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

[Kaylas]

Yes, that's important. Hopefully someone can clear this up, Maybe Kayla has answered it somewhere... I'm searching...

I don’t know the answer to this. I wish that I knew.

 

[Crystal Regan]

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.

Oh no...not the red shirt today...

 

[Al Hoffman]

Looks like FitBits store info on their servers before syncing.

From FitBit Community from 2015

Question - How long can I go without syncing to my computer. Will fitbit store data until I have access to my computer and internet. Sometimes it may be 1-2 weeks before I will have internet access.

Answer -

This is the offical line from fitbit:

• All trackers have the ability to store up to 7 days of detailed minute-by-minute data. If you wait longer than 7 days before syncing, you may only see the most recent week's detailed data.
• Summary data (calories, distance, steps, and floors) will be stored for 30 days. If your tracker measures heart rate, summary heart rate data will be stored as well.

Solved: How long can I go without syncing to my computer? - Fitbit Community

What this actually says, is that the FitBit on your wrist ("the tracker") will hold 7 days of detailed data in its little on-board memory, if this data is not downloaded, then the FitBit on its own will overwrite the previously recorded detailed data. In MT's case, this is not a problem as the battery likely would have died before overwrite of this detailed data could have occured. This really matters if the FitBit was left on the body, The FitBit, on its own, can't upload ANY data to the Cloud. Apparently, the memory of the FitBit on your wrist will hold up to 30 days of summary, non-detailed data.

Info from a FitBit CANNOT be uploaded to a FitBit corporate server for storage unless the FitBit first syncs with a web connected device that can upload the data, using the FitBit app on that individual phone which must be synced with the individual FitBit.

Once this data is uploaded to the FitBit server, the summary data will be held in the "Cloud", on the FitBit corporate server. I don't know for how long. This from where LE obtained MT's FitBit data, from the FitBit corporate servers, located on a server farm who knows where, but not on MT's wrist or CR's trophy box.

To summarize: FitBit wrist devices upload their info to the FitBit servers that form the Cloud only AFTER the wrist FitBit syncs with a phone or other synced device. (IT can't happen any other way.) Once uploaded, the data will be held in the Cloud. Interesting info. Thanks

 

[Cardinal47]

Why are some thinking he will plea? Have his attorneys said he wants to plea. Sorry..i have been busy with family and unable to read the latest media releases. Tia

I can't fathom the prosecutor agreeing to plea this case even if the attorneys for CR came to the DA wanting one. Imo they certainly wouldnt agree to a lesser charge. It may be possible if he pleaded to first degree murder and LWOP.

We have seen so many other defendants that had an overwhelming amount of damaging evidence against them yet most all of them pled NG..and went to trial. I don't think CR will be any different.

In many states the law requires the defendant to fully tell the judge exactly what he/she did if they plead guilty.

I am in agreement with other posters who have said they believe additional charges will be add. We have seen this happen in other cases that also involved an abduction and sexual assault. Usually at a later date the DA..will go to a grand jury to get additional indictments. There is no rush since he has already been charged with murder..

I think LE..knows much more even now than when they arrested him. Imo they have evidence showing he abducted her..then sexually assaulted her before murdering her and throwing her body in the cornfield. Imo I think the cornfield was where he chose to get rid of her body but the sexual assault or assaults may have taken place elsewhere. I think they have evidence she wasnt dead at the abduction site but lived for some time before he murdered her at another location.

Imo..this is why he waived his PH. PHs..are public hearings. Much can be learned in them about the details surrounding the involvement of the defendant. They are like mini trials and can last for a few days or many weeks.

The facts of this case will only worsen as they become known.
Imo

Answering the first part that I think was directed at my quote. Way up thread I suggested CR might plead guilty and he might make that plea not for a reduced sentence but perhaps for some thing that make prison life more easy. He told them he did it and he showed them were he put her. I don't think he will want to have the rest known and for that reason they might give just a bit to spare Mollie's family the pain of everything a trial involves. Just my own opinion.

Trials are brutal. I for one wish we had accepted a guilty plea when it was offered. We refused because the sob would not go to any counseling and we wanted to 'save the next girl'. Two year of hell later the sob walked free. So there it is. My own opinion and my own experience with the legal system.

 

[SharonNeedles]

Answering the first part that I think was directed at my quote. Way up thread I suggested CR might plead guilty and he might make that plea not for a reduced sentence but perhaps for some thing that make prison life more easy. He told them he did it and he showed them were he put her. I don't think he will want to have the rest known and for that reason they might give just a bit to spare Mollie's family the pain of everything a trial involves. Just my own opinion.

Trials are brutal. I for one wish we had accepted a guilty plea when it was offered. We refused because the sob would not go to any counseling and we wanted to 'save the next girl'. Two year of hell later the sob walked free. So there it is. My own opinion and my own experience with the legal system.

I so hope you’re right my friend, a trial will be painful.

 

[Al Hoffman]

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.

Again, I say that he was a guy <modsnip: unnecessary>, looking for action and adventure, or what ever came his way. Unfortunately for MT, she did. What happened after that is just narrative and the point of endless speculation.

