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

[ChuckMaureen]

Wondering if MT had ever stayed at a UI dorm?

 

[Veracity]

How are missing persons cases handled in Iowa?

Website used for Mollie Tibbetts search may be model for future missing person cases - Radio Iowa

From this afternoon

Very happy to see Google has FindingMollie as the top search result now.

I wish the news article had offered the actual timeline for LE and when exactly each was asked to join the case and who was the officer in the Sheriff's dept responsible for the Mollie Tibbetts' missing person report assessment .

 

[jman07]

Just a thought but , heaven forbid, the worst has happened to Mollie and say she was attacked by a random person. It is possible that the person didn’t take her or drive her off and that he’s just hidden her somewhere out of sight but near to where it happened, in some undergrowth maybe. I think they should still have search teams out looking for her and was a little confused as to why they would call the search off. JMO

Is that possible? Sure, but not likely IMO. Why call off the search? They either know she isn't in a cornfield or the perp was among them.

 

[sripey]

Thank you for your patience.

But because we don't have an exact time that she could have been abducted, could the activity that is recorded be from her on her run?

Yes. We don't have an exact time but LE does. They have it from her fitbit data as well as from her phone.

 

[Truthisfreedom]

I can't speak for anyone else and this is just my theory. First of all, NO, LE has not stated when the last info came in from her phone. We do know that her brother dropped her off at DJ's house at ~5:30 PM. (Were they followed)? We also know that LE has requested information for the 5PM-10PM time frame. We're solid on that.
Now here's why I theorize that the perp may not have disabled the phone right away.
1) Mollie wore the phone in an armband. We don't know on which arm. A perp would have to wrestle it away.
2) Assuming (there's that word again) that the perp was working alone and also had to either persuade or manhandle her into a vehicle, he might have been far more focused on capturing her and getting out of Dodge, or in this case, Brooklyn.
3) I believe that Mollie's mom stated that Mollie did not like to run after dark - so I assume that she'd planned to be either at mom's for dinner or over at DJ's for dog/house sitting no later than ~8:45.
4) Amateur perps in other cases I have followed have overlooked the phone and it has tripped them up.
MOO

No amateur here, we can deduce that from the lack of any solid digital trace. Not a local. This perp/ group of perps is experienced at abductions, and may have been grooming Mollie for a while before the actual abduction.

 

[TheTruthWillOut]

Ok, with a risk of sounding stupid

I am directionally challenged and know little to nothing about phones but...
About the phone being disabled.. how does one decide that the phone wasn't diabled fast enough ( post 1036) when we are not certain of an exact time that Mollie could have been taken?

The timeline given is between five and ten
Has LE stated when the last info came in from her phone?

As I understand it (could be wrong) is LE should have last call/text times incoming/outgoing but also I believe they would know if the phone was turned off or if the battery just ran out as the signals sent to the cell towers give a different response plus have the times of these events. Never mind the area of WiFi/internet were a lot more info could be gathered I'm sure.

I'm sure there are more knowledgeable folk on this subject here, though.

 

[peregrine]

Wondering if MT had ever stayed at a UI dorm?

I believe she lived in a U of Iowa dorm last year.

 

[Dushi]

Yes. We don't have an exact time but LE does. They have it from her fitbit data as well as from her phone.

Ok, but how does LE know that the activity recorded happened before or after she was taken? i understand they would have the locations

I know I am a pest

 

[chihuahua]

Okay one final thought for now. In the Delphi murders of Libby and Abigail, just how long do ya'll think it took the FBI (LE in general) to retrieve that info from Libby's phone?
And he is still on the loose.
Have patience.
They will be caught.
Eventually.
Just saying,
Chi

 

[Medical_man]

Please educate me what these "countless texting and other communication apps that leave no evidence of contact" are. I am intrigued.

You can text from a different number on your phone. I have an anonymous cell phone and on the phone I have an app set up through Hushmail that generates a different number for all my texts and calls, even voicemail. If you connect to random Wi-Fi, say at McDonald's then it would be nearly impossible to trace.

 

[sripey]

No amateur here, we can deduce that from the lack of any solid digital trace. Not a local. This perp/ group of perps is experienced at abductions, and may have been grooming Mollie for a while before the actual abduction.

I don't think you can deduce that at all. Who said there is not any solid digital trace?

 

[Mellowmelly]

Is that possible? Sure, but not likely IMO. Why call off the search? They either know she isn't in a cornfield or the perp was among them.

I am just guessing really as there’s so little evidence to go on but a lot of random killings that I’ve read about, the victim is usually found near to where the crime took place. It’s all just speculation on my part though as there’s no evidence Mollie is deceased.

 

[ElementalLaura]

Just a thought; do we know if Mollie has ever had a running buddy or has she always run alone?

