IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 *Arrest* #41

[Warwick7]

LE comments to the media are always carefully crafted. Abduction was CRs intent but notice his comment doesn’t indicate whether or not the abduction occurred while Mollie was still alive or if she fought with her life to prevent being taken.

Multiple sharp force injuries suggests rage, violence, interaction between two people, the helpless victim not armed with a weapon. I just can’t believe his story that Mollie was placed in a trunk with only a wound to the head but then later, according to the autopsy report, there was reason to stab her multiple times.

Yes, especially this high profile case, were LE comments to media carefully decided.

 

[MsBetsy]

I think so too!

Do we know if they ever found a red shirt at DJ’s ?

I know she could have gotten it in the morning but I wonder

From what I remember her mom first said it was missing ( from Daltons house) Later, she stated in an interview that she found 2 red shirts in her home and that there may have been a third, but she didn't seem sure. LE has never confirmed a thing about any red shirt at all. Hope that helps!

 

[Al Hoffman]

If he did stop to get rid of evidence like a dumpster it will be long gone and buried after 5 weeks from when he was arrested.
Or LE is holding it all in their hands right now.

At this point the State prosecutor is asking the defense "How many cards do you want", and the defense is wondering if they should stand or fold! Waiting will bring fullness, and answers with time...

 

[Crystal Regan]

It sounds like you are! My only concern is when there is so much speculation, based on something that we don't know is fact, and rumors start to form, and stories go a bit wild. There was a little bit of that many threads ago. Some very creative stories about what " may" have happened to Mollie. Jmo

Like red shirts, black suvs, black vans....

 

[Warwick7]

Not that's it's that important, but Mollie never said she would be there for dinner at all. She just said "ok", after asking what her mom said what she was making.

When I first heard of "missing Mollie" I felt Mollie hadn't made a real decision on going or not.

 

[Crystal Regan]

At this point the State prosecutor is asking the defense "How many cards do you want", and the defense is wondering if they should stand or fold! Waiting will bring fullness, and answers with time...

I am really confused about all of this. I live in a state with the death penalty so obviously he isn’t getting put to death. Seems like he has already won by getting Life no parole. I am in the medical field not legal, so what has to occur for the state of Iowa to reduce this to second degree?

 

[Jeng1810]

This is a high school with only 250 students total, where CR's girlfriend was a cheerleader AND was in the same graduating class as MT's boyfriend. The two classmates had to know each other, as they both graduated 1 year before MT. Because it would have been the marriage of a HS classmate in a small town, DJ and his girlfriend would have had some knowledge of who CR was. At least a nodding acquaince, if not more from SM.

A very wise lady (who had been through a bunch of scrapes in her life, and who then read about what DIDN'T occur in the newspapers concerning events she had personally been involved in or had observed) once told me to believe nothing that you hear and half of what you read. Just because it appears in MSM or if LE says it to the public dosen't make it so. These are simply factoids, the relative truth and value of which will be revealed with the passage and fullness of time.

I think we are goin between knowing and knowing of someone. In my small class of 107 we had a girl who got pregnant by a guy 2 years ahead of us. I knew his name and what he looked like but we never had any “connection” to each other. Had I seen him somewhere later maybe I would have known who he was maybe not.

 

[kpm]

From what I remember her mom first said it was missing ( from Daltons house) Later, she stated in an interview that she found 2 red shirts in her home and that there may have been a third, but she didn't seem sure. LE has never confirmed a thing about any red shirt at all. Hope that helps!

That’s what I thought.

Thanks, and it was reported she would go home a lot in the mornings to have breakfast with brothers and get the car.

 

[Al Hoffman]

These things happen so quick. I kept thinking of Holly Bobo during Mollie’s disappearance. I think Holly was dead within an hour of her abduction also. I felt Mollie was a hit and run. Totally got this one wrong but I felt that whatever happened to her was over and done before she was even reported missing.

No, unfortunately, Holly B. Was held and abused for some time post her abduction. This was the reason for the line of accessories to and after the fact who testified, and one who committed suicide. Thank goodness that it appears the end was quick for MT.

 

[TL4S]

Another Fitbit question:

Unless MT had a Fitbit model that came with GPS, the phone would have to be used to keep track of location, is that right? We know LE said they had a good idea of the route she took (running, I assume?), but if they didn't have her phone, would that information be stored on the phone's server/cloud/whatever it's called? I'm just wondering if LE had her route information, why didn't they know where she was at? Unless the phone and Fitbit weren't together. But then how the ping near Guernsey? And what about that 8:28pm time? Those point to both phone and Fitbit still with her at the cornfield. I'm confused.