JMOO

 

[Cardinal47]

I so hope you’re right my friend, a trial will be painful.

Thank you. The last time I saw a picture of Mollie's mother it broke my heart. She looked ready to collapse. Poor Mollie's father having to leave then come back to all of this.

Then Mollie's brother decides to pay ball and is surrounded by love and companionship. And not forgetting Dalton and how he supported Mr. Tibbetts with how own feelings about what happened and the love of his life gone.

My heart breaks for them all. I hope and pray they don't have to endure everything a trial involves.

 

[jillycat]

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.

I can't imagine that he would allow a conscious victim to come to her feet once out of the trunk and be in a position to fight back. We don't know if some sort of tie or tape or other type of restraint was used to secure her to render her unable to move freely. Opening up a trunk to a live victim who can move freely is high risk.

I think it's a guessing game as to what condition she was in when she was put in the trunk and how he would have had to get her out. Dragging may well suggest that she was either too incapacitated, possibly already deceased, or restrained in some way, and he struggled to move her. I also don't know if I buy that he had her over his shoulder. I just think he uses a lot of details that never get to his crime against her and seem to be more about him. Driving, running, walking, blocking out, coming to, more driving, seeing things in his lap, dragging, carrying, covering... I think he's doing a lot of yammering about activity that frankly makes no sense.

 

[TL4S]

What this actually says, is that the FitBit on your wrist ("the tracker") will hold 7 days of detailed data in its little on-board memory, if this data is not downloaded, then the FitBit on its own will overwrite the previously recorded detailed data. In MT's case, this is not a problem as the battery likely would have died before overwrite of this detailed data could have occured. This really matters if the FitBit was left on the body, The FitBit, on its own, can't upload ANY data to the Cloud. Apparently, the memory of the FitBit on your wrist will hold up to 30 days of summary, non-detailed data.

Info from a FitBit CANNOT be uploaded to a FitBit corporate server for storage unless the FitBit first syncs with a web connected device that can upload the data, using the FitBit app on that individual phone which must be synced with the individual FitBit.

Once this data is uploaded to the FitBit server, the summary data will be held in the "Cloud", on the FitBit corporate server. I don't know for how long. This from where LE obtained MT's FitBit data, from the FitBit corporate servers, located on a server farm who knows where, but not on MT's wrist or CR's trophy box.

To summarize: FitBit wrist devices upload their info to the FitBit servers that form the Cloud only AFTER the wrist FitBit syncs with a phone or other synced device. (IT can't happen any other way.) Once uploaded, the data will be held in the Cloud. Interesting info. Thanks

I don't know what I'd do without you, Al Hoffman!

So IF that 8:28pm time is a Fitbit log/heartbeat, that means her phone HAD to be turned on and very near her for the Fitbit to have registered. And it would have had to sync AFTER 8:28pm. LE would have been able to access that information then very early on, because it would have been in the cloud. If the phone wasn't with her, LE couldn't have gotten it off the onboard storage because it was 5 weeks later, not within the 7 days.

LE said from the beginning that they had a good idea of MT's timeline, but they also had a 5-10pm time frame for points of interest. I wonder if they knew about something at 8:28pm but maybe couldn't say with certainty that it was showing her death, since that was their only indication of such. Maybe the cell phone was still pinging after 8:28pm, so they didn't know for sure.

Unless of course CR took both the Fitbit and phone with him, leaving them on long enough for them to sync. But, yeah, I don't think so... He could have, however, taken the phone after it happened to sync, but again, I doubt it.

There's also still the possibility that 8:28pm is not Fitbit related at all. MOO

 

[Al Hoffman]

Here are some of my wild speculations about that Nissan:

• He drove it after the crime while the Malibu's trunk was getting cleaned (by himself or elsewhere)
• He had access to both cars regularly (they belonged to the farm or his uncle)
• Evidence was found inside that Nissan (whoever bought MT's phone off CR owned the car?)
• It was the car described in the 2017 SA cases in neighboring counties and CR was involved

Let the hate posts begin...

If CR touched it, or could have touched it LE would have taken it. State and Federal LE are funny that way. Hope springs eternal in the criminolgist's heart, as to what could be found.

I used to have a dog that felt the same way every time I cooked or sat down to eat. Crumbs matter, some more than other!

 

[Crystal Regan]

If CR touched it, or could have touched it LE would have taken it. State and Federal LE are funny that way. Hope springs eternal in the criminolgist's heart, as to what could be found.

I used to have a dog that felt the same way every time I cooked or sat down to eat. Crumbs matter, some more than other!

So, has the Nissan been linked to the case? I am scared of going there, like it is a secondary unrelated tow that will ironically belong to WC.

 

[TL4S]

So, has the Nissan been linked to the case? I am scared of going there, like it is a secondary unrelated tow that will ironically belong to WC.

Not that I've heard. And you made me laugh with that being WC's car!

 

[SteveP]

So, has the Nissan been linked to the case? I am scared of going there, like it is a secondary unrelated tow that will ironically belong to WC.

