Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #5

[Echo7]

I sometimes wear my Fitbit to bed at night. It can track your sleep.

I recall reading her boyfriend said Mollie uses it as a sleep tracker. I do this with my Alta HR Fitbit as well. I only remove it to shower, as per manufacturer requirements.

 

[PaulR]

That depends on how many towers are close by. If there are at least 3 close enough to ping, her location can be triangulated with 100 ft. (I think, but Paul can probably tell you the right distance if I'm off.)

Big disclaimer, I work in software, not on cellular technology which is a distinct discipline.

It's about that range, yes. Cell phone triangulation using mobile towers isn't terribly accurate. Adding in GPS/GLONASS helps with the accuracy, which is why the police want access to the Fitbit data since if Mollie had GPS enabled and her Fitbit was in tracking mode, they may pretty exact location history for her, within a few meters.

Cell phone triangulation only works if there are multiple towers nearby. I'm not sure how many are/around Brooklyn, Iowa. It's not a big town. CellReception | Find a better signal. shows a few towers nearby, most by independent parties but one by US Cellular which is a regional cell carrier in the midwest, which is near the Interstate exit for Brooklyn. There are also additional US Cellular towers nearby.

That being said, you can still get useful information. Cell companies can get a rough idea on how far a cell phone is from a cell tower. Sort of a more complicated version of seeing a flash of lightning, counting the seconds until you hear the boom, then doing a little math to figure out how far the strike was. This has been used to determine roughly where the phone of missing person Bill Ewasko was when it last pinged a cell tower near Joshua Tree. And if the cell phone continues to ping the tower, you could tell if the cell phone had moved closer to or away from the tower - again, very roughly. You may be able to tell other data as well, but I'm not nearly enough of an expert.

 

[SuziQ]

The one DCI Agent is quoted by People Magazine as saying ...

"One avenue of thought is that if it wasn’t a struggle, and we have found no signs of a struggle, then maybe it was someone she was familiar with,” Mortvedt told People.

"But then the other avenue of thought is it could have been a stranger who simply overpowered her or tricked her. We just have very little to go on.”

Thank you for this! Wow, some new info to think about tonight.

 

[gliving]

<modsnipped quoted post>

Side glance...

 

[pamelado2]

So where was she walking to?

He's not a "neighbor" per see - as ini directly next door - she could have easily returned a different way it when he want looking out his window.

 

[Gunslinging Granny]

Isn’t it weird that someone actually took this photo of her and her coworker

I wonder how he felt about being friend zoned.

 

[Ilovemy3boys]

I wonder how he felt about being friend zoned.

Yeah really. ...

 

[J.M. Bee]

Sorry, basic question: were her eyeglasses left behind in the house?

 

[gliving]

A poster here said it was an iphone per her instagram. Sorry I can't remember who it was to give them credit.

 

[Ilovemy3boys]

Why is that interesting? Many times the partner with the best credit is on the deed. And if they need a co-signer it normally is a parent.

Normally, but it could be anyone with good credit and a stable job.

 

[wary]

Would your dog protect you?

The dog-owners knew what was going on. They were relaxed, curious, enjoying themselves. I don't think that the clip shows what would have happened if the owner had been startled, terrified.

 

[cluciano63]

Was she going to make the dessert her mom got ingredients for that night? Or did I read it was for something happening on Friday?

Jmo only but leaving it “ok” about dinner is weird to me...almost inconsiderate if she never let her mom know either way, no goodnight, nothing. Again...just me. Also, if her brother wondered if she needed a ride home (from work) as someone just posted, how was she getting there??

 

[Doghairrules]

And not having her wallet or glasses/contacts points directly away from my suspicions of Ride-Share Guy.

That’s why I think it happened the night before and whoever took her knew about the red shirt deal for the following day and grabbed it (or she grabbed it and put it on because it was laid out for the next morning) before they left the house to throw off the timeline.

 

[Confusion]

My dogs don’t care who comes in when I’m not here (I’ve had workers let themselves in). But if I’m home and workers are inside or outside, the barking does not stop until the intruder leaves.