Good question. I went to two years of high school in a small town. We had a loop track for track and field, but we didn't always have first dibs on the track, so we'd run routes around town. I'd speculate that Mollie still has friends from high school who may run with her sometimes, but schedules are tough to match up on weekdays.

Also, even in a small town (where I grew up was about 1,800 residents, but it was the country seat and probably a bit more built up), running downtown on pavement means following pedestrian rules, running over curbs, and encountering half the town who wants to chat even though you're clearly running practice with the team. We used to run out on gravel roads through the Indiana corn fields for just that reason. Her route may have been a modified former HS running route.

 

[Medical_man]

You can text from a different number on your phone. I have an anonymous cell phone and on the phone I have an app set up through Hushmail that generates a different number for all my texts and calls, even voicemail. If you connect to random Wi-Fi, say at McDonald's then it would be nearly impossible to trace.

I should clarify that I do this because I work with many violent military mental health patients and they have my cell number for severe emergencies...

 

[thekarmabus]

Asking a question for those members that have been on WS for years/many cases. Have you ever known a case that involved agencies to not put forth the basic details? What she was wearing, timeline etc.. and confused me they placed a map asking for people to think if they were in those areas at those times but didn’t ask for what they
Could have noticed. Was very vague. I’m not as experienced as many however some items seem so unusual to me.

 

[MsBetsy]

I have the same theory as you, with the exception that she was abducted on 2nd st just east of the car wash. I think Mollie was jogging east and the perp was driving west. I don't think he would have driven back into/through town if he abducted her around her boyfriends house. Was she stalked and the perp had been watching near her boyfriends house for her to start her run, then traveled down 2nd st and waited? I think LE considers that a possibility and thus listed it as a location of interest on the website.

After the abduction near the car wash, the perp went east on 2nd, north on Mills st, east on E Green st, north on boundary st until turning right onto 385th. This is not only the most direct route to 385th/200th, but it is also along the outskirts of town, minimizing potential witnesses.

I think the two highlighted locations on or right off of 200th St are places where the car stopped for some amount of time, possibly to re-secure/subdue Mollie. The hog farm was the last place the fitbit GPS tracked to...this is probably where the phone was disabled

I think law enforcement thinks the perp may have stopped at the truck stop on I-80 prior to exiting on to V18 north toward Brooklyn. This is why they are looking for info from there as early as 5pm.

Your scenario is exactly what I have been imagining recently, with alot better details and descriptions. Except for the exact get away route. Is one of those roads you describe after the abduction possibility a dirt road at all? Any of those roads?

 

[Dushi]

I should clarify that I do this because I work with many violent military mental health patients and they have my cell number for severe emergencies...

Was wondering....

 

[Veracity]

An example of an untraceable app for communicating. From 2014:

"Unlike Snapchat, the Wickr app—which was built by a team of security experts—encrypts each message with a unique key that can only be used once, and only the sender and Wickr users have those keys. The company also disguises users' personal information, so that it doesn't know the identity of its users or how they are using the app. "
...
"Even metadata, which is data that include how or when a message was collected, is completely erased with Wickr's shredding feature. In other words, Wickr forensically scrubs or "shreds" the details about a message from your device so that there is no evidence the message ever existed."

Snapchat rival hopes to pounce on security breach

JMO.

Thank you for the link. This is both interesting and terrifying for someone like me who is a crime victim. I wonder if Mr. Wallenstrom would alter the build in any way if someone in his family was a crime victim?

 

[sripey]

Ok, but how does LE know that the activity recorded happened before or after she was taken? i understand they would have the locations

I know I am a pest

No, you're not a pest at all! LE would be able to see her pace/speed as she jogged. The pace/speed would stop as she got into or was forced into a car. The pace/speed would then match the speed of the car as it drives off.

 

[Kapua]

You make an excellent point about cars being stopped and drivers being questioned on what vehicles they saw. In the early nineties, I was stopped and questioned on an exit ramp as to whether I had noticed any vehicles the day before. There was a dirt road off the exit where 2 bodies were found in an abandoned house. The public was not given this information. There was a suspect that had murdered seven women in the area. Meanwhile, the family of the last and youngest victim heard from a friend that a certain man was making suspicious comments in a certain bar. They spent a week in that bar talking to everyone, never letting on they were looking for someone. One man that they struck a conversation with started talking about the case. They engaged him in conversation and asked his name. He told them. They reported him to authorities and it turned out to be the killer. His name was Nathaniel White. He murdered several women, the youngest was 14. Maybe it will be an unexpected thing like this that leads police to the killer. You just never know.

Oooooh. Great strategy. Maybe LE should spend some time at the truck stop and at the Front Street Tap in plain clothes.