IA - Mollie Tibbetts,20, Poweshiek County - MEDIA, MAPS & TIMELINES - NO DISCUSSION

Welcome to Websleuths!
Click to learn how to make a missing person's thread

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Mollie Tibbetts’s father decries vitriol against Hispanics, saying they’re ‘Iowans with better food’

By Eli Rosenberg, Reporter
August 27 at 10:01 PM

It did not take long after authorities in Iowa named a suspect in the killing of 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts for her death to be turned into a political weight.

During the eulogy her father, Rob Tibbetts, gave during her funeral Sunday, he highlighted his positive feelings for the local Hispanic community.

“The Hispanic community are Iowans. They have the same values as Iowans,” he said, according to the Des Moines Register. He said that during the nearly six weeks he spent in Iowa while authorities searched for his daughter, he ate at a number of Mexican restaurants. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re Iowans with better food.”

The line drew applause from the crowd of more than 1,000, the Register reported, and stood in contrast to the heated political debate about immigration as it related to Tibbetts’s death.
Mollie Tibbetts’s father decries vitriol against Hispanics, saying they’re ‘Iowans with better food’
 
AUGUST 27, 2018
Suspect in Mollie Tibbetts’ Murder Gets New Counsel, Waives Preliminary Hearing

Online court records show the attorney that represented him during his initial appearance last Wednesday, Allan M. Richards, is no longer his counsel. Documents show Chad R. Frese of Kaplan & Frese, LLP and Jennifer J. Frese, of Johnson, Bonzer & Barnaby, P.C. are now representing Rivera.

Rivera’s new attorneys have waived his preliminary hearing, which had been scheduled for August 31st. They’ve also filed a motion to withdraw any previous motions filed by Richards while he represented Rivera – that includes a motion for a gag order.
 
AUGUST 27, 2018
Rivera’s Change in Legal Representation Likely a Strategic Move According to Legal Experts

"I think the government, the state and the federal, want to be very careful to make sure that there is a fair trial and that it doesn’t come back to them that they were unfair for raising Mr. Rivera’s immigration status, whatever it is," he says.

However, the suspect's status could influence a fair jury selection. Benzoni says Governor Reynold's comment about a broken immigration system following Rivera's arrest, is proof of that.

"When a politician comments, it has a tendency to put their thumb on the scale of justice and justice is supposed to be impartial."
 
AUGUST 28, 2018
Crime Stoppers announces where money from Mollie Tibbetts safe reward fund will go

Because she wasn't found safe, the money will be returned to contributors who specifically said they wanted their contribution returned.

Some individuals didn't request the return of their donation and the money will be disbursed in accordance with the Donation Agreement Form to the general Crime Stoppers fund and/or the Tibbetts family.
 
Neo-Nazi Robocall Impersonates Mollie Tibbetts to Call for Genocide
30 Aug 2018

A series of robocalls, allegedly by a neo-Nazi website, are targeting Iowa’s Hispanic community after the murder of college student Mollie Tibbetts.

Iowans this week received pre-recorded calls advocating for the murder of all Mexican immigrants, the Iowa Starting Line first reported. The calls claim to be from a neo-Nazi podcast that advocates genocide and has previously conducted robocalls for neo-Nazi congressional candidate Patrick Little. Tibbetts, who was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, has become a rallying cry for white supremacists, against the wishes of Tibbetts’ family who have condemned the racist attacks. The robocalls cruelly contradict the family’s wishes, using a female voice actor to pretend to be Tibbetts calling for genocide.
Neo-Nazi Robocall Impersonates Mollie Tibbetts to Call for Genocide
 
30 August 2018
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) —

Members of the Latino community, who've been the target of recent hateful speech that includes white supremacist robocalls and disturbing graffiti on a southside Des Moines road, held a vigil Thursday evening to show support for the family of Mollie Tibbetts, whose alleged killer is in the United States illegally.

The event, held at the steps of the state Capitol, was organized by the League of United Latin American Citizens council and several Latino religious groups in the area. Their message emphasizes that the Mexican native accused of murdering Tibbetts' does not represent an entire community.
Latino community seeks unity after recent, alarming attacks
 
AUGUST 30, 2018
Honoring Mollie Tibbetts’s memory with honesty

Television media are right to cover stories such as Mollie’s, but understand — while this may sound cynical — their motivation is more about ratings than seeking answers. The stories such as Mollie’s that get coverage, through no fault of the victims, meet a certain profile. I know this because of my involvement in many cases with similar fact patterns on remote Indian reservations and in inner cities where nary a reporter was to be found.

