Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #28

[Tricia]

Thank you PommyMommy. This is a great list.

Updated 8/17/2018

WHAT WE KNOW​

1. Mollie’s jogging clothing is missing – pink sports bra, black shorts & running shoes
2. Mollie’s devices are missing – cell phone, armband, FitBit and white earbuds
3. She has about 3 different routes and likes to mix them up
4. The dogs were in the basement
5. DJ said the door was probably unlocked
6. She typically picks up the car at her mom's house before dark
7. She went for a run about 7:30
8. She usually runs for 45 minutes
9. LE reconstructed her run, relying on Fitbit data, cell phone pings and eyewitnesses
10. A digital signal led police to the Guernsey farm area
11. Video footage was collected from various businesses, including Casey’s & D&M
12. Mollie's mom was asked by FBI if Mollie was "in a home" at 9:45
13. She may have done homework (time unknown & unconfirmed)
14. Snapchat appeared to be indoors & taken that day, viewed at 10PM
15. Mollie was a creature of habit
16. DJ sent her a text in the morning and she did not respond
17. JT sent her at text approx. 7:30 am asking if she needed the car – no response
18. There were no vehicles in the driveway (as there usually would be)
19. Her driver's license, passport and debit card were at the house
20. Usual evening routine: run, shower/eat or eat/shower, homework, bed
21. No signs of a struggle or forced entry

Reported Sightings

• NH, 7:30 pm - W Pershing Dr
• RT, time unknown - W. Des Moines – walking east, would have to go N or S
• DR, 8 pm - East 2nd Street - jogging west toward Casey’s

DC, time unknown, West St - told by LE (not an actual sighting) that MT jogged past his house and made it home

FBI poster indicates that Mollie was last seen running on Pershing Drive.
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/mollie-cecelia-tibbetts/@@download.pdf

 

[1987]

I have wondered if the phone was kept as a trophy or whatever you want to call it and the sims card was thrown. sims cards are hard enough to find when you know where it is much less if had been just thrown, or it could have been kept just not in the phone. I think that would stop the phone communication to towers? and likely the fitbit or at least stop the phone from transmitting anything from fitbit. moo

 

[MsBetsy]

I was thinking about this last night. I wondered if LE did not bring this up because it would mean Mollie likely met the same tragic and disgusting ending that Abby and Libby did and would cause fear and panic in the community, or if they have evidence or reason to believe it is not related. I am going to spend the weekend studying Lyric and Elizabeth since I did not follow that case as closely as many others.

Last night as I was falling asleep I wondered if LE searched the Lincoln Wildlife area not because of a tip but because of an offender MO they were worried about.

I would be interested to know your findings, and if at all, similarities to this case.

 

[Medical_man]

Okay one final thought for now. In the Delphi murders of Libby and Abigail, just how long do ya'll think it took the FBI (LE in general) to retrieve that info from Libby's phone?
And he is still on the loose.
Have patience.
They will be caught.
Eventually.
Just saying,
Chi

Not necessarily There are unsolved cases all over the state, country, and world. There are Unidentified remains that turn up all over as well.

 

[zxz]

We can indeed. It’s good to listen to all sides of any viewpoint. I don’t think I have blind faith in LE. I do know that mistakes can be, and have been, made in other cases. However, I think the teams working this case are probably the best of the best, are experienced, and are committed to finding out what happened to Molly. If she was abducted by a stranger at an opportunistic time, ie a back road, no witnesses, no evidence, those are absolutely the hardest cases to solve. That is why serial killers get away with it for so long. There is nothing to tie them to a victim and no evidence left behind. If, and I’m not saying it is, but if this is the case, what would you do if you were LE?

Appreciate your viewpoint. On a broader scale I think that the quality of the "best of the best" is being diluted across all professions (unfortunately, including LE). Wish I could answer the question as to what LE should do. Without knowing what steps LE are taking we can only evaluate the results. I cannot share your view that the "best of the best" are doing their best. The performance/results of the "best of the best" needs to be better.

 

[TL4S]

Your scenario is exactly what I have been imagining recently, with alot better details and descriptions. Except for the exact get away route. Is one of those roads you describe after the abduction possibility a dirt road at all? Any of those roads?

Are you guys thinking West 2nd St. between High St. and Jackson is where he grabbed her?

 

[Medical_man]

Was wondering....

It even has a voice changing app... And you can show that you are calling from another number through caller ID.

 

[Dushi]

No, you're not a pest at all! LE would be able to see her pace/speed as she jogged. The pace/speed would stop as she got into or was forced into a car. The pace/speed would then match the speed of the car as it drive of.