Sorry, I know this is O/T. My grandmother had a friend who had a really friendly dog. The woman's brother forgot to get a key from her when he was going to be staying with her for a bit so he went in through a window. Her "guard" dog greeted him with a ball to play fetch. He played with him for a while, put his stuff into the room he would be using, and started to leave. The dog cornered him and made him stay until the sister got home to let him know it was okay. I always wondered what would happen if a burglar broke in while she was gone; I think she would have been a lot better off letting the guy leave with some of her things than to come home alone to find him there (she was about mid-60's at the time.)

 

[Jethro4WS]

The aunt is on video saying they don't know if there was a struggle inside the house.

The DCI is quoted as saying yesterday ...

"One avenue of thought is that if it wasn't a struggle, and we have found no signs of a struggle, then maybe it was someone she was familiar with," Mortvedt said. "But then the other avenue of thought is it could have been a stranger who simply overpowered her or tricked her. We just have very little to go on."

Boyfriend of missing Iowa college student cleared as suspect

Whether there was a struggle or not probably can't be known but law enforcement hasn't found any signs of one.

 

[Cardinal47]

Here is a picture of the house and the interior. Seems really dark to me. The windows look pretty high up.

She could stand on the porch in the rain and let the dogs out. They could also run up onto the porch when they were ready to come in.

The house next door seems really close.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/622-W-Des-Moines-St-Brooklyn-IA-52211/2096319738_zpid/

Kind of old and spooky. I watch too many ID channel stories I guess. I thought the house in a neighborhood but it sits in the middle of nowhere. I'd be scared to death there alone at night. I'd have those dogs in the shower with me. With that said I notice there is a business next door to the house. Strange. Anybody know what kind of business that is. Several cars. If it's a plant workers take their breaks and lunch periods outside and would probably know what goes on at that house on the hill.

Another thought. Did the school go on that Fair trip that day? If the weather was so bad maybe they cancelled it and called to tell Mollie. Maybe she took the day off?

Finally I can surely see why nobody was worried. Mollie had been away at school and wasn't living at home. Not a kid that needed to be watched, called and checked on. I'm thinking when whomever got the call she wasn't at work they thought 'that's on Mollie'. When Mom got the call Mollie didn't go to work and said I'll be right home it was quiting time and I'm sure like most moms she would look into it when she got home.
This one is a real mystery..for sure.

 

[PaulR]

I understand the need for privacy and phone records, but there should be an exception for abduction. LE should not have to wait around for a subpoena.

I understand, but that's not going to happen.

Personal data is personal data. The Fitbit records, if you had your GPS on all the time, would show every place you've been, how long you were there, the exact route, etc. Helpful in this case. Also helpful for stalkers. It's a legitimate and serious privacy and security concern.

And that's just location - your email provider has all your emails, your cell provider has some location history and who you talk to, etc. All this information has to be protected against the bad guys. So you get a warrant. The Supreme Court agrees, at least in the case of cell phone location data.

I can't speak for Fitbit, I can't even speak for the company I work for, but most if not all companies have a lot of procedure in place for being able to access private information about a user and giving that out to a third party. That means a government warrant that the company has also reviewed.

In practice, warrants are approved and processed by companies all the time. The Google Transparency Report shows how many are processed every year - tens of thousands just for one company. Warrants are not a big deal to get in emergency cases.

 

[Harmony 2]

Sleuthing the family (background on the home or business) is not allowed. Discussion garnered from social media cannot be posted unless an MSM link is used to substantiate the information. Otherwise it is considered as rumor and removed.

 

[gliving]

delete

 

[J.M. Bee]

1. computer activity tells us she was in the house working on her computer late on Wednesday evening
2. no signs of forced entry or struggle tells us ... what exactly?
3. wallet & contacts/eyeglasses left in the house tells us ... what exactly?
4. dogs in the basement tells us ... what exactly?

 

[Inthedetails]

New people to Websleuths - welcome! Glad to have you here.

Please read the rules for this site. No soliciting PMs; no screen shots; no sleuthing family, friends, neighbors who are not named POI; no rumors; etc.

Ignoring the rules can get a thread shut down. Wah! We don't want that!

jmo