Mollie’s memory can be honored in deeper ways than an immigration issue or news cycle if her vibrancy and sweetness become emblematic of all the children and women suffering violence each year and, instead of gliding past the warning signs, we seek the truth no matter how uncomfortable. Otherwise, we can prepare ourselves for more stories that will break our hearts.
 
Latino community holds vigil in honor of Mollie Tibbetts at State Capitol Building
8/31/18
A tragedy 70 miles away that captured minds and souls of a state — and, briefly, a nation — had Des Moines-area community members searching for a way to show support.

The effort manifested in the form of a "unity rally" Thursday in front of the State Capitol honoring Mollie Tibbetts, whose body was discovered near her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa, this month, and other women who are victims of gender-based violence.

Religious officials and leaders in the Des Moines metro area's Latino community helped organize the vigil, which drew dozens to the Capitol's front steps. Hope, unity and sorrow were central themes of the gathering.

"I think this is important for us to have a way to pay respects, but also to show Iowa that we are part of this community," said the Rev. Luis Arredondo, a minister at Lutheran Church of Hope. "We love this state and this city and want the best for our children."
Latino community holds vigil in honor of Mollie Tibbetts at State Capitol Building
 
SEPT 1, 2018
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...ld-trump-jr-column/1163131002/?csp=chromepush

Make no mistake, Mollie was my daughter and my best friend. At her eulogy, I said Mollie was nobody’s victim. Nor is she a pawn in others’ debate. She may not be able to speak for herself, but I can and will. Please leave us out of your debate. Allow us to grieve in privacy and with dignity. At long last, show some decency. On behalf of my family and Mollie’s memory, I’m imploring you to stop.

Throughout this ordeal I’ve asked myself, “What would Mollie do?” As I write this, I am watching Sen. John McCain lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda and know that evil will succeed only if good people do nothing. Both Mollie and Senator McCain were good people. I know that both would stand up now and do something.

My stepdaughter, whom Mollie loved so dearly, is Latina. Her sons — Mollie’s cherished nephews and my grandchildren — are Latino. That means I am Hispanic. I am African. I am Asian. I am European. My blood runs from every corner of the Earth because I am American. As an American, I have one tenet: to respect every citizen of the world and actively engage in the ongoing pursuit to form a more perfect union.
 
SEPT 2, 2018
Mollie Tibbetts’s Father Writes Op-Ed: ‘Show Some Decency’

He compared Mollie to John McCain, and considered them both to be good people who wouldn’t stand for the kind of hate being directed to the Latino community. He called for the unity that existed when people searched for Mollie.

“For most of the summer, the search for Mollie brought this nation together like no other pursuit. There was a common national will that did transcend opinion, race, gender and geography. Let’s not lose sight of that miracle. Let’s not lose sight of Mollie.”
 
4FA1174300000578-6123787-image-a-17_1535890153773.jpg

Don't distort her death to advance racist views
Rob Tibbetts, Guest columnistPublished 3:37 p.m. CT Sept. 1, 2018 | Updated 5:12 p.m. CT Sept. 1, 2018

Ten days ago, we learned that Mollie would not be coming home. Shattered, my family set out tocelebrate Mollie’s extraordinary life and chose to share our sorrow in private. At the outset, politicians and pundits used Mollie’s death to promote various political agendas. We appealed to them and they graciously stopped. For that, we are grateful.

Sadly, others have ignored our request. They have instead chosen to callously distort and corrupt Mollie’s tragic death to advance a cause she vehemently opposed. I encourage the debate on immigration; there is great merit in its reasonable outcome. But do not appropriate Mollie’s soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist. The act grievously extends the crime that stole Mollie from our family and is, to quote Donald Trump Jr., “heartless" and "despicable.”

Make no mistake, Mollie was my daughter and my best friend. At her eulogy, I said Mollie was nobody’s victim. Nor is she a pawn in others’ debate. She may not be able to speak for herself, but I can and will. Please leave us out of your debate. Allow us to grieve in privacy and with dignity. At long last, show some decency. On behalf of my family and Mollie’s memory, I’m imploring you to stop.

Throughout this ordeal I’ve asked myself, “What would Mollie do?” As I write this, I am watching Sen. John McCain lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda and know that evil will succeed only if good people do nothing. Both Mollie and Senator McCain were good people. I know that both would stand up now and do something.