So the increase/ reduction in speed would tell them she was walking, running or sitting in a car.
I understand the heart beat increase/decrease

So if she had been abducted at the end of her run, they would have data that said all seemed normal on her run and then something happened?
If she got in a car mid run, they should see that also?

So as they track the locations, they should be able to monitor her reactions?

And would they be able to tell if her phone was manually shut down or ran out of battery?

 

[str8nightowl]

delete

 

[clearskies1]

This leads to nothing helpful, I know, but I do believe she was taken off of the street during her run while it was still light. I'm amazed at the brazenness of it. Anyone could have seen it, but apparently no one did.

 

[str8nightowl]

delete

 

[Medical_man]

This leads to nothing helpful, I know, but I do believe she was taken off of the street during her run while it was still light. I'm amazed at the brazenness of it. Anyone could have seen it, but apparently no one did.

I agree. Quick, easy, clean.

 

[sripey]

Are you guys thinking West 2nd St. between High St. and Jackson is where he grabbed her?

I think it was East 2nd st. Just east of the car wash

 

[otto]

Asking a question for those members that have been on WS for years/many cases. Have you ever known a case that involved agencies to not put forth the basic details? What she was wearing, timeline etc.. and confused me they placed a map asking for people to think if they were in those areas at those times but didn’t ask for what they
Could have noticed. Was very vague. I’m not as experienced as many however some items seem so unusual to me.

No one knows exactly what Mollie was wearing because she was alone when she left the house. I'm sure that has happened many times where no one knows exactly what a missing person was wearing when they were last seen. It's also not unusual for information about a missing person to trickle out simply because investigators are starting with nothing, and they have to discover information. In this case, information became available slowly, with more information provided a month after her abduction.

Police released a map and have been very specific about what they need from people in the Brooklyn area. They are not asking anyone to solve the case or to provide personal theories about what happened to Mollie. Investigators are interested in hearing from people who were at those specific mapped locations on July 18 between 5-10PM if they saw something unusual. They are also interested in hearing from anyone who knows someone that has changed appearance or behavior since Mollie's abduction.

It all seems par for the course.

 

[TL4S]

This leads to nothing helpful, I know, but I do believe she was taken off of the street during her run while it was still light. I'm amazed at the brazenness of it. Anyone could have seen it, but apparently no one did.

I'm with you on that. That's why I study the map to figure out what location on her jogging route would be isolated enough and low traffic enough to do this, even if it were starting to get dark!

 

[Truthisfreedom]

Asking a question for those members that have been on WS for years/many cases. Have you ever known a case that involved agencies to not put forth the basic details? What she was wearing, timeline etc.. and confused me they placed a map asking for people to think if they were in those areas at those times but didn’t ask for what they
Could have noticed. Was very vague. I’m not as experienced as many however some items seem so unusual to me.

Agreed 100% . With all of the agencies involved, the lack of clarification and progress is disturbing at best, and reeks of a much larger problem. In my humble opinion, the FBI realizes that this is a much bigger issue, possibly tied to a much larger string of abductions where digital footprints are nill ( because of the experience of the abductors) , and does not want to cause widespread panic.

 

[Veracity]

Good call. This exact same point was discussed up-chain some 15 or 20 threads ago. The point was made about how CANVAS (the data management software (or some clone of it) that was used at UI) worked. Issues about auto-logout (AND how it dosen't) were raised. - e.g. if MT started a log in session before she went on a run, but did not log out, how long would the system allow one to stay loged on without keystroking. The consensus seemed to be that it might be a long while before the system would log you out (OR an administrator had to), as other users of the system said that one could log on and ride the system, without doing any work, in an attempt to fool their professor into thinking they were logging in classwork hours while goofing off.
Also, someone with a tech background raised the possibility that MT's computer's internal clock could have been enough out of sync with real local time (apparently a common occurance), so that to an inexperienced examiner of her computer it might appear that she was working much later than she actually was. He pointed out that he constantly has to adjust for this when documenting transferred files.

This info about MT working late at home on her computer, after her run, came out very early in the investigation. It was reported to have been leaked by members of Ames, IA LE to MSM. This BEFORE DJ's neighbor reported to the MSM about seeing MT jog past, and seeming to confirm the earlier LE leaks from Ames that MT had been working "into the late evening" on her computer, via a LE leak of this info to him. It appears that, at that point in time, some element of LE believed that this was true.

It is entirely possible that later forensic analysis of MT's computer (by the FBI - the reason they were brought in) along with logs from UI's CANVAS management system and logs from DJ's brother's home router, may have shown that MT did NOT work on her computer past 7:30, when it seems that most (and LE) reports are confident that she was out running. So all of this concern about her returning home, after her run and working late on her computer may just be a big, fat nothing burger!

