Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #7

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There's a news conference tomorrow at 1:30. No real news other than that.

Thirteen days later, finally a real news conference. I'm mulling over the reasons;
  • Strategic announcement designed to make someone squirm.
  • Really have no idea what happened to Mollie, and want to renew interest in submitting tips.
  • Release limited details to quell the rumor mills, and improve public perception of the investigation.
Or, maybe it will just be a repetitive bunch of "we can't comment on that right now" ...
 
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Does it matter? Haven't all of those people been ruled out, and as such should deserve a modicum of privacy? Who cares where they live if they are unrelated to her disappearance?
 
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Then why did Assistant Police Chief Jeremy Jensen of Dubuque urge residents to “be aware of their surroundings” if they are traveling along Grandview Avenue, noting that it is a popular road among walkers and joggers, after the attack on a jogger there? One could think that whole thing is more than sufficient warning as well but the Asst. Police Chief didn't think so.

I’d say it’s due to the matter of scale. Brooklyn has just under 650 households total; Dubuque has a population of about 59,000 people.
 
If not an abduction, what? Injury? Illness? Run away? Suicide? What are you guessing?
I still strongly believe she left voluntarily. It’s quite possible she left and planned to return to her car early the next morning and something happened before then, but to speculate further I’d want to know what the digital evidence says.
 
First comment on this case....

I agree it’s not human trafficking. Like, not at all. I live in a city with one of the largest human trafficking problems because we have the largest and busiest airport. My husband is a commercial pilot. We learn a lot from the news here about how to spot human trafficking. He is also highly trained on how to spot it on planes and in the airport. She does not fit the profile one bit. Not at all.

I know we are not allowed names or anything of that sort, but I have my theory, and it’s seeming to me it is definitely someone known to her. The whole left without contacts/glasses (my daughter does it all the time when in a hurry or lazy) sounds to me like she either left in a hurry or someone came in while she was asleep or knocked on the door after she had gotten into bed. She would be wearing the Fitbit to bed for sleep monitoring. The phone could have been grabbed by her or the perpetrator. If she were lured out, they probably knew she had it but took it from her. Who knows. But....I completely think this was done by someone she knew pretty well - maybe even a prank or someone just getting mad at her and it all goes wrong/a little too far. I’m totally not thinking a sex offender.

Side note: I didn’t have time to read through the entire thread. What does the father do? Does he make good money? Ransom worthy? I don’t think this was an abduction, though.

Another side note: has it been said that she ever wanted to move to a larger city (say San Francisco near dad) to work after college? What were her aspirations? Did she want to get out of the small town? She seemed pretty darn close to her father and seemed excited about her “new family”. Edited to add: someone might be mad about this idea of leaving Iowa.
 
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Wow. Interesting. Surprised they would go there without a warrant. I’d assume if they thought the information was super credible they would have brought a warrant
Not necessarily. No warrant just implies evidence could be there, but the farm owner likely isn't a suspect. Getting a warrant doesn't happen instantaneously, so it's easier to ask the owner to allow the search than to get a warrant.
 
I don't think so... my fitbit reads at ~70 bpm and I'm out of shape and much older than MT. She was a runner, if anything her resting heart rate should be very low.

Resting Heart Rate Chart | Healthy Heart Rate indicates it should be in the 50-60 range.
I know this was posted quite a while ago, but I just wanted to tell you how depressed you made me by linking that information! My resting heart rate is off the chart for any age. (It almost never goes below 100 bpm, up to 160+ if I walk the 30 ft or so to my garage.) :eek:
 
Then why did Assistant Police Chief Jeremy Jensen of Dubuque urge residents to “be aware of their surroundings” if they are traveling along Grandview Avenue, noting that it is a popular road among walkers and joggers, after the attack on a jogger there? One could think that whole thing is more than sufficient warning as well but the Asst. Police Chief didn't think so.

Perhaps because the road has a lot of walkers/joggers and cars, they're concerned about safety. A lot of pedestrians are killed each year on roads.

It's not like a potential abductor is going to only prowl Grandview Avenue, and once the police put out word to be careful, he's going to go "damn, foiled again" and turn himself in or abandon his life of crime.
 