The person who is accused of taking Mollie’s life is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people. To suggest otherwise is a lie. Justice in my America is blind. This person will receive a fair trial, as it should be. If convicted, he will face the consequences society has set. Beyond that, he deserves no more attention.


To the Hispanic community, my family stands with you and offers its heartfelt apology. That you’ve been beset by the circumstances of Mollie’s death is wrong. We treasure the contribution you bring to the American tapestry in all its color and melody. And yes, we love your food.

My stepdaughter, whom Mollie loved so dearly, is Latina. Her sons — Mollie’s cherished nephews and my grandchildren — are Latino. That means I am Hispanic. I am African. I am Asian. I am European. My blood runs from every corner of the Earth because I am American. As an American, I have one tenet: to respect every citizen of the world and actively engage in the ongoing pursuit to form a more perfect union.

Given that, to knowingly foment discord among races is a disgrace to our flag. It incites fear in innocent communities and lends legitimacy to the darkest, most hate-filled corners of the American soul. It is the opposite of leadership. It is the opposite of humanity. It is heartless. It is despicable. It is shameful.

We have the opportunity now to take heed of the lessons that Mollie, John McCain and Aretha Franklin taught — humanity, fairness and courage. For most of the summer, the search for Mollie brought this nation together like no other pursuit. There was a common national will that did transcend opinion, race, gender and geography. Let’s not lose sight of that miracle. Let’s not lose sight of Mollie.

Instead, let’s turn against racism in all its ugly manifestations both subtle and overt. Let’s turn toward each other with all the compassion we gave Mollie. Let’s listen, not shout. Let’s build bridges, not walls. Let’s celebrate our diversity rather than argue over our differences. I can tell you, when you’ve lost your best friend, differences are petty and meaningless.

My family remains eternally grateful to all those who adopted Mollie so completely and showered us with so much care, compassion and generosity. Please accept our desire to remain private as we share our loss. We love Mollie with all our hearts and miss her terribly. We need time.

From Mollie Tibbetts' father: Don't distort her death to advance racist views


 
After arrest of undocumented immigrant in Mollie Tibbetts case, Iowa town tries to escape the inescapable: politics
By Katie Mettler
September 1

SNIP
Then, police found Tibbetts’s body discarded in a cornfield. They charged Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a local farmhand, with her murder. And they announced that Rivera, who had no prior criminal history, was an undocumented Mexican immigrant.

What Brooklyn wanted was to mourn, to avoid the politics.

“It was a crime that was committed because of something on the inside,” said Tibbetts’s close friend, Paris Flack, 17, “not because of his skin on the outside.”

But within hours of Rivera’s arrest, the tragedy within this small community became about partisan political division everywhere else.
SNIP
For most people in Brooklyn, though, Rivera’s legal status is a distraction. This time should be about Mollie, they say, not the man accused of killing her. They remain in disbelief that someone they know, who worked on a dairy farm operated by someone else they know, could have killed a young woman whom everyone seemed to know, too.

Soon, residents were retreating from their usual routines, avoiding the park, the grocery store, their own front yards, because the hatred being spewed out there had begun seeping in here, too. The wave of racist rhetoric prompted organizers to cancel two nearby Latino heritage festivals. At the high school, the principal used his annual welcome-back assembly to tell his students that prejudice had no place in their halls, even as one Latina student listening in the crowd would soon hear classmates whispering that people like her should go back to the border.
SNIP
Immigrant families have been drawn here by the work opportunities in the meatpacking industry, on construction crews and as farmhands. The Latino population in town has grown steadily since 2000, yet it still makes up just 2.3 percent of the population.

Brooklyn’s Latino residents say they have felt welcome in this town, which sits halfway between Iowa City and Des Moines along Interstate 80, but there have been subtle tensions. Language barriers create some separation, and there are cultural disconnects: In Mexico, quinceañeras are a community affair. Here, they are not.
SNIP
The hatred forced Dane Lang, 33, who lives on the farm alongside his grandfather and employees, to send his dog to stay with a friend and to arrange for the family’s 90-year-old patriarch to stay with relatives. Then he reluctantly called a news conference to explain that the business had run Rivera’s documents through a Social Security database before they had hired him, not knowing the paperwork was false.

