Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018

[ForensicFiles]

so if they logon to her fitbit account on the fitbit website, they should be able to see how many hours she slept that night...if she slept at all. Might even show what time she fell asleep and what time she woke up?

Yes

 

[SuziQ]

I don’t understand why it’s stated that only 5 people knew she was alone. She was a young girl and not a recluse. I doubt only 5 knew she was alone. I’m sure the police are looking into many, many people. My opinion is the answer lies in something we’d consider (or at least I would) as coming from left field. MOO

anyone in that town could see Molly was alone by the lack of vehicles out front. Someone could have even thought the house was empty.

 

[Stippling]

The warrant thing was the FBI's doing. I thought I saw somewhere that local LE already had her laptop? If so, then they no doubt at least did a walk-through of the house? Unless the laptop was at her mom's.

If local LE searched the house, including Mollie's portion, and took the laptop sans warrant, could be FBI trying to ex post facto make local LE's search and seizure legit. It doesn't work that way--you can't get a warrant after you've already searched and seized that will legitimize an initially illegal search and seizure (if it were in fact illegal, doubt it would be in this case). But who knows with the spotty reporting in this case.

LE can take physical custody of an electronic device but would still need a warrant in most jurisdictions to search it. The actual search may take place days later.

 

[Sconnie]

Good Morning America today. No new pertinent info.

Family speaks after college student disappears without a trace

Thank you for sharing this. Even though I don't think the boyfriend has anything to do with her disappearance, just hearing him say "I started throwing out red flags..." confirmed it. When I read those words, they sounded suspicious to me, but after hearing them come out of his mouth, I just think he meant that he started contacting people, not that he was the first person to do so, which is what I thought previously. I hope that makes sense.

 

[ptandj]

I think he is saying that he was notified, then contacted her friends and family. Then her mom got worried since no one had heard from her, so her mom began calling hospitals, etc.
Then once he heard from her mom, that she wasn’t at the hospital, and heard earlier from the co-workers, that she never came in, that’s when he came home.

The camp she was working at was at a hospital, I believe. So when her mom called the hospital, it was to see if she was at work, not to see if she had turned up for medical reasons. Just my understanding of what I've read...

 

[agilbe]

anyone in that town could see Molly was alone by the lack of vehicles out front. Someone could have even thought the house was empty.

Especially since it's been said the town is so small and everyone pretty much knows everyone's business.
I am so far behind I better go catch up before I say anything more. See you all sometime tomorrow.

 

[SuziQ]

one thing that's sorta irking is that we have, or apparently have, 3 data points:

5:30 pm -- seen jogging
10:00 pm snapchat to BF
next AM, BF texts or messages GM and he says he checked a bit later and noticed that his message went unread.

Assuming both BF and Mollie were off work the night she goes missing, that is, Mollie's chilling at the house with the dogs and bf is hold up in his motel room or wherever in Dubuque--

did they not engage in any chat or text or phone calls btw her 5:30 pm jog and the 10 pm snapchat?

Maybe the boyfriend was still at work? Maybe he was driving from Brooklyn to Dubuque? Dunno.

fwiw, I agree that I don't think the BF has any involvement. It's just curious if the only conversation btw them the night she goes missing is her shapchatting him a pic.

just to be clear, the bf opened the snap chat at 10pm. There is no info on when it was sent. AFAIK, Mollies mother last communicated with her via text. If it was Mollie who sent it that is.

 

[Madison418]

so if they logon to her fitbit account on the fitbit website, they should be able to see how many hours she slept that night...if she slept at all. Might even show what time she fell asleep and what time she woke up?

This is a great point! I have the fitbit versa and it's pretty accurate. I hope they can get into it/have gotten into it and analyzed this data. If she has the one with heartrate they should be able to get this as well

 

[cass523]

If it’s someone she knows from work, they would know she was supposed to wear it Thursday and might think to take it to throw off the timeline. Just my random
Thoughts though.

I also think the same. Someone she interacted with who misconstrued Mollie's friendly, good- hearted disposition and the attention she showed them for more than what it really was.

 

[Jealoushe]

The last line of the article:

“Dalton says he's confident they'll find her and will bring her back home safely.”

He’s confident.

I know what I think of that. Gitana, Blondie, cluciano, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

Yeah....I feel you on this.

Construction workers often start early in the morning and work hard physically thru out the day. They are tired after a hard days work and often go down early.

Very common in my town to see out of town workers out late every single night. Lots of them blow off steam...have had many as room mates too and not a single one was in bed early.

How do we know that bf didn’t go back home before she went to work, as she was getting ready ?

Exactly my thoughts. He had plenty of time to go see her and return to the town where he was working.

