IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 *Arrest* #37

[soap mama]

I don't know who used this to describe CR but I think it is a tad bizarre.

CR attorney called him an all-American boy

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

“I don’t know what’s going on,” his uncle, Eustaquio “Capi” Bahena Radilla, said in an interview Thursday conducted through an interpreter at his trailer home in Brooklyn. “I don’t know what’s happening because honestly, I know he’s a good person.”

Rivera’s father echoed his comment, saying Thursday that he believed that his son was innocent and calling reports of his confession “pure lies.”

“If he had done what they say he did, he would have come back here [to Mexico],” Eduardo Bahena Radilla, his father, said in a telephone interview from Guayabillo, a small town in Mexico. “But he’s innocent, so he didn’t run and hide.”

Suspect’s relatives say they’re baffled by arrest in Mollie Tibbetts case

 

[SharonNeedles]

Police had lots of information. Once they identified the vehicle, they had the suspect. The suspect knew that there would be forensic evidence of Mollie in his vehicle, so he knew that he was directly connected to Mollie at the time of abduction and her blood evidence in the trunk of that car. He would have been told that it was just a matter of time until they found the body, and that it might go easier for him if he told them exactly where to look. Some type of coercion would have been used to convince him that he may as well get it over with and lead them to the body.

But there is no option to go easier on him, there has to be something that he perceived as beneficial to him. He didn’t just do the right thing to make it easier on everybody else.

 

[geevee]

I’m asking myself why he led investigators to the body. You know any motivation the guy has is self-serving, what leverage could possibly be used to wring that out of him? Iowa doesn’t have death penalty to bargain with, so what could it be?

I mentioned yesterday that maybe he thought he would get the reward money for the "recovery" (as stated on the mollie.iowa.gov page) of her. It makes as much sense as any other theory, I suppose.

 

[The Farm]

“I don’t know what’s going on,” his uncle, Eustaquio “Capi” Bahena Radilla, said in an interview Thursday conducted through an interpreter at his trailer home in Brooklyn. “I don’t know what’s happening because honestly, I know he’s a good person.”

Rivera’s father echoed his comment, saying Thursday that he believed that his son was innocent and calling reports of his confession “pure lies.”

“If he had done what they say he did, he would have come back here [to Mexico],” Eduardo Bahena Radilla, his father, said in a telephone interview from Guayabillo, a small town in Mexico. “But he’s innocent, so he didn’t run and hide.”

Suspect’s relatives say they’re baffled by arrest in Mollie Tibbetts case

Oh yes and pigs can fly too.

 

[Jennifermn]

I’m asking myself why he led investigators to the body. You know any motivation the guy has is self-serving, what leverage could possibly be used to wring that out of him? Iowa doesn’t have death penalty to bargain with, so what could it be?

My guess is it's one of two scenarios:

He actually did go into a fit of rage and kill MT. It wasn't planned, he was angered by the rejection. Perhaps he feels some remorse and relief to be rid of this secret.

Or

He doesn't understand the legal system here in the US that well. The cops probably duped him a bit and overplayed what evidence they had. He figured he was been caught and maybe he'd be given points for cooperation with LE.

I lean more towards the latter scenario. Of course, JMO.

 

[oviedo]

I don't know if I believe all these after-the-fact stories. They strike me as a bit of hysteria, like the media article that was posted a couple of days ago where someone un-named received some sort of contact from the suspect on Facebook and the recipient of the unknown type of contact did not respond. It's like everyone is thinking "it could have been me!"

Yes, it could have been anyone, but it wasn't. It was Mollie. Interactions with others before and after her abduction and murder do not mean that those people were potential victims. It came down to Mollie being an easy target on July 18 and that's why he chose her.

I agree - I think any of those interactions that are credible will be looked at closely by LE to determine if they are even relevant. Like others, I am thinking he has some behaviors that may have escalated - I just don't think he drove on that road, saw Mollie running and decided the 18th was the night all at the last minute. I believe it was planned and something he thought about before that evening. IMO.

 

[kebdal23]

I’m from NYC so I guess I don’t really understand how it works in small town areas. But where I am from we usually clock out, write what time we get in/leave and/or notify a supervisor or someone on staff that is higher up to let them know we are done for the day and are leaving. We don’t just go as we please. We have set hours but there are ways to determine when we’ve actually left work.

I'm from the midwest, and admittedly work in an office environment, but I don't tell anybody when I'm leaving. Just up and leave. And, I'm an hourly employee. I do fill out a time-sheet every two weeks, but it's self reported. It wouldn't surprise me if he didn't have to report to anyone he was done. Especially working on a farm.

 

[Gez137]

My question is, what would he have done if she'd flirted back?

I'd say probably nothing
It could have simply been HOW she said no to him.

I've even told my own wife over the years not to be too harsh in situations like that.

If you run into the wrong guy (like this guy) and say something like 'don't talk to me you weirdo freak', you might potentially set them off.

 

[wary]

But there is no option to go easier on him, there has to be something that he perceived as beneficial to him. He didn’t just do the right thing to make it easier on everybody else.

I'm sure they were professional and didn't threaten him, but could his background have made him afraid that they would....move to more forceful methods of interrogation, if he didn't cooperate?

 

[jillycat]

I don't necessarily think he went anywhere else but where she was found, but it's possible.