The Langs know the Tibbetts family well, and soon after the news conference, a Tibbetts family member reached out to apologize to Lang for all the farm was facing. “Don’t you be sorry,” Lang said, adding that the worst was yet to come. Next would be the trial.
SNIP
Rivera’s uncle, Eustaquio “Capi” Bahena Radilla, said he fears less for himself than for his three school-age children. Most days, Bahena Radilla socializes only with co-workers at Yarrabee Farms. Even if he spent more time in town, he wouldn’t know if neighbors were whispering about him — he doesn’t speak English.

But his children go to school with their children.

“My concern is that people will treat them badly or look at them differently,” Bahena Radilla said, through an interpreter.
SNIP
Trying to move on
By the end of the week, Brooklyn finally found refuge in something routine: Friday night lights.

At the high school football season opener on Aug. 24, an away game two counties over, Brooklyn’s high school asked the host team to keep the evening focused on football. Brooklyn Bears teammates — including Mollie’s brother Scott, who plays quarterback — would wear Mollie’s initials on their uniforms, and the cheerleaders would tie teal ribbons in their hair. They wanted nothing more.

On the sidelines and in the stands, Latino and white children cheered together, though outside politics had influenced them, too. The 10th-grade girl who heard classmates saying people like her should go back to Mexico had since received 10 text messages, mostly from strangers, filled with hate. She didn’t know how they had gotten her number.
SNIP
She had done what she had been advised to do, she said: delete the message, block the number and, like everyone else in town, try to move on.
After arrest of undocumented immigrant in Mollie Tibbetts case, Iowa town tries to escape the inescapable: politics
 
SEPT 3, 2018
'Twisted and grotesque': Mollie Tibbetts' father says racist robocall singled him out

The pre-recorded call, sent from a computerized autodialer, or robocall, was sent Tuesday afternoon — a week after Mollie was found dead — to her father's phone.

In it, a white nationalist called Mollie's family members traitors to their race. Her father, Rob Tibbetts, thinks he was among the first to receive the message, which claimed if Mollie could be brought back to life, she would say of immigrants, "Kill them all."

"It was unbelievably painful," Tibbetts said in an exclusive interview with the Des Moines Register, recalling how his wife, Kacey Auston-Tibbetts, reacted. "It was everything that’s dark and wrong in America right now."
 
4FA11A1300000578-6129935-image-a-11_1536061469156.jpg


Horrifying: Rob Tibbetts received a robocall calling his family 'race traitors', claiming that if his daughter Mollie, pictured with him, could be resurrected she would 'kill all immigrants'

'It was everything that's dark and wrong in America right now,' adding that his daughter would have found the message 'profoundly racist'.

'It was unbelievably painful,' Mr Tibbetts told the Des Moines Register.
Iowa authorities have since confirmed that 'robocalls' citing Ms Tibbetts are being used to promote white supremacist views, but they said there's little they can do.

Prosecutors have no authority to step in because there's no apparent effort to deceive anyone for commercial purposes, said Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Iowa attorney general's office.

Hicks said Iowa law addressing robocalls, or autodialing, bars using the equipment for fraudulent purposes, 'but there are all kinds of exceptions for noncommercial purposes and for nonprofit organizations.'
Mollie Tibbetts' dad got racist propaganda robocall using her death | Daily Mail Online
 
Immigrant Charged in Iowa Student's Death Was Known by Alias

Immigrant Charged in Iowa Student's Death Was Known by Alias
By The Associated Press
Sept. 5, 2018

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The Mexican man charged with abducting and killing an Iowa college student was known for years on the dairy farm where he worked by another name: John Budd. ...

The employer, Yarrabee Farms, declined to confirm or deny Rivera's work identity. Lori Chesser, an immigration employment lawyer advising the farm, said that companies cannot discriminate against workers based on how they look or how their names sound. ...
 
SEPT 5, 2018
Cheney family speaks about Mollie Tibbetts' death

"All along I wanted her to be found alive, not dumped in some cornfield. It's sad, it's scary, and it's too close to home," said JC.

Cheney is still in disbelief. She says the news of Mollie's death still haunts her. She watched from her front porch as officials combed through the fields.

“They were still in this local area, but we had no idea why except that we had heard that there was a ping,” said Cheney.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is DeKalb County John Doe (2022)?

Members online

... and 136 more.
Total: 2,045 (members: 137, guests: 1,908)

Online statistics

Members online
137
Guests online
1,908
Total visitors
2,045
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
605,446
Messages
18,187,170
Members
233,365
Latest member
stassy75
Back
Top