Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #31

[PaulR]

For me, if someone else was involved, I lean toward acquaintance. An acquaintance, then, would...
...
- be more likely to understand how her FitBit works and connects to a phone

I disagree with this.

For all the talk about how Fitbits interact with their servers by using a cell phone, while it is useful to know what kind of data LE may have, I don't think it has any bearing whatsoever on whether a perp - if there is a perp - even knew what a Fitbit was. Because they would have known what a cell phone was, and it's fairly common knowledge that cell phones have been used in criminal cases. As soon as the cell phone was turned off/destroyed/etc., the Fitbit would no longer be able to communicate with the servers.

In other words, a perp would not need to know anything about a Fitbit. They'd only need to disable the phone.

 

[Madison418]

I'm afraid this might happen a lot more than we would think, especially in a larger population area.. not necessarily Brooklyn. So LE tells the public very little so someone that wants to be suspected... would be asked to give the details.. so that when questioned by LE, they can quickly be ruled in or out based on what they know all along.

Right. And my father (a police officer of over 40 years) indicated that if you give out too much info on an investigation then you cannot distinguish between false confessors (why in the world someone would do that I don't know) and the real perp

 

[Deleted member 155000]

This is my first post - amazing how much information in on here! My main questions/points after reading what I could on all these threads are the pinned tweet and the snapchat text. First of all the tweet is just too much of a crazy coincidence. Has it been verified that was a police offer asking her? If no officer confirms it, I would think it was a stalker messing with her knowing exactly what he was planning and the opportunity came when the boyfriend was gone. Sorry if this has been already answered! Second the FBI asked her mom if she was "in a home" at 945pm and the boyfriend also said the text looked like she was inside. Could that be a cry for help from where she was taken? Does Snapchat have a location tracker for pictures or texts sent? I know if I post a Facebook picture my location is posted. Also the area she ran in is more residential than I expected and it seems hard to think of being snatched in town (unless of course she knew the person - but she was on a run, why would she get in a car even with someone she knew? Bad weather? Was it raining hard during her run? Did she sprain an ankle?). I would think it more likely a random kidnapping would happen on the dirt road by the house, but I guess the fitbit showed she didn't run there?

Welcome!

Most of the questions you asked can be answered with “we (the public) don’t know for sure, but we think and hope LE has looked into this.”

For ex, the tweet. Hoping they have looked into this and determined whether it was a joke or an officer involved incident or just an approach by a “security cop” helping a parent track down a kid. The police haven’t publicly addressed this.

We know LE is looking into Snapchat. We don’t know what they know about when or where the SC message was sent of if they have been able to retrieve the contents.

We don’t think it was raining when she went running, but there may have been storms in the forecast or the sky may have been threatening to rain in the distance given later weather patterns. I haven’t heard an authoritative source on the ground say exactly when it rained and for how long, but that’s our best guess after looking at meteorological data.

 

[Kapua]

I don’t have a complete theory I can get behind, but consider this: I live in a very similar area, on the edge of town in a nearby community. Just last night shortly after sunset I drove home and passed by a young female solo jogger, a very similar situation to what an abduction scenario for Mollie would look like. There’s only one scenario that could have resulted in that jogger ending up in my car with nobody seeing or hearing anything: if she knew me, I could call out to her. That’s it. No other way that girl gets in my car. Whether it happened on her jog or after her jog I don’t know, but I feel certain she got in a car with somebody she knows and felt comfortable enough to do so with. Beyond that I can only speculate.

This makes sense in light of Mollie's mother's statement that she didn't like to jog after dark and lines up with LE's time frame of 5PM-10PM. I think she was abducted between 8:15 and 8:30. If she got in a car with someone with whom she was familiar, that person would not have been able to wrestle the cell phone from her right away, and that would account for the easternmost red areas. Abducting her mid-jog would be challenging. Like you, I tried to imagine overtaking and subduing a jogger. An end of jog time frame is far more possible after she slows to a walk. She's listening to music and cooling down.

 

[Ozoner]

You may be onto something here..but again no one knows if there were missed opportunities the night before, or Monday, or any other day, especially if it was random and a crime of opportunity, i.e. Mollie was in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, the commonality of those who are employed and have Wednesdays free would be the medical community. Many doctors, dentists (and well as their staff) don't work and supposedly "play golf" on Wednesdays. jmo

The reason that people in the medical community often have weekdays off is that medical centers are open on the weekend. Any business that is open more than five days a week will typically have some employees with at least one weekday off. The post office can serve as an additional example: mail is delivered six days a week. All mail carriers have Sundays off (with the exception of the rare few who deliver express packages on Sunday), while one out of six would have Mondays off, one out of six would have Tuesdays off, etc. (The area where Molly was staying might have been on a rural route; I'm not sure whether the mail-carrier example would apply to that particular area.)