 

[SharonNeedles]

Yes, I agree. I was only making reference to the question of why Mollie would ever know an illegal immigrant farm worker because another poster had asked it. I agree, unless she knew him, she couldn't possibly know if he was legal or not, and frankly I don't think it would matter to her. I think the OP was basically implying that they were from two different worlds, and would never have been known or friends to each other. I do not necessarily agree with those thoughts.

In a school that size she would almost certainly recognize him as IM’s baby daddy, may or may not know his name. It’s inevitable that they had crossed paths many times.

 

[Seattle1]

I think so too!

Do we know if they ever found a red shirt at DJ’s ?

I know she could have gotten it in the morning but I wonder

Mum reported 2 shirts found at her home. And that's a 232...

 

[Crystal Regan]

No, unfortunately, Holly B. Was held and abused for some time post her abduction. This was the reason for the line of accessories to and after the fact who testified, and one who committed suicide. Thank goodness that it appears the end was quick for MT.

My bad. I thought cell phone pings showed the guys had her rolled up in a rug, etc. within an hour. That case has always bothered me. To know that two or three men if not more that evil were running around in a group petrified me...

 

[SteveP]

No, unfortunately, Holly B. Was held and abused for some time post her abduction. This was the reason for the line of accessories to and after the fact who testified, and one who committed suicide. Thank goodness that it appears the end was quick for MT.

Yes, I meant to point this out, but got side-tracked. I have cousins that live only one county away from HB, so I followed that one closely. Along with Brittanee Drexel and Mickey Schunick, Holly hit me the hardest, for some reason, and now this one is right up there with them.

 

[Crystal Regan]

In a school that size she would almost certainly recognize him as IM’s baby daddy, may or may not know his name. It’s inevitable that they had crossed paths many times.

In a town of 1,500 what would the graduating class be? 50.. pretty small

 

[Kaylas]

Another Fitbit question:

Unless MT had a Fitbit model that came with GPS, the phone would have to be used to keep track of location, is that right? We know LE said they had a good idea of the route she took (running, I assume?), but if they didn't have her phone, would that information be stored on the phone's server/cloud/whatever it's called? I'm just wondering if LE had her route information, why didn't they know where she was at? Unless the phone and Fitbit weren't together. But then how the ping near Guernsey? And what about that 8:28pm time? Those point to both phone and Fitbit still with her at the cornfield. I'm confused.

 

[SharonNeedles]

I believe he make have been cruising. Do kids still do that? It was a big thing when I was a teen in the eighties.

Yes they still do that, but they just call it “driving around” and “hanging out.” The term “cruising” and actually driving up and down the main drag all night doesn’t happen.

 

[Warwick7]

I think it could have been done easily without an accomplice. All he had to do was pull up right in front of her. Moving quickly, he could have easily caught up with her. I don't think she had the chance to run very far at all. She was probably just a short distance from the trunk of the car. It would have been easy to strike her in the head and drag or pull her to the trunk. Jmo

I too feel this way. All he said was she had blood on the side of her head, not that she was dead. I have never gotten over the "dragging on the feet part." I strongly feel that she was pulled out of the trunk dragged on her feet into the cornfield. With her fighting him. He may have got sick of it and clocked her in the face then threw her over his shoulder and then walked the 20 meters into the cornfield. I think he threw her down on the ground. I think she still was alive. I feel that she may still had her wits about her and fought him. Since it was possibly said said her clothes were "with" her, I feel she was raped and then afterwards stabbed left for dead and covered with corn stalks.

 

[Kaylas]

That's what I'm wondering. From what I've read, the Fitbit will store the information until it syncs with the app. But what I don't know is if Fitbit company can somehow get that information without the Fitbit itself.

I am not sure about that. My Fitbit needs to be near Wifi to sync to my iPad. Not technology savvy. I’m also not sure about the gps. I can use an app that finds my Fitbit; but I must be within a certain range to locate it. (Misplaced under a sofa....)

 

[SteveP]

In a town of 1,500 what would the graduating class be? 50.. pretty small

My high school had 1500, and my graduating class had almost 550. Almost all of us knew each other. I would be shocked if everyone didn't know everyone else, at least on some level, at that high school. It has been reported that Mollie and IM were FB friends, which seems yet another indicator, to me anyway, that she probably at least knew something of CR. JMO