Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #12

[MsBetsy]

ALERT, ALERT: Mollie's Mom gave an interview (and many family photos) to Daily Mail. Many revealing details at link below. Again, this is directly from Laura Caldwell

[Dalton Jack] He says his last contact with his girlfriend of three years was a Snapchat message he opened at around 10pm.

Jack thinks it [snap photo] was taken indoors at his house but told DailyMail.com he couldn't be sure because the message expired ten seconds later.

The anguished mom of missing student Mollie Tibbetts has revealed perplexing new clues about her daughter's mysterious disappearance two weeks ago - telling DailyMail.com: 'I'm in purgatory.'

Her car, a wallet containing a driving license and debit card, and an unused passport, have all been located, according to Laura - who says it's 'inconceivable' her daughter skipped town without saying a word.
<modsnipped>

Mother of missing Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts says she does not believe she returned home | Daily Mail Online

Late Edit to add credit to local writer:

By BEN ASHFORD IN BROOKLYN, IOWA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:32 EDT, 3 August 2018 | UPDATED: 18:32 EDT, 3 August 2018

 

[MsBetsy]

I wouldn't place too much credibility in what the Daily Mail reports

 

[MsBetsy]

Right. So I wonder why the older brother isn’t also a Tibbetts? Or is he? I’m going by MSM photo captions. I could definitely be wrong. However, if the older brother IS RT’s son, wouldn’t HE be Dad’s Best Man?

 

[MrsWatson]

Okay, I'm not alone in the red shirt thing making me mental.

Also, I've discounted everything about the glasses/contacts. I wear daily wear contacts that I buy in a big batch and there is no way my family has any idea how many I have, how long I've worn a particular pair, etc. I also can not see to walk around my own house. My thinking is that Mollie had a pair on lenses in and like others have stated here, and from my personal experience, she likely had several pairs of lenses, stashed all over. The eyewear is a non-issue, IMO.

 

[MassGuy]

Could Mollie have encountered someone while attending her dad's wedding who became obsessed with her? I don't remember seeing many details about the wedding, other than Mollie acting as her dad's best man. How did she travel to attend? Did DJ go with her? She and DJ seem to be a genuinely affectionate cute couple who seem deeply attached. Could this have sparked some sort of extreme jealously/envy/rage? We covet what we see.

I don't know what to think about the DM article. As an ex-pat American living in the UK, I find UK crime coverage on crimes in the UK very very sparse, generally until after trial. Lots of redtops here like to report on crimes in the States because more information is released and it feeds into the idea that America is so crime-ridden. That's a huge over generalization on my part, but hopefully you get the idea.

Could the article be a well-orchestrated ploy by LE to soothe the abductor into thinking he/she is totally under the radar? All the family pictures humanize Mollie, she is a person who is loved and has a family, not an object. The focus of the interview is her Mom. Said interview done by a British tabloid not known for veracity and making it seem like her Mom sort of stepped out of bounds to give the interview. Poor DJ is almost an afterthought.

Maybe I've just read Thomas Harris too many times.

I’m an expat the other way and I agree that the Daily Mail is complete garbage. They usually regurgitate and sensationalize news stories from other outlets. This one was actually written by a guy who was caught up in the celebrity hacking scandal, I think when he was with the Mirror. That being said, I highly doubt this is some sort of law enforcement ploy. If LE is behind this, it is likely because they wanted the interview to be done. I doubt that’s the case though, because they couldn’t control what the family revealed, especially accidentally.

 

[MsBetsy]

Not necessarily. I think they all have the same last name but I don't believe it has any relevance to the case.

 

[David T]

I don't think LE have any POI at this point. If they did wouldn't they investigate them the same way they did the pig farmer?
I'm starting to think she was abducted by a stranger and driven south, along one of the roads near where they were searching Thursday night. That area may be where her phone last pinged before it was turned off or destroyed.
There are also alot of county fairs going on right now and alot of carnies traveling from one to another which is another possibility.

I agree with you based upon what is known, with the exception of the comment about carnivals, fairs, etc. We could also say truckers, transients, or immigrants.

The problem is, if a complete stranger did this, then the trail will grow cold quickly.

So, I think "stranger" requires a definition. If by stranger you mean that it was someone Mollie barely knew, or knew only well enough to seem surprised by their presence, then I agree.

I just think we underestimate how many brothers, uncles, dads, drug addicts, dropouts, fraternity members, social misfits, etc. can come into contact with someone like Mollie during her freshmen year in college.

I'm sorry if I'm implying that a male is 96% likely to be involved, but I think most of you will agree.

Time might reveal more evidence that will surprise us, but right now, I have no suspicion of the men in Moliie's "immediate" circle. The other men in the circle would know.

 

[samp320]

Has anything happened since the press conference? Any new details/thoughts?

 

[MrsWatson]

I’m an expat the other way and I agree that the Daily Mail is complete garbage. They usually regurgitate and sensationalize news stories from other outlets. This one was actually written by a guy who was caught up in the celebrity hacking scandal, I think when he was with the Mirror. That being said, I highly doubt this is some sort of law enforcement ploy. If LE is behind this, it is likely because they wanted the interview to be done. I doubt that’s the case though, because they couldn’t control what the family revealed, especially accidentally.

Excellent point.