 

[zecats]

I don’t have a complete theory I can get behind, but consider this: I live in a very similar area, on the edge of town in a nearby community. Just last night shortly after sunset I drove home and passed by a young female solo jogger, a very similar situation to what an abduction scenario for Mollie would look like. There’s only one scenario that could have resulted in that jogger ending up in my car with nobody seeing or hearing anything: if she knew me, I could call out to her. That’s it. No other way that girl gets in my car. Whether it happened on her jog or after her jog I don’t know, but I feel certain she got in a car with somebody she knows and felt comfortable enough to do so with. Beyond that I can only speculate.

I pretty much agree with you...again all the info that we don't have. I feel it's big possibility that she did return home and then went back out to mom's given this scenario, and also accounting for eyewitnesses (if reliable). She left the house, stretched, walked a block, ran down West St and past the funeral home, ran to the eastern edge of town and then realized she had forgotten something she needed (to do) and had to go back. Maybe dogs were not in basement, may she needed her keys, some money. SO she goes back and that is where DC said LE told him she passed his house on West (looping back). She goes into the house and retrieves what she forgot or puts the dogs away and heads back out, down W. DesMoines. At this point she is walking and sighted by RT. Turning north on Jackson, she is heading to her mom's. Someone offers a ride along this route and she accepts. jmo

 

[AllGrace]

Many women are 5’2 inc myself and my sisters. In jogging attire Molie certainly appeared as a grown woman imo. I am not getting a childlike or young teen vibe at all from her pics but jmo.

I also believe a local may have been gone for only an hour or so in total, if he grabbed Mollie, drove a ways out of town and drove back. His absence may not even have been noticed, even if he did not live alone. It does not really take very long...especially if this was a spur of the moment crime, not some experienced serial killer with a list of rituals etc. imo he would want to be “finished” ASAP.

Mollie looks far younger than my 17 year old daughter and all her friends, even the shorter ones. She actually looks pretty close to my 12 year old sons age and is shorter than him.

 

[Kapua]

I disagree with this.

For all the talk about how Fitbits interact with their servers by using a cell phone, while it is useful to know what kind of data LE may have, I don't think it has any bearing whatsoever on whether a perp - if there is a perp - even knew what a Fitbit was. Because they would have known what a cell phone was, and it's fairly common knowledge that cell phones have been used in criminal cases. As soon as the cell phone was turned off/destroyed/etc., the Fitbit would no longer be able to communicate with the servers.

In other words, a perp would not need to know anything about a Fitbit. They'd only need to disable the phone.

I wear a Fitbit and I have had people ask me what it is. Mine looks like a bracelet. Some look like watches. A phone in an armband looks exactly like a phone in the armband. All a perp would need to do is throw it out a window. Simple.

 

[claire_parker]

THIS is what I always said. Someone she knew saw her and offered her a ride. LE/FBI should interview everyone in that town! Go door to door.

why would she accept a ride when the whole purpose of her being out was to go running?
That doesn't make any sense.
Why would someone even interrupt her run and ask her that?

 

[AllGrace]

Sorry, but again I am a runner. In my experience, runners don't get into cars while they are on a run. I mean.. we stink to high heavens!!! We reek! Even if she wanted to hang out with someone, she would tell them to meet her at the house when she's done.. etc. It just doesn't match what I have seen over many years.

I think she was either hit by a car, she was abducted by someone who jumped out from bushes... if she was truly running when she went missing.

Even if she twisted her ankle badly, she would not get in the car of a stranger on her own. She would call 911 if she couldn't hobble back to the house.

Just to play devil's advocate. I am a runner....and I don't smell. My family can attest to this. I didn't even sweat much until I hit my mid 40's recently. I don't have to wear deoderant. So it is possible that there are many others who don't battle sweating and stinking.

 

[Deleted member 155000]

I don’t have a complete theory I can get behind, but consider this: I live in a very similar area, on the edge of town in a nearby community. Just last night shortly after sunset I drove home and passed by a young female solo jogger, a very similar situation to what an abduction scenario for Mollie would look like. There’s only one scenario that could have resulted in that jogger ending up in my car with nobody seeing or hearing anything: if she knew me, I could call out to her. That’s it. No other way that girl gets in my car. Whether it happened on her jog or after her jog I don’t know, but I feel certain she got in a car with somebody she knows and felt comfortable enough to do so with. Beyond that I can only speculate.

I agree with you that it would be an acquaintance. I think it could be a more distant acquaintance if an asthma attack, sprained ankle, car bump, or the threat of rain increased her desire to end her run and get into a car.

 

[Madison418]

Sorry, but again I am a runner. In my experience, runners don't get into cars while they are on a run. I mean.. we stink to high heavens!!! We reek! Even if she wanted to hang out with someone, she would tell them to meet her at the house when she's done.. etc. It just doesn't match what I have seen over many years.

I think she was either hit by a car, she was abducted by someone who jumped out from bushes... if she was truly running when she went missing.

Even if she twisted her ankle badly, she would not get in the car of a stranger on her own. She would call 911 if she couldn't hobble back to the house.