What LE HAS definitly told us is that she was last seen running at 7:30, and that they aren't concerned with what happened after 10:00 pm. This tells us that this is the 2.5 hour window in which LE feels she was taken. Her runs are reported to have lasted about 45 minutes. She should have been finished with her run, and been at her mom's house or DJ's, no later than 8:30 p.m. If she were taken on her run, this is a 1 to 1.5 hour window in which she could have been taken, 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. Sunset that day was at 8:41 p.m., and you would have been required to put your car headlights on after 9:11 p.m. after the end of civilian twilight; so it was still light out. So, if she was taken on her run, it was likely before 8:30 p.m.; before she could reach her mom's home and have dinner, and pick up the car and a red work shirt for work the next day.

BUT, suppose she had a Eurika moment about her classwork, and ran to DJ's house to record this moment of epiphany. Suppose she made it home and did sit down with the keyboard, without taking off her sweaty running gear, armband, phone, et al; being in the moment and typed out her great revelation without letting out the already fed and watered dogs (this having been done before her run, said dogs not having been let out as she was caught up in the moment; or the dogs having been let out and then put back up before the following happened)

1) MT said "Oh darn, I need the car and a shirt for work, gotta run over to Mom's, and was taken/abducted on a late night run/walk, in the dark, before 10:00 pm; by which time LE tells us the purp was done with the abduction, and gone from greater Brooklyn. This could also account for her sending a SC at 9:45, just before she went out the door, accounting for the LE question about MT being in a house at this time.

2) The above combined with some variant of a knock on the door after her run, but before her shower while she was still in her running gear (remember MT's Mom said they have not found her used running gear or phone, et al), and she was persuaded to step outside and was taken, or was persuaded to "go for a ride" in her sweaty clothes. Personally, I'm sticking with the guy from Publisher's Clearing House with a check for a million dollars; this explains why DCI said they had searched 'abroad'. From my mouth to God's ear that MT is sitting on a beach in Aruba drinking a daiquiri, but I don't think so. At any rate, whatever happened, LE is telling us that it was done and the perp was out of the area by 10:00 p.m.

3) Something else happened - at this point alien abduction is looking better and better.

At any rate, these are my thoughts on the matter and I'm sticking with this until something better comes along.

MOO

Fantastic post - would it be OK to offer this - she decided to go get that car and shower at Mom's.

She lived both places this summer, right?

Takes me back to where she did her laundry?

 

[Dushi]

No one knows exactly what Mollie was wearing because she was alone when she left the house. I'm sure that has happened many times where no one knows exactly what a missing person was wearing when they were last seen. It's also not unusual for information about a missing person to trickle out simply because investigators are starting with nothing, and they have to discover information. In this case, information became available slowly, with more information provided a month after her abduction.

Police released a map and have been very specific about what they need from people in the Brooklyn area. They are not asking anyone to solve the case or to provide personal theories about what happened to Mollie. Investigators are interested in hearing from people who were at those specific mapped locations on July 18 between 5-10PM if they saw something unusual. They are also interested in hearing from anyone who knows someone that has changed appearance or behavior since Mollie's abduction.

It all seems par for the course.

I agree.

I have thought back over the cases I have followed closely and at first, I thought this was different, less info.
But when I think about it more, most of those cases had an element of frustration for me because of so little information coming out. I think it is not unusual

 

[TL4S]

I think it was East 2nd st. Just east of the car wash

Do we know what the building with the red roof on the south side of East 2nd between Clay and Broadway is?

 

[sripey]

So the increase/ reduction in speed would tell them she was walking, running or sitting in a car.
I understand the heart beat increase/decrease

So if she had been abducted at the end of her run, they would have data that said all seemed normal on her run and then something happened?
If she got in a car mid run, they should see that also?

So as they track the locations, they should be able to monitor her reactions?

And would they be able to tell if her phone was manually shut down or ran out of battery?

Yes, LE has that heartrate/location information from her fitbit. They would not be able to determine why her phone stopped communicating.

 

[Deleted member 718]

Wondering if MT had ever stayed at a UI dorm?

"After meeting Mollie in a University of Iowa Class of 2021 Facebook group, AM lived with Mollie in a dorm room last year during their freshman year.

“Mollie and I -- we got so close. We ran together all of the time and we had dinner together at least 5 times a week in the dining hall,” A told Dateline."

College sophomore Mollie Tibbetts still missing after two weeks of searching