IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 *Arrest* #36

[duster1979]

Gelding is what it’s called when a horse is castrated. Castration on cattle or horse or any other animal would absolutely not happen with a machete. Some people may cut them off w a knife, but on my farm, they usually get banded. I thought that was funny though. We also farm quite a bit. As far as the sharp object, it was probably something simple, like a knife. I can’t think of any type of “farm machinery” that you would carry would carry with you and could be used to stab into someone. Sure, there’s lots of dangerous machinery: swathers, combines, discs,etc. but you don’t have those types of things on your person. It’s probably the simplest answer and not a machete or farm equipment, IMO

People have wanted to overthink this thing from the start. "Oh, heck, it CAN'T be a Barlow knife, lots of people have those. He worked for a farm so it has to have something to do with farming!"

Maybe he threw blades from a rotary hoe like Chinese throwing stars.

 

[1987]

It probably was not noticed by anyone because he had no emotions or feelings for what he did. If you don't have a conscience, you don't feel guilty.

in the court video he just seemed to have a flat personality to me. just nothing, not a frown, not a smirk, no attempt to not look at cameras when they were getting him out of police vehical and bringing him in. nothing. made me feel almost like he was lacking a soul, I don't know how to put it.

 

[MsBetsy]

You are right and that is an important distinction.

Right, but I think that IS exactly what he told them. They are not explaining what he meant, just what he said.

 

[tigertales]

Disassociative Amnesia is a real thing. However, it is more often found with victims of crime or accident, war or disaster.

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-amnesia

Disassociative behavior could be his need to distance himself from her as a human being. If she is not human or less than human it is easier to carry on as if nothing happened. Just my own opinion.

 

[Stormy21]

How tough are green corn stalks to cut? Does it need to be sharp, maybe serrated? Could a pocket knife do it easily? Also, just curious, how common are "corn knives" in rural Iowa?

They break off. Down low it isn't hard to break them, then bend them over.

This was demonstrated last night in my sweet corn by a deer. There are no ears left. And a bunch of broken stalks.

An analogy might be a large milkweed, but that isn't good. The stalks are the diameter of a thin handled baseball bat near the grip.

A week ago after a deer broke one off I tried to stake it -- a stupid idea. Once broken the stalk is dead. Stalks bent over can live, like after strong rain and winds.

Dead corn stalks are easily seen because they are brown and get crispy quickly. Everyone hates that. So if he broke stalks it should be visible. If he 'bent' them they might remain green.

You might also get 'paper cuts' from the leaves. Those things are long and quite sharp.

 

[MsBetsy]

He 'remembered' what he chose to tell police, the rest was conveniently 'forgotten', but since these kinds of liars always tell part of the actual story in their lie, the bleeding from the head tale may simply be an unintended blab-like disclosure that this was a greater bloody crime involving a sharp weapon. She may not have had a head injury. Or she may have if he used some sort of blunt force to initially subdue her. He could have also injured her like Hannah and Morgan's killer (he has no name as far as I'm concerned) is known to have injured the victim who got away from him. He slammed her head into the ground right before he was about to rape her (he was seen and he ran off). Mollie's killer could have swiped her face or head with the sharp weapon as she fought and that's where the bleeding head tale came from, or she could have bled from her ear if it was blunt force. But whatever that's about, he is distancing himself from the important fact that he brutally took her life through a violent stabbing of some kind.

Since he's inserting a bloody head injury into the trunk part of the story, he may be saying something about an assault that occurred after the abduction and before the cornfield. I believe it was otto who said there may be two assault sites in addition to where he abducted her. (the cornfield being the final one)Please correct me if I read that wrong. But I do believe he had a longer night than the LE timeline.

Strongly agree with everything you just described.

 

[aafattore]

Please, please, please, warden, put him in general population...also, as an added request, please allow DJ 30 minutes of unsupervised visitation with the evil twerp in his cell.

No well just protect him with a bullet proof vest and isolate him so no one hurts him. Total BS!

 

[PrairieWind]

i had this thought as well but didn't know how much credence to put on it, because i kind of think he probably would have still killed her even if he was legal and/or if she didn't threaten to call. but it very well could have been a contributing factor. (and again, no blame on MT whatsoever. you should say you're going to call the police if someone is harassing you and making you feel uncomfortable. she absolutely did the right thing.)

I don't think Mollie threatening to call police is what led to her death. First, that whole scenario is just his story, we don't even know if it happened at all. But even if it did, it didn't matter. Her death was practically inevitable. That evening when he began searching for and following Mollie, it was for one purpose only: to abduct and rape her. And he knew full well when that was over he would need to kill her. It was the plan all along.

 

[MyBelle]

How tough are green corn stalks to cut? Does it need to be sharp, maybe serrated? Could a pocket knife do it easily? Also, just curious, how common are "corn knives" in rural Iowa?

Have you ever cooked a fresh ear of corn? You have to cut the end off. It requires a sharp kitchen knife.

 

[Seattle1]

The DM article says it was a friend of the killer that said he didn’t want to talk about Mollie and looking back it was odd. Not the gf or baby mama

Just to be clear, at least 2 local women (HV, 18, and DG 's unidentified sister) have given accounts of initial encounters with CR describing him as friendly, well spoken. Not to expose them further, all refs/links can be found in the media thread. To my knowledge, IM, the baby Mum, has not made any public statement.

 

[MsBetsy]

Great point.

Yes! How easy is it to yank a cornstalk out of the ground?