Mollie's boyfriend is a construction worker. This means he climbs on roofs, operates heavy equipment when needed, climbs under home foundations, works around electrical wires, and other lethal activities. His job prevents him from checking his phone every few minutes. I don't find his behavior sketchy.

Or some construction workers sit in equipment or hold a sign all day. It really depends on their relationship.

Phones do not record movements if they're turned off. Not at all.

Yes they do, the Dellen Millard case showed this.

If she was seen jogging at 5:30 p.m. and sent a snapchat at 10:00 p.m. then it would stand to reason someone entered the home while she was asleep.
Was there a doggie door? Those things scare me ever since I heard about Jodi Arias entering a home thru one! Now, if there is any evidence someone entered thru a doggie door then we can isolate what size of a person would not be able to do that.

SC was opened at 10...not sent then.

 

[finine]

so if they logon to her fitbit account on the fitbit website, they should be able to see how many hours she slept that night...if she slept at all. Might even show what time she fell asleep and what time she woke up?

Maybe...maybe not. I have a Fitbit Alta and mine isn't configured to auto-sync (because the battery drains too quickly). I have to proactively open the app, which will then force a sync. It depends how she had hers configured.

 

[Glamourcat]

I’m aware that most of the time a person close to the victim has something to do with it, but the BF sounds legit. It’s just mind boggling what could have happened to her. My daughter is her same age and I would be hysterical at this point. I hope that maybe the Fitbit can leave a digital footprint
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc13.com/amp/boyfriend-of-missing-college-student-speaks-out/3815132/

 

[Tealgrove]

As for the Fitbit, some models will give you sleep info and others do not. It would depend on which model she was wearing.

I have a Charge 2 which also gives heart rate. It would show it going up and down and potentially none at all. I hate typing that.

My personal opinion on all of this is that I don't think Mollie took off of her own accord. I don't believe she would leave the dogs. She had responsibilities. I don't believe that LE thinks she's gone off of her own volition. If they thought that, why call in the FBI? I also don't think suicide. Again, why call in the FBI if that were a possibility?

Nope, unfortunately I think Mollie has met with foul play and I'm not sure it's someone close to her. I'm not even sure she would have known them. After 5 days and nothing breaking, that's when it turns out to be some random person that no one knew.

I wish beyond everything that Mollie did take off. I want her to come home to her family, but my gut says something bad happened. Leaving her contacts and wallet behind if taking off makes no sense.

MOO

 

[cass523]

They are still reporting this as if she never came home after her run. I thought we knew she had.

Yes, still giving the same information six days later. The narrative is it happened while Mollie was jogging. No mention of the fitbit but did say checking all data. Mentioned celebrities who were tweeting to their thousands of followers.

 

[Athena12]

The problem with searching the corn fields is that there are thousands upon thousands of acres of corn in that area. Add in the thousands of acres of other crops (soybeans, etc.) plus the fact that the woods and fields are so thick with foliage right now, and a thorough search has got to be a daunting prospect.

 

[Madison418]

As for the Fitbit, some models will give you sleep info and others do not. It would depend on which model she was wearing.

I believe the boyfriend said she wore the fitbit all the time to track sleep etc. I can't find the article...

 

[Sunnymicki]

There are certain Fitbits that have built in GPS. PLEASE, if you have one of those..give your login and password to SOMEBODY! This is insane that LE has to subpoena these records to find out where that person was last. It could actually mean the difference between being found alive or dead if someone can get into your phone account and fitbit account immediately when the worst case scenario happens. Even if the bad guy turns your phone off etc. LE can immediately know the time and where you were physically located LAST.

The Fitbits that have GPS capability only record your location after you activate it to record an activity. So mine connects to GPS satellites and records me when I tap exercise>run, but not when I'm just running errands around town.

Then, when you are finished with your activity, you need to designate the activity as done before it sends the data to your phone. And when it does that depends on if you have auto sync set up (takes more battery) or only force sync it manually.

So unfortunately, while it can be helpful, its not quite the tool it sounds like for locating someone.

That said, if Mollie's Fitbit was auto-syncing and she was wearing it, LE would be able to see if she went to sleep, for how long, and how many steps she took after she woke up. But once her phone was turned off or the battery died, the Fitbit would record but not have a way to send the data anywhere.

 

[mommylicious]

Not to mention even knowing where to start a search. Did she have a usual route that she ran or did she do different routes? If she didn't have a usual route or if no one knew where she usually ran, where do you even tell people to search?

 

[Jealoushe]

If you read through her Twitter there are some interesting tweets from June. Small arguments regarding dating or being suspicious and following your gut. Could be nothing or could be something.

 

[Madison418]

This is the article in which he states she uses the sleep tracker

Boyfriend of missing college student speaks out

As for the Fitbit, some models will give you sleep info and others do not. It would depend on which model she was wearing.