The cameras captured images of Tibbetts running, as well as a black Chevy Malibu that investigators said they traced to Rivera, informing a determination that Rivera was one of the last people to see her running, Rahn said. They conducted a lengthy interview with Rivera on Monday after approaching him for the first time, in which he told them about seeing her running and how he pursued her.
“He was very compliant,” Rahn said. “He was willing to talk to us. There was no fight or struggle of any kind.”
But the account Rivera gave investigators has some significant gaps in it, according to an affidavit filed in district court. Rivera told them that he panicked after Tibbetts said she was going to call the police and “blocked” his “memory,” the affidavit said. His memory picks up again at an intersection where he noticed a headphone earpiece in his lap and realized he had put Tibbetts in his trunk, where he found her with blood on her head, it said. He then dragged her into a secluded place in a cornfield, where he left her face up and covered her with corn stalks.
Man charged with killing Mollie Tibbetts is an undocumented immigrant, authorities say