I am a runner as well and concur. Though I did get my husband to come get me on my run this weekend because I was having severe cramping and could barely even walk. This situation I don't think would apply because if she contacted someone to get her, we would know and this case would likely be solved. I think it's definitely possible someone grabbed her on her run either in a car or on foot. Perhaps the perp was so overwhelmed with the fact that he actually got her that he didn't throw the phone out until they were out of town? But even if he threw it out, it likely still had some charge to it and wouldn't have gone straight to voicemail early the next morning. So this makes me think that they had the phone and destroyed it or turned it off themselves. All MOO

 

[NJJohn]

My main questions/points after reading what I could on all these threads are the pinned tweet and the snapchat text. First of all the tweet is just too much of a crazy coincidence. Has it been verified that was a police offer asking her? If no officer confirms it, I would think it was a stalker messing with her knowing exactly what he was planning and the opportunity came when the boyfriend was gone. Sorry if this has been already answered!

IMO, the pinned tweet is a red herring. Mollie's sense of humor on SM seems very dry, and I think this whole incident in the pinned tweet is likely at the very least embellished for comedic effect, and I think it was something that was not really a big deal (like just a kid momentarily lost from her mother). Of course, everything should be investigated, but I really doubt anything will come of that.

 

[Mom24]

This homicide involved a college aged, female jogger. It was not planned, but a spontaneous assault.

what makes you think that?

 

[Mom24]

First time poster...been following along for a long time and am blown away by you guys! This case is just driving me bonkers and breaking my heart, my "theory" changes every time I check in with the threads here. But this seems like a really great point to me. I am almost certain she was taken on her run...but then I think the fact that she was alone at the house is just too much of a coincidence for it to have been a random crime of opportunity...but the fact that the phone seems to have left a trail....my brain has bounced back and forth on this three times just while I have been writing this post. Ugh. Really hoping some more information is revealed soon...

Welcome! I'm the same. One minute I'm thinking she made it home from her run, the other moment I don't. But the fact remains that she went missing on that day during a 12 hour time span, so maybe where she disappeared from isn't the clue that's needed.

 

[Mom24]

This makes sense in light of Mollie's mother's statement that she didn't like to jog after dark and lines up with LE's time frame of 5PM-10PM. I think she was abducted between 8:15 and 8:30. If she got in a car with someone with whom she was familiar, that person would not have been able to wrestle the cell phone from her right away, and that would account for the easternmost red areas. Abducting her mid-jog would be challenging. Like you, I tried to imagine overtaking and subduing a jogger. An end of jog time frame is far more possible after she slows to a walk. She's listening to music and cooling down.

Now there's something I hadn't considered. Cool down. Maybe she was walking and looking at her phone because she was cooling down. Good point!

 

[Deleted member 155000]

I disagree with this.

For all the talk about how Fitbits interact with their servers by using a cell phone, while it is useful to know what kind of data LE may have, I don't think it has any bearing whatsoever on whether a perp - if there is a perp - even knew what a Fitbit was. Because they would have known what a cell phone was, and it's fairly common knowledge that cell phones have been used in criminal cases. As soon as the cell phone was turned off/destroyed/etc., the Fitbit would no longer be able to communicate with the servers.

In other words, a perp would not need to know anything about a Fitbit. They'd only need to disable the phone.

I appreciate this pushback and I do agree that the FitBit point is the most debatable of those above (several can be debated). But let’s keep in mind that FitBits can be synced with more than 1 device. So disabling someone’s phone would not prevent that FitBit data from being accessed by MT’s computer or tablet if she had it linked there as well. So if someone was aware that FitBits sync, or had prior convos with Mollie about how she uses her FitBit, they may have been more likely to dispose of it.

But I agree, acquaintance or not, a FitBit might be an easy thing to overlook or misunderstand.

 

[duster1979]

Sorry, but again I am a runner. In my experience, runners don't get into cars while they are on a run. I mean.. we stink to high heavens!!! We reek! Even if she wanted to hang out with someone, she would tell them to meet her at the house when she's done.. etc. It just doesn't match what I have seen over many years.

I think she was either hit by a car, she was abducted by someone who jumped out from bushes... if she was truly running when she went missing.

Even if she twisted her ankle badly, she would not get in the car of a stranger on her own. She would call 911 if she couldn't hobble back to the house.

Well, I doubt that she would have called 911 for a sprained ankle given that she was in her home town and could have called her mom, brother, and probably any one of a hundred other people to take her home.

Other than that minor detail, though I totally agree. It seems highly unlikely that she would have voluntarily gotten in a car even with someone she knew under those circumstances unless she were in some sort of physical distress.

 

[Mom24]

For those of you who use fitbit or similar technology, do you shut it off when you are done your run? Could Mollie have been walking and looking at her phone because she was shutting down the fitbit or putting in some info that the run is over?

 

[Madison418]

Keep in mind that on her runs, her phone was in an armband, so if a perp grabbed her, hit her with their car etc it would take time to get the armband off and chuck it somewhere. Perhaps with the threat of someone seeing him, he just dealt with it late when the threat of witnesses was less likely. The risk of being seen was greater than the risk of the phone pinging at the cell towers. If this was the logic of said perp, then I think we're dealing with someone a bit more cunning.

All MOO