Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 *Arrest* #38

[Alethea]

That's a nice car. I was expecting something rattier. I wonder how he explained the blood in the trunk.. Or the wet carpet

Same, I expected something much older. Looks freshly washed too

 

[ChuckMaureen]

Or someone could have been driving when he ran beside her.

Would CR have not given up anyone who may have been with him? Would he take the fall?

 

[kpm]

I've been curious about a connection between Rivera other places in Iowa. All I've come up with is that he has facebook contacts in Tama and Marshalltown, and his uncle may have lived in Blairstown when Rivera first arrived in the USA. I'm sure that police are looking into everything from peeping to assault and murder.

It has to start with where he got the fake documents, IMO

There are already people coming forward with claims that they brushed off or were scared to report

There will most likely be a trail and red flags wherever he’s been, IMO

I also think he’s older than he’s reported

 

[MassGuy]

I had done research on Jodi Arias as to stab wounds before and after death occurs. The body gives tell tale signs on whether the stab wounds take place before death or after death. The coroner will see it and know.

It may be more complicated here, because of the level of decomposition. Regardless, they have determined those wounds to be the cause of death.

 

[Tiger Stripes]

Good point. I grew up in Southern California, you barely knew anyone! It’s possibly that she didn’t “freak out” as much as if it had been an actual stranger.

At least here in the Midwest, we definitely have the "small town" thing -- saw it (in another Midwest state) where my parents moved: People waving at *every* vehicle that went down the single-lane gravel road in front of my parents' place. When I visited them and was home summers from college, we'd often walk their dogs along that gravel road. In my first week back (they had recently moved there), as we walked, I was *amazed*: My parents were waving at these cars, pick-up trucks, flatbeds as if they knew all of the drivers & passengers! So I asked them, "Who *are* all of these people, and when/where did you get to know them?" (Much laughter from them, in response to my question) "Oh -- that's just how it is out here! Everyone waves at everyone! And -- maybe it's a good way of getting to know who's in the area, too." Interesting reply, right, especially after the sequence of events in Brooklyn, IA. MOO. (Btw, am *not* familiar w/the "culture" of Brooklyn, IA, so am *not* saying that they all wave at each other like that -- but...it's *possible*.)

Thus, even if someone's casing out the area for a crime...others may have *never* taken notice, thinking, "Oh, yeah, we've seen that car [a black Malibu, i. e.] drive around here before... Bet they're friends with someone down the block..." Chilling, in light of what we now know.

 

[Warwick7]

Good question. I know a local market said he used to visit with his friends and purchase drinks and snacks. I wonder if he picked up anything to eat? Went out to eat? We know he had a month to tie up loose ends.

Does anyone have a link to a gas station clerk that said she saw him come in all the time. Then about 2 weeks ago and never come back...?

 

[MyBelle]

It's quite possible he saw her jogging on Tuesday and abducted her Wednesday.

I tend to agree with Mortvedt. I don't think this is the first time he has committed a criminal act.

“All of a sudden he just does it,” says Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, referring to suspect Cristhian Rivera. “Who escalates to abduction, kidnapping and homicide that fast?”

“That is part of the ongoing investigation,” Mortvedt tells PEOPLE. “We want to dig into his background — and not just the last four weeks. Who is this guy? Where has he been? What has he done? How can we verify that?”​

Cops Wonder: If Mollie Tibbetts' Accused Killer Has No Record — Who Jumps to Murder That Fast?

I agree. There's something else going on that we still don't know. I'm still baffled why parents would send a 16-year-old boy to a foreign country. His father claims to be a farmer. Surely the family farm could find work he could do. Who, what or why did they want him so far away? That's a pretty drastic move for parents to make at that age.

 

[JudgeJoe]

...and the application for the arrest warrant lists 1900 385th Ave as the location of the crime, indicating that the murder took place there and not in a cornfield 12 miles (or so) away. I know, I'm confused too.

I think that the FitBit data, uploaded to the cloud, ended before the cornfield where the body was found, resulting in the last digital "ping" (acknowledged by LE) in the area of the hog farm. This could be because CR simply turned the phone off enroute to the disposal site. There are technical reasons why, in an area with diminished cell phone coverage (fewer towers), a digital geolocated signal source could be less than pinpoint. This was discussed up-post.
Maybe CR drove past the hog farm looking for a place to dump a body.

