today ChuckMaureen. If they had a burner phone and were talking to Mollie then maybe LE would not know who it is. I have read online and it said that most burner phones can be traced though. But if the person didn't have an actual phone and had a burner phone after burner phone that MIGHT keep someone from tracking them (or something like that). I STILL think that Mollie was talking to someone (that she thought she trusted) and was going to meet them and they made an advance and things turned ugly. But I would think that LE would eventually be able to trace that number on that burner phone and link it to someone once they got a search warrant. But then if they bought it with money and there is no record of them buying it who knows. I don't know because I don't know much about burner phones. I read somewhere online today where there is this company that you can get phones and never worry about someone tracking or tracing your phone no matter what you do. So I just don't know.

Also I was thinking however Mollie would be suspicious of someone always having a different number if they swapped phones all the time (all burner phones). But then if Mollie didn't know the person that well then she probably wouldn't know what phone they had all the time. They could just tell her they dropped their phone or something and have a new phone with new number.

I was also thinking they could put a block on their number, but STILL LE would find out later with a search warrant (at least I would think because they have the means to do that).

 

[MsBetsy]

This is my theory. No information on that, just what I think and why that area is important on the FBI map.

Ok, realize that, just thought you might be basing it on new fit bit info

 

[Mica]

Following

 

[crumbcleaner]

Correct. If that. The fitbit won't do anything by itself. And if and how often it would upload any data to any server is yet another question - if at all. Depends on how people use them and how they are set up. The whole situation could be as basic as having a few pings to cell phone towers before the phone was off for whatever reason. And those could potentially be very inaccurate in a rural area.
How much data if any is stored with the service provider and/or Apple is another question. And if it exists it may not be officially available unless you're looking at cases of national security.

Not sure I'm understanding "the Fitbit won't do anything by itself" the way you meant it, but the article I shared from Runner's World did have a quote in it that LE doesn't 'always need the device to sync to a computer to be able to pull data'.

 

[CheetosDust]

delete

 

[Jeng1810]

Ah yes, nonetheless, to me he reads as a bit unreliable.

I tend to believe him. He said he came forward when he learned on the news that someone was missing. I have had things happen two streets down that I didn’t know until I read news weeks later. Why? 1.) I’m at work most of the day. 2.) I don’t watch news when I come home as I am busy with my life. 3.) I don’t seek out conversations with my neighbors because I am busy. But if someone at work said “did you hear about that missing girl” I would watch or read the news and realize maybe that is the person I saw. Now if he said he saw her abducted by aliens while jogging I would totally discount his sighting.

 

[Justice101]

Correct. If that.

The phone has to be turned on in order to ping cell phone towers. The way investigators tell sort of where the person is, is when the cell tower signal is stronger for tower 2, then it switches from tower 1.

That way, you can draw straight lines in between the cell towers crossing perpendicular on both sides as to at least find out a line where they passed.

GPS on watch (and on fitbit possibly) will pinpoint exact location within 15 feet.

 

[MsBetsy]

As a teacher I can attest to how crazy field trips are and because field trips are so hectic, you count on every hand you can get...especially if it’s another teacher. Mollie was probably assigned to be watching a group so that alone would have caused me panic if I had to scramble to find another adult to chaperone a group.

In my experience there are always extra staff/volunteers for a trip like this, I can't imagine one person assigned to a small group, it is usually one adult per every 3 or 4 kids, at least.