I have actually wondered the same thing. It seems most people made the jump to the Nissan being linked to this case, and it may be, but I have seen nothing to indicate that, other than the fact that it is hooked up to the same tow truck, which to me means nothing necessarily. Unlike the city I live in, I doubt there are hundreds of tow trucks in Brooklyn, and the driver had the ability to two two at a time, so why would he not, if he was needed. JMO

 

[TL4S]

I have actually wondered the same thing. It seems most people made the jump to the Nissan being linked to this case, and it may be, but I have seen nothing to indicate that, other than the fact that it is hooked up to the same tow truck, which to me means nothing necessarily. Unlike the city I live in, I doubt there are hundreds of tow trucks in Brooklyn, and the driver had the ability to two two at a time, so why would he not, if he was needed. JMO

It very well could be as simple as that. I'm just suspicious because with a Sheriff's escort, and critical forensic information in the Malibu, I'm wondering if they'd want to go straight to wherever the Malibu would be examined. JMO

 

[SteveP]

It very well could be as simple as that. I'm just suspicious because with a Sheriff's escort, and critical forensic information in the Malibu, I'm wondering if they'd want to go straight to wherever the Malibu would be examined. JMO

You may be right. I was unaware that it had a police escort, which actually makes perfect sense.

 

[TL4S]

You may be right. I was unaware that it had a police escort, which actually makes perfect sense.

You might have seen the close-up version, because you can't see the Sheriff's SUV in that one.

 

[MsBetsy]

I don't know what I'd do without you, Al Hoffman!

So IF that 8:28pm time is a Fitbit log/heartbeat, that means her phone HAD to be turned on and very near her for the Fitbit to have registered. And it would have had to sync AFTER 8:28pm. LE would have been able to access that information then very early on, because it would have been in the cloud. If the phone wasn't with her, LE couldn't have gotten it off the onboard storage because it was 5 weeks later, not within the 7 days.

LE said from the beginning that they had a good idea of MT's timeline, but they also had a 5-10pm time frame for points of interest. I wonder if they knew about something at 8:28pm but maybe couldn't say with certainty that it was showing her death, since that was their only indication of such.

Unless of course CR took both the Fitbit and phone with him, leaving them on long enough for them to sync. But, yeah, I don't think so...

There's also still the possibility that 8:28pm is not Fitbit related at all.

Right, that must be how they came up with the timeframe early on. But remember there was a statement by LE that her jog was from 7:30- 7:45 in one of those earlier reports? Something to the effect of her jog lasting for 15 minutes. Based on what we know now, that makes perfect sense. If the abduction and assault began at 7:45, then that's basically the "end" of her jog. I really wish we knew for sure what that 8:28 time means. Could that time period cover the time it took to chase her down, subdue her and put her in the trunk, drive her to the dirt road going into the cornfield, assault her, kill her, and then he turns the phone off after the attack? Or he just leaves it on and there is no activity on the fit bit and LE assumes that she is dead at this point? Then he drives around, Maybe stopping by the farm after he is calmed down to then turn off the phone and get rid of some evidence?

 

[cluciano63]

If only he will plead guilty...not only would it spare the family a horrible trial but also up to two years in a kind of limbo before a trial might start. Time that otherwise could be used to try to start new chapters in their lives, instead that will be stuck in this mire of pain and grief indefintely. But I doubt any lawyer would ever encourage this route.

 

[TL4S]

Right, that must be how they came up with the timeframe early on. But remember there was a statement by LE that her jog was from 7:30- 7:45 in one of those earlier reports? Something to the effect of her jog lasting for 15 minutes. Based on what we know now, that makes perfect sense. If the abduction and assault began at 7:45, then that's basically the "end" of her jog. I really wish we knew for sure what that 8:28 time means. Could that time period cover the time it took to chase her down, subdue her and put her in the trunk, drive her to the dirt road going into the cornfield, assault her, kill her, and then he turns the phone off after the attack? Or he just leaves it on and there is no activity on the fit bit and LE assumes that she is dead at this point? Then he drives around, Maybe stopping by the farm after he is calmed down to then turn off the phone and get rid of some evidence?

Right now my personal feeling is her phone was still in the armband and the Fitbit was still on her wrist when they found her. Maybe the earbuds, too. Or he found one (or both) earbud in the trunk, or picked it off the ground at initial attack site, and he threw them out long ago.

My thought (MOO, JMO, IMO) now is that he was never at the pig farm. I think the pig farm was in the cell phone range and was searched along with all the others searched near Guernsey. WC might have been looked at closer simply because of his record. The last ping was in that area because her phone was within that area when it died (or got rained on).

My thoughts evolve daily, however, so I might feel differently tomorrow.

 

[MsBetsy]

Something like that. I just do not believe he exited that car for any substantial amount of time like he said. That was his getaway car. I also keep thinking if he was running along her like he said, it would have only taken one home grown Iowa boy to drive by.

Exactly. I think he just made up that story to make it believable that he was just trying to be friendly, and to explain the reason for running after her. Her probably never got out of the car until he pulled up beside her, or possibly right in front of her. When she saw him coming straight at her she may have then started to run away from him, he caught up to her quickly, assaulted and subdued her so he could get her in the trunk, which may have only been several feet away if he pulled up right in front of her.