 

[Inthedetails]

Please, please, please, warden, put him in general population...also, as an added request, please allow DJ 30 minutes of unsupervised visitation with the evil twerp in his cell.

Please. LE, honor our nation's justice that is based on the rule of law not revenge. Please, everyone, let's not wish for more violence on top of violence.

This perp will be sent to jail for the rest of his life. That is just (and also likely violent for those who take pleasure in knowing that).

jmo

 

[spiritkiss]

"Honestly, it's a miracle he confessed and showed LE the body." this.......why did he? This is the part I do not understand he says he in essence can't remember the killing but the shows LE where the body is. Make no sense to me at all. Why not just deny it completely.

When the police questioned him they may have made him believe they knew more than they did.

 

[Jeng1810]

in the court video he just seemed to have a flat personality to me. just nothing, not a frown, not a smirk, no attempt to not look at cameras when they were getting him out of police vehical and bringing him in. nothing. made me feel almost like he was lacking a soul, I don't know how to put it.

Very well worded. I grew up with a person like this and never found quite the right words until now. “Lacking a soul”.

 

[bizzle2]

"Honestly, it's a miracle he confessed and showed LE the body." this.......why did he? This is the part I do not understand he says he in essence can't remember the killing but the shows LE where the body is. Make no sense to me at all. Why not just deny it completely.

I think the simple answer to this is that he's not the smartest guy in the world to say the least. Language barrier and not understanding the laws of the US probably played a role as well.

Kind of scary to think that if he did have a better understanding of things he probably wouldn't have been arrested so quickly. (Not to say that LE wouldn't eventually have gotten him, just that it wouldn't have happened so quickly after talking to him.) If he says he wasn't driving the car or he wasn't there then I'm not sure LE could arrest him so quickly.

 

[MsBetsy]

Disassociative Amnesia is a real thing. However, it is more often found with victims of crime or accident, war or disaster.

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-amnesia

Disassociative behavior could be his need to distance himself from her as a human being. If she is not human or less than human it is easier to carry on as if nothing happened. Just my own opinion.

You're right, but in this case I don't think he had a need to attempt to distance himself from her being human. He didn't care about her being human in the first place, or he wouldn't have attacked her.

 

[Pixie Dust]

No, he was found by good old police work..seen on a homeowner's video. Another cop recognized the car as one that he had traffic stopped at one time, due to its distinct aftermarket designs on this particular car.

Right now, there doesn’t seem to be evidence of a tip off. It appears that this case was solved by identifying the vehicle that was captured on video following Mollie, and interviewing the driver.

Right. Just tossing out the possibility that LE could have been tipped off as to what kind of car to look for. They had the video for weeks. I have to imagine it'd been watched over and over and over by numerous people. Perhaps LE is protecting the tipster (and LE would need to explain to the press how they put 2 & 2 together to come up with CR to do so). Gf looked *terrified* in court. Was that because she's the tipster, but has to keep up the supportive facade for her own safety? Who knows? Just a passing thought. I have a tendency to like to consider things from different perspectives. Could be absolutely what it's being portrayed to be, and I should just tuck this away for a future murder mystery novel.

 

[Stormy21]

Have you ever cooked a fresh ear of corn? You have to cut the end off. It requires a sharp kitchen knife.

Ha! Bad technique. One hand on the corn, the other on the end. Quick snap. Only wimps use knives. (teasing)

I suppose preparing corn is like picking crabs, or something regional. You learn it from constant repetition. My mother and grandmother could totally strip all the kernels off the corn in a microsecond with an extremely sharp 'corn knife'.

This may be stupid but: on average there are 800 kernels on an ear of corn (can be 400). Usually 16 rows. Rows are almost always even number -- they are the female parts. the tassel is the male part. There is one silk per kernel.

 

[ellieuma]

I disagree. He took incredible risks. It doesn’t take any measure of sophistication to drag a woman into a field and kill her.

The police didn’t struggle to find him because this was so well planned, they struggled to find him precisely because it wasn’t.

When the victim doesn’t have a connection to the suspect, it is much harder to find the killer. This guy benefited from that.

I also don’t think he woke up & planned on killing MT that Wed. He might not have abducted & murdered a stranger before, but I believe he has mistreated women in his past. Behavior like this doesn’t begin out of the blue at 24.
In his case, that would mean that he had been somewhat respectful to women for 2 decades and then *Boom* kidnaps a stranger, kills her (possibility of SA). He might not have abducted a female before, but I bet he’s tried several times.

IMHO, it’s highly likely he has Sexually Assaulted females before now, either a stranger, ex- g/f, or relative. Not saying it did happen just that I think it is highly likely. IMHO his behavior escalated to this point, where he felt confident enough to take a stranger and kill her. I don’t think he has control over his emotions, but I do think it’s sexually motivated and he’s fantasized about abduction. I think he possibly kept himself prepared in case he actually acted out his fantasy & did it.
He’s only 5’6 and 130 lbs, which means he had to choose someone smaller—like MT. He probably thought she was pretty & saw her vulnerability because she was in an isolated area. If he just wanted to chat, he probably wouldn’t have picked such an isolated area (out of view of stores & their cameras), but instead would have stopped circling & chosen a more convenient place to join in the run.

I wrote this from my phone, so I apologize if I am unclear in my comments

 

[bizzle2]

Have you ever cooked a fresh ear of corn? You have to cut the end off. It requires a sharp kitchen knife.

What? You just tear it off. Takes some force, but you certainly don't need a knife.