Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #30

[sripey]

That's exactly what I've been thinking regarding the dots. I don't think this is a trucker.

I can see that. Someone knew the area pretty well.

 

[Deleted member 155000]

How does LE know the truck stop is #1, how do they know the perp started there

Good question. What explanation could we come up with? Let’s say they discovered another phone (a burner) that pinged all the same towers as Mollie’s later in the evening. Could they trace it backward and see that it pinged earlier in the day in the vicinity of the truck stop?

 

[doublestop]

I might be mistaken here, but wasn't Mollie's Fitbit the Alta version? I don't believe it has GPS, so any GPS would come from her phone, not the Fitbit.

 

[otto]

How does LE know the truck stop is #1, how do they know the perp started there

That is the route I think was taken. If you have a different idea, please let me know and I'll move the numbers around to reflect that. Cheers

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

phones set their own times. they can not be manupilated in settings on the phone. no way to trick phone and no way to trick tower with phone as far as time setting

so tell me if you can please. in order for her phone to ping. she had to be using it yes, then if she turned it off and went on her way back to the house the phone would not had pinged anymore because she stopped using it. Is that correct.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

phones set their own times. they can not be manupilated in settings on the phone. no way to trick phone and no way to trick tower with phone as far as time setting

so tell me if you can please. in order for her phone to ping. she had to be using it yes, then if she turned it off and went on her way back to the house the phone would not had pinged anymore be

 

[Harmony 2]

This is how I would number the route, with point 3 as the location where the abductor and Mollie met.

If anyone has a different idea and would like a map to easily visualize, let me know - just takes a moment to do.

That is exactly what I have been thinking. Isn't there an empty lot adjacent to the car wash?

 

[WideOpen]

The question was what would bring the perpetrator to Brooklyn on a Wednesday. In response, what I meant to imply was that the perpetrator could have been in town to pay his electric bill. Maybe he liked to pay early. It was simply a thought.

I have often considered that the perp may have first spied Mollie when he was paying his electric bill. He would have a reason to be there and obsess, coming back at a later time.
jmo

 

[otto]

Yeah, a trucker would've likely gotten on the interstate rather than continued south. Unless it is a local route driver, like a farm/grain truck or something.

In any case, it seems like they have a handle on what probably occurred. Heck, they may even know precisely which vehicle and who was driving it. But without a witness corroborating that something suspicious occurred with the vehicle in question (slow moving, circling around, etc.) then a warrant is unlikely. So that may be all they are looking for in order for this case to blow wide open.

JMO.

I doubt they have a vehicle, but I think they have a very good idea about Mollie's route from 7:30, at the beginning of the run, until 9-10PM. Hopefully, local tips will provide the answers they need about who was at those places that night.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

phones set their own times. they can not be manupilated in settings on the phone. no way to trick phone and no way to trick tower with phone as far as time setting

so tell me if you can please. in order for her phone to ping. she had to be using it yes, then if she turned it off and went on her way back to the house the phone would not had pinged anymore because she stopped using it. is that correct

 

[Deleted member 155000]

Let's say we stick to reality

HA! Your comment made me laugh.

I see why it might be hard to resist making it.

But I have heard of LE narrowing suspect lists by using data from cell phone towers. In a city it would be more difficult bc the list of phones pinging from a given tower would be long, but in the country...the list sometimes narrows.

 

[DocBrew]

How does LE know the truck stop is #1, how do they know the perp started there

I would say they could've seen the vehicle in question on camera downtown going in the opposite direction and traced it back to the truck stop. Or, the vehicle itself could've been a truck and they looked at the obvious places.

JMO.

 

[sripey]

That is the route I think was taken. If you have a different idea, please let me know and I'll move the numbers around to reflect that. Cheers

I agree with you. I think LE believes he may have stopped here prior to exiting towards Brooklyn at the beginning of the time frame they provided.

 

[gforce]

That is the route I think was taken. If you have a different idea, please let me know and I'll move the numbers around to reflect that. Cheers

So you are going on the assumption that it was someone coming into town and not a local. And how would LE know the perp and have him tracked there? The highly percentage possibility is that the truck stop was a stop after the perp and mollie had contact. If LE has a way to know that the perp started at the truck stop before they even met mollie, I think they would be further along on catching the perp.

I'm still going on the theory that one of Mollie's friends meets her on the run, and they go back to the house to hang out for awhile then heading to Grinnell for a quick bite. And never made it to Grinnell, then the kid had to drive around the area looking for a way to solve the body issue.

 

[oldtxlady]

Another observation I will make about small country towns, as someone who grew up in 1 and who lives in a different 1 to this day...

Some kids I went to school with were related to dozens of people in our town. And sometimes, those relatives included tow truck drivers, salvage yard owners, farmers, police officers and firemen.

I am aware of 2 individual cases where a local kid made a mistake (both involving drunk driving accidents) and local officials took pity on them, believed it would do them no good to suffer further consequences for their wrong doing, and essentially looked the other way.

I believe many in the town would feel this kind of small town loyalty to Mollie, which is a huge plus. It might be what drives someone to turn in the right tip. But it’s possible that if she was unintentionally hurt by or in the company of another local kid, who panicked and called their parent to say they thought she was dead, the parent or relative might have been willing to help them take care of it, believing it was a true error and their child didn’t believe to be locked up or have their life destroyed.

I actually see this as a second possibility behind stranger abduction.

 

[Alethea]

Are there any cases we know of where there was a missing child or woman and it turned out to be an accident? I've seen it brought up before but I can't think of a case where this turned out to be true.

 

[otto]

Let's say we stick to reality

The reality we have is that there are five specific locations in and around Brooklyn, and each of them is significant in the disappearance of Mollie. Police know Mollie's route from her Fitbit data. We've heard that several times. What police need to figure out is the route taken by her abductor. Some of the dots relate to the abductor, and some indicate where Mollie and abductor are together.

Was the abductor heading West on the I-80 and he stopped at the truck stop? Was he in the area to get gas and a carwash?

I think it's worthwhile exploring what the known facts tell us about the abductor.

 

[ketel0ne]

phones set their own times. they can not be manupilated in settings on the phone. no way to trick phone and no way to trick tower with phone as far as time setting

I can set the time on my iPhone manually just by disabling "set time" automatically.

 

[TL4S]

This is how I would number the route, with point 3 as the location where the abductor and Mollie met.

If anyone has a different idea and would like a map to easily visualize, let me know - just takes a moment to do.

I would like truck stop 1 and car wash 2 - as perp wheteabouts pre-abduction. Then house ad the abduction site, then on to 4, then 5.

 

[otto]

That is exactly what I have been thinking. Isn't there an empty lot adjacent to the car wash?

Don't know - will check the map. Thanks!