 

[David T]

If LE is getting Fitbit data, they almost certainly know if she was abducted and where that took place.

Fitbits work with your cell phone to transmit your location by using the cell phone's GPS signal. It updates on a frequency basis, if you have it set to be tracking your location (whether it be walking, hiking, running.) It does this no matter what, as I found out once when I went on a hike and turned my Fitbit GPS tracking on, completed the hike, and was driving home when I noticed I forgot to tell my Fitbit that I was no longer hiking. It recorded my footsteps accurately but added ten miles to how long I had "hiked", and if you look at the Fitbit dashboard, you can clearly see I was going very fast along a road. I've only made this mistake once with a few months of Fitbit usage.

If her Fitbit was forcing GPS data to be transmitted and she was abducted at home, I assume they'd put her in a car. Her speed would easily show that she was moving at the speed of a car, not the speed of a runner. Similarly if she was running and abducted then, she would suddenly be moving much faster. If her cell phone was ditched at this point, preventing the Fitbit from communicating with the servers to send GPS coordinates, then we'd know where that happened. If her Fitbit wasn't sending GPS data, I'm not sure we'd hear all this fuss about the Fitbit at all since the police could have used cell phone records to get a (less accurate) idea of where her phone last was.

This also makes sense if you look at her missing items including the iPhone jogging band and headphones. If she used the GPS feature, she'd be turning it on as she was leaving the house, or turning it off as she got home. During the run, it would be on. And of course she would have those items with her if she was going for a run.

This is why we are fooling ourselves if we think LE enforcement is confused about the timeline.

In a general sense, they know when her cell left that house and when it dropped off the grid. IMO, the fitbit has been a media generated story that adds little to the case as soon as the cell is destroyed or the fitbit battery dies.

 

[margarita25]

JW was in jail when Abigail and Liberty were attacked.

(Oh I know, wasn’t linking them at all, sorry if my post was confusing. I was just saying the rope was something I wanted to use as an example to help demonstrate what I think that was sticking out of BG’s jacket, imo, sorry for O/T).

 

[margarita25]

This is why we are fooling ourselves if we think LE enforcement is confused about the timeline.

In a general sense, they know when her cell left that house and when it dropped off the grid. IMO, the fitbit has been a media generated story that adds little to the case as soon as the cell is destroyed or the fitbit battery dies.

Absolutely.

 

[David T]

I think your logic is solid. The only part that gives me pause is the risk to the perpetrator of an early morning abduction. I guess it all comes down to how early it may have occurred.

Morbid interest is a powerful motivator, even for an organized thinker. But what you say about the time is very true.

I can only imagine what time dogs would wake Mollie from sleep. If she had an eventful day ahead of her, I can see her putting on her shoes and taking the dogs outside, before returning the dogs down to the basement where they would be fed, etc.

I live in an area where a killer followed a local news announcer to her home late at night, and he entered after she let her dogs out and then turned the dogs back in, without locking the door. He did not know her, but he had been stalking for hours since seeing her at the gym at some point.

 

[MassGuy]

This is why we are fooling ourselves if we think LE enforcement is confused about the timeline.

In a general sense, they know when her cell left that house and when it dropped off the grid. IMO, the fitbit has been a media generated story that adds little to the case as soon as the cell is destroyed or the fitbit battery dies.

The Fitbit was important insomuch as it likely gave police a beginning from which to search from. It also likely gave LE solid data from which to build the timeline. So I don’t think it’s importance has been overstated. But if you mean that the media is making it sound like there is lingering hope of it magically solving the case, I definitely agree.

 

[MsBetsy]

This is a lot of strange information. Some of it contradicts what her mom has said before. I wonder how much of this is directly quoting Mollie’s mom.

 

[Trino]

Read a previous post about the number of fairs going on. There are a lot, and many have questionable workers. Interesting to check these. The Central Iowa Fair Marshalltown ended July 14 - less than an hour away.

 

[David T]

The Fitbit was important insomuch as it likely gave police a beginning from which to search from. It also likely gave LE solid data from which to build the timeline. So I don’t think it’s importance has been overstated. But if you mean that the media is making it sound like there is lingering hope of it magically solving the case, I definitely agree.

The fitbit might have been more helpful if it showed she was abducted away from the house.

I think her phone and fitbit left the house when she did, and the trail died for whatever reason within a number of miles.

LE might have even pushed the fitbit story to make a perp nervous.

 

[margarita25]

So is there a consensus going here on whether people think she was abducted in the evening or the next morning/day? Tia for your thoughts on this.

 

[David T]

Read a previous post about the number of fairs going on. There are a lot, and many have questionable workers. Interesting to check these. The Central Iowa Fair Marshalltown ended July 14 - less than an hour away.

These are important avenues of investigation, but I think it is a mistake to investigate carnival workers before all the "normal" people who had contact with Mollie and her acquaintances.

Ted Bundy volunteered at rape crisis centers and state wide political campaigns.

 

[MsBetsy]

I agree, it is very contradicting. The mom first said she believed she vanished the next morning as the shirt was missing and her contacts and glasses were in the house. Also it was Molly's mom that said an investigator told her she was doing homework on her laptop until late in the evening. The neighbor was told the same by investigators. One thing they know for sure is she went out for her jog at 7:30. Also her boyfriend said he thought she sent the Snapchat a few hours after her run. It doesn't make sense.