In my previous post about a murder in my town, the perpetrator was emotionless and dull and had average or lower intelligence and was likely well on the way to a career as a SK. He went into the first victim's office at night where she was working late alone, led her to her van after taking the phone cord to bind her, and they drove around, even went through the drive-through at McDonald's. Then he went up to a reservoir and they sat there and he ate or whatever and talked, then he sexually assaulted her, stabbed her in the back multiple times, and she was left at another reservoir in another county miles away. I don't recall now if the murder or at least some of the attack took place in the van or she was killed at the final location. He left her propped in a sitting position against a tree and tied to part of it. He also confessed.

The point is, sometimes what these perpetrators do is just nonsensical. Spine-chillingly depraved as well, but utterly nonsensical from the perspective of a normal person. So Mollie's killer could have done anything in those hours.

 

[oviedo]

Police had lots of information. Once they identified the vehicle, they had the suspect. The suspect knew that there would be forensic evidence of Mollie in his vehicle, so he knew that he was directly connected to Mollie at the time of abduction and her blood evidence in the trunk of that car. He would have been told that it was just a matter of time until they found the body, and that it might go easier for him if he told them exactly where to look. Some type of coercion would have been used to convince him that he may as well get it over with and lead them to the body.

I am curious how they identified him based on the vehicle when he had no license according to the news stories? the registration/license had to be tied to him somehow?

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Around his 16th birthday, Rivera left Guayabillo to find work in the United States, his father said.

“There are no jobs here, so he left,” Bahena said, adding that his son crossed the border illegally and was undocumented in the United States.

He settled in Iowa because his uncle was already living there, Bahena said. He found work on a series of milk farms and often sent money back to his parents in Mexico.

Suspect’s relatives say they’re baffled by arrest in Mollie Tibbetts case

Other members of Rivera’s family attended his first appearance in court on Wednesday, including an aunt and uncle that live in a neighboring town, Rivera’s three-year-old daughter and the child’s mother, according to Eustaquio “Capi” Bahena Radilla.

 

[netbrsr]

I am curious how they identified him based on the vehicle when he had no license according to the news stories? the registration/license had to be tied to him somehow?

Where there are only a handful of black cars in town, process of elimination. He was probably still driving that same car the day he was arrested.
Add in the confession and you have him in jail on a 5 million bond.

 

[cody22]

I am curious how they identified him based on the vehicle when he had no license according to the news stories? the registration/license had to be tied to him somehow?

I remember reading on here that a local LE Officer viewing the tapes, remembered the car from a previous ticket encounter, and that helped lead them to his identity. I do not remember if there was a link provided.

 

[AllieCat72]

The thing about locals and gravel roads - we don’t know them by name. If you ask me where my regular fishing spot is, I can only tell you that it’s along the next-to-last gravel road before the highway meets the interstate. If you wanted to know what road that is I’d need to look at my phone. And I’ve driven by that road a dozen times per week for the past twelve years.

Maybe he dropped a pin in Google Maps on his phone so he wouldn't FORGET where he hid her.
Maybe he thought "where even AM I?" then looked at his phone to orient himself with exactly where he placed Mollie.

 

[Jealoushe]

I read in a article he carried her 20 plus meters which is 62 foot into the corn field!

20 meters isnt that far.

Didn’t he also live in a trailer with other workers as well?

We expect the attorney to spin it in his favor though, sadly

He lived alone and others lived in the house I believe.

Some sort of insanity defense most likely. His guilt is not in question, and to defend him on those grounds is a recipe for defeat.

Would love to see this, since the employer already said he was a reliable employee. Kind of hard to claim insanity then.

Ffs, joggers running around packing heat is not going to make the community safer.

Why are you FFSing me. I wasn't suggesting that, I was advising someone who wanted to carry and run, how she could. Relax.

 

[Hatfield]

Suspect’s relatives say they’re baffled by arrest in Mollie Tibbetts case

This happens in almost every single horrific murder case.
The defendants family goes into denial and claims how good the person is. Good to them only perhaps.

"Rivera’s father echoed his comment, saying Thursday that he believed that his son was innocent and calling reports of his confession “pure lies.”"


They are always good people until they are not.

"After police questioned him, Rivera guided law enforcement officials to a cornfield where they found Tibbetts’s remains, the affidavit said."

Wonder if media will interview the recently separated wife and see why they separated. Maybe he was not good to her either.

"Rivera has a 3-year-old daughter with a woman he married and separated from earlier this year,"

This is more like it from the Uncle. He at least is being realistic about it that it could be true. Afterall he did lead them to her body when nobody else could find her.

"Still, Rivera’s uncle said that if he did it, he should be punished."

Suspect’s relatives say they’re baffled by arrest in Mollie Tibbetts case

 

[Jealoushe]

But there is no option to go easier on him, there has to be something that he perceived as beneficial to him. He didn’t just do the right thing to make it easier on everybody else.

He was a chicken ****, they scared him. My thoughts anyway....

 

[The Farm]

I remember reading on here that a local LE Officer viewing the tapes, remembered the car from a previous ticket encounter, and that helped lead them to his identity. I do not remember if there was a link provided.

Correct I saw that also. The car had some specific features (spoiler or whatever) and the officer remembered it.