I know this was posted quite a while ago, but I just wanted to tell you how depressed you made me by linking that information! My resting heart rate is off the chart for any age. (It almost never goes below 100 bpm, up to 160+ if I walk the 30 ft or so to my garage.) :eek:

Off topic, but me too. I have diagnosed tachycardia and even on medication my resting heart rate is rarely below 100. Even laying in bed. I’m not old or particularly out of shape. You might want to get checked for it!
 
If she left on her own to get away from things, she would have no money with her. And if she did, odds are she would be seen on video somewhere like a 7/11 or Walmart and we would be seeing those blurred video images on the news.
 
Heh. I have an ag degree so working on a farm wouldn't bother me. I've just never heard of that type of operation before. Here we just tromp through the **** then go to town for coffee. :p
Yeah, it would bother you. There are corporate jobs where you could use that degree to make decent money and never step foot on a farm, but the farm workers are very low paid. As a barn manager 18 years ago I was making $25k. I was fortunate to get back in my chosen field where I make much better money and don’t get dirty.
 
Not necessarily. No warrant just implies evidence could be there, but the farm owner likely isn't a suspect. Getting a warrant doesn't happen instantaneously, so it's easier to ask the owner to allow the search than to get a warrant.
Stated in one of these previous links - they didn’t get a warrant because the owners gave consent to search and were entirely cooperative.
 
are there any train tracks going through this town? or train trestle bridges?
I got an abby libby feeling about it.
 
The main problem with this case is too many variables with too little information. Did she disappear on the 18th or 19th? Did something happen while she was jogging or did she make it home and something happened there or did she leave the house that morning and something happened shortly after she left? She was jogging, but may have made it home. The dogs were in the basement which would indicate she was leaving or had left the house on the 19th, but her glasses and contacts were still there so. But then the red shirt is missing which would indicate she did make it home after her run and something happened on the 19th. The house didn't appear disturbed, that we know of. So there are three possibilities-1. she was either injured or abducted while running, 2. someone came to the home and she either went willingly with them or was abducted sometime later that night or 3. she was getting ready to leave the next morning and was abducted on her way out of the house.
 
If she left on her own to get away from things, she would have no money with her. And if she did, odds are she would be seen on video somewhere like a 7/11 or Walmart and we would be seeing those blurred video images on the news.

Maybe. She's not all that far from the Interstate. I assume we'd see her at the exit or even the nearby-ish truck stop trying to catch a ride, but don't overestimate how many people follow missing person cases in the news.
 
Not at all. Police are searching for Mollie. If they searched every house on the street where she was last seen, we would not suggest that any of those homeowners were guilty after they were cleared by police. The same applies to farm properties and acreages. If they are cleared, my understanding is that police are saying they are out of bounds regarding sleuthing names and addresses - but I may be wrong. Police may not have released much information, but there's no reason to assume that what they have released is false, is there?
Its hard to know much at this point about any place that has been searched as explanations haven't been provided by LE and press access to LE has been limited. I am also not sure that the issue is true falsehoods made by LE but rather the generalized and vague statements made about the properties searched such as 'we didn't find MT' etc. Sure they didn't find MT but I bet they did gather some intelligence that could be relevant to the case and even actionable. Could some of this evidence gathered later turn out to be important to the case and perhaps reflect negatively on someone affiliated with the farms searched? Maybe but we don't know now. My guess is that someone in Brooklyn knows more than they are telling LE about the disappearance of MT and perhaps one of these people is somehow affiliated with one of the farms searched. Sure this is speculation at this point due to complete absense of information provided by LE as they do their best to find MT. So, not sure any place or any person should be completely off the hook until LE clearly states otherwise. I suppose it also depends on whether these places searched were in fact 'cleared' by LE. So far as I can see nobody was arrested but people were certainly questioned and some were questioned more intensely than others. To the extent that information was had by individuals associated with the farms that was not shared with LE, we won't know unless obstruction charges are filed or arrest warrants issued unfortunately. I am not convinced that the LE statements were strongly worded enough to say anyone affiliated with the farms searched is in fact 'cleared', the statements I read were more along the lines that 'nothing was found'. This might be a fine line difference but I'm not sure it means they are fully 'cleared' in the way you are talking about it. Its facinating that in such a small town with so many interconnected relationships that more substantive information isn't available. We've had plenty of rumors and some gossip that has been unproductive for LE efforts which is unfortunate. Perhaps people are afraid to speak? Perhaps they are afraid of ruining relationships or offending people they live in close proximity to. Only time will tell. I just hope that tomorrow we get some positive news!
 
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