On one MSM interview with the lead DCI investigator, he said that CR tackled MT. Maybe when CR accosted MT he took her down, causing her head to hit the pavement, causing immediate unconsciousness and resulting in death (consistent with the affidavit application) from a closed head injury (and with accompanying head laceration - consistent with CR's known statement). However, this COD is not consistent with the prelim autopsy report, as confirmed on a reported MSM interview that the murder weapon was a knife.

It's also possible that CR was threatening MT with a knife, and in the struggle when she went down, hitting her head, he fell on top of her with a knife in his hand, driving the knife into her chest, immediately killing her, and causing nicking of the sternum and/or ribs. Not his intent to kill her there and then, but stuff happens. There was MSM report that forensic
anthropologists would be consulted in this case. Documentation of this kind of sharp force injury would be consistent with their skill set.

Findings of bleed associated with a closed head injury, after 4 to 5 weeks of decomp, while maybe detectable could be equiviable as a COD. Bone nicking from a knife would be a much firmer finding and a better choice to list as the leading COD.

If CR just fell on her & drove the knife in, it wouldn’t explain the autopsy description of multiple sharp force trauma.

 

[ExpectingUnicorns]

...and the application for the arrest warrant lists 1900 385th Ave as the location of the crime, indicating that the murder took place there and not in a cornfield 12 miles (or so) away. I know, I'm confused too.

I think that the FitBit data, uploaded to the cloud, ended before the cornfield where the body was found, resulting in the last digital "ping" (acknowledged by LE) in the area of the hog farm. This could be because CR simply turned the phone off enroute to the disposal site. There are technical reasons why, in an area with diminished cell phone coverage (fewer towers), a digital geolocated signal source could be less than pinpoint. This was discussed up-post.
Maybe CR drove past the hog farm looking for a place to dump a body.

On one MSM interview with the lead DCI investigator, he said that CR tackled MT. Maybe when CR accosted MT he took her down, causing her head to hit the pavement, causing immediate unconsciousness and resulting in death (consistent with the affidavit application) from a closed head injury (and with accompanying head laceration - consistent with CR's known statement). However, this COD is not consistent with the prelim autopsy report, as confirmed on a reported MSM interview that the murder weapon was a knife.

It's also possible that CR was threatening MT with a knife, and in the struggle when she went down, hitting her head, he fell on top of her with a knife in his hand, driving the knife into her chest, immediately killing her, and causing nicking of the sternum and/or ribs. Not his intent to kill her there and then, but stuff happens. There was MSM report that forensic
anthropologists would be consulted in this case. Documentation of this kind of sharp force injury would be consistent with their skill set.

Findings of bleed associated with a closed head injury, after 4 to 5 weeks of decomp, while maybe detectable could be equiviable as a COD. Bone nicking from a knife would be a much firmer finding and a better choice to list as the leading COD.

Hi Al, the above was RBBM. I believe the time and place quoted here refers to the first crime that was committed ~ not the murder. It could have been simple assault or kidnapping; it didn't necessarily have to be the murder. My apologies if this has already been considered.

 

[Tiger Stripes]

I've been curious about a connection between Rivera other places in Iowa. All I've come up with is that he has facebook contacts in Tama and Marshalltown, and his uncle may have lived in Blairstown when Rivera first arrived in the USA. I'm sure that police are looking into everything from peeping to assault and murder.

Just an aside -- as an Iowan who is constantly devouring the news, I must say that my fellow Iowan news "junkies" *know* that M-town is well-known for a high percentage of foreign workers. Legal or illegal, can't say for sure. But common knowledge in the state. MOO.

p.s. O/T: For those of you who don't know, the Iowa State Fair has (drum roll, please!) a **butter cow** each year. On display. Carved each year! Every time I type "MOO" on WS, I can't stop picturing one of those life-size butter cows! [needed some humor here!]

 

[MistyWaters]

See post #1075 for answer to your question.

Thanks very much! Unfortunately the time of this Fitbit? ping is not mentioned. I still question how her Fitbit would ping “at a hog farm”. Wondering if the new arena could indeed have a place in it....

“....When her Fitbit pinged at a hog farm about 10 miles southeast of the house in Brooklyn, IA, where she was last seen, police searched the area but found nothing, Mortvedt said.

This is a new arena for us. That's part of the reason we called the FBI in. It's probably pretty new to them, too," Mitch Mortvedt, spokesman for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, told CNN. "I don't know of another case here in Iowa where we have used specifically Fitbit info."....
Everything We Know About The Disappearance Of Iowa College Student Mollie Tibbetts

 

[MassGuy]

I agree. There's something else going on that we still don't know. I'm still baffled why parents would send a 16-year-old boy to a foreign country. His father claims to be a farmer. Surely the family farm could find work he could do. Who, what or why did they want him so far away? That's a pretty drastic move for parents to make at that age.

It’s not a drastic move considering the drug war in Mexico. The area that he is from, is incredibly violent, as are many regions of Mexico. There is poverty, crime, and a lack of opportunity. This is why the United States is so attractive to Mexicans, and people from Central America.

 

[Warwick7]

If anyone had seen him that night, I would think they would have noticed a change of behavior. He had to have been hyped up. Other things like blood, scratches, etc or basically any kind of wound. During those 5 weeks the public had been told what to look for ( at some point) and even the girl who was interviewed who said he gave her strange answers when she asked him who he thought did it. It just seems that when you consider all the people he came in contact with, someone would have seen something odd.

I forgot about the girl who said he gave her strange answers when she asked him who he thought did it!

 

[AnnaGrace]

Phones will still ping when off, just not when the battery is dead.

Thank you. That is what I was thinking.

 

[gforce]

If anyone had seen him that night, I would think they would have noticed a change of behavior. He had to have been hyped up. Other things like blood, scratches, etc or basically any kind of wound. During those 5 weeks the public had been told what to look for ( at some point) and even the girl who was interviewed who said he gave her strange answers when she asked him who he thought did it. It just seems that when you consider all the people he came in contact with, someone would have seen something odd.

I'm sure the illegal alien's friends who were also illegal aliens don't want anything to do with LE

 

[MyBelle]

If CR is indeed illegal, DHS has a say. CR might be tried, convicted and sentenced in Iowa. He might event serve some time but ultimately, under current policies, DHS could deport him.

DHS HAS HAD THEIR SAY. CR is being held on an immigration detainer. He has now been formally charged in Iowa state court, bail set and he can't be bonded out without DHS being told about it.

 

[MyBelle]

Once ICE or Homeland security learns that an undocumented immigrant used another person’s name and identifying IDs, that person usually is held ina Federal prison. CR had to think out a plan that he wouldn’t be caught if he abducted MT. I believe that he had been watching her this summer and that 19 July he carried out that plan. CR is well aware of what might happen to himif he even gets a speeding ticket. His true identity could be revealed. I do not believe that he blacked out or snapped. IMO CR watched MT run and knew all of her routes.

CR is being held in a County jail, not a federal prison. CR will go to an Iowa prison if convicted.

 

[MsBetsy]

Sadly, there will never be a time when these types of crimes cease. I see young men and teenage boys treating girls/young women with disrespect, and worse, near the high school where I live when I walk my dog. Sometimes they even yell out at me. I can’t help thinking they will raise their boys the same way, that is okay to snigger at girls, say things to them uninvited, even follow them.

But it does seem that there is more intensity and a kind of self-righteous rage when rebuffed that I never saw as a teen or young women decades ago. Jmo

Well, if it helps at all, I have never even seen any of that where I am! The kids are awesome, respectful of adults, for the most part people are polite. Once I lost a $20 and was at the gas station with no money and no way to get home. The guy behind me gave me $10. 00 for gas. So there are still some awesome people in the world! Brooklyn Iowa sounds like that kind of place. I hope they can recover from this tragedy and put their minds toward seeing justice served. How about that article about Mollies brother deciding to play in the football game at the last minute and scoring 3 touchdowns!!!!

 

[ChuckMaureen]

DHS HAS HAD THEIR SAY. CR is being held on an immigration detainer. He has now been formally charged in Iowa state court, bail set and he can't be bonded out without DHS being told about it.

Yes, but it doesn't end there. CR is still illegal, DHS still has a part to play. Iowa will complete their process; trial, conviction, incarceration. At any time at least afterward, DHS may deport CR at will.

 

[MsBetsy]

I wonder if he really meant the Fitbit, or phone.

I think phone.