Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #31

[otto]

I wonder what the average number of cars is on a Wednesday evening for a small town like Brooklyn. Process of elimination seems like it wouldn't be out of the scope. Interesting.

Of those people at the truck stop, most would probably leave via the I-80, and only a handful would go to Brooklyn. That reduces the number of vehicles of interest between 5-7PM. I think it's a big undertaking, but it will work to identify the vehicle if everyone who was at those locations reports to police.

 

[flashy09]

I don’t know much about Twitter but on FB I will like something kind of like page marking it so I can show my husband.

I finally went to her twitter page to see myself. It's the ONLY pinned tweet and she tweeted or retweeted 10,000 times! But now that I tell she is using to make light of the fact she is probably often mistaken for a 10 yr 0ld and that random things happen to her. Kind of creepy that she titles it "just a normal tuesday night" knowing what happened to her on another normal weekday. The tweet would be no big deal except now she is in fact a missing person and it could possibly show a stalker foreshadowing what he knows will happen (if he was not actually a cop) or her trying to clue friends in IF she pinned the old tweet that night. If anything it confirms that she looks very young and maybe why someone was brave enough to grab her.

 

[Seattle1]

And with talk about being tracked with human implant there's this!

Three Square Market implants microchips in one-third of employees' hands | Daily Mail Online

 

[Angie622]

I don’t have a complete theory I can get behind, but consider this: I live in a very similar area, on the edge of town in a nearby community. Just last night shortly after sunset I drove home and passed by a young female solo jogger, a very similar situation to what an abduction scenario for Mollie would look like. There’s only one scenario that could have resulted in that jogger ending up in my car with nobody seeing or hearing anything: if she knew me, I could call out to her. That’s it. No other way that girl gets in my car. Whether it happened on her jog or after her jog I don’t know, but I feel certain she got in a car with somebody she knows and felt comfortable enough to do so with. Beyond that I can only speculate.

Hi, first post here.

Sharon this reminds me of a girl that went missing in Georgetown, Texas in 2002, Rachel Cooke. She was home from college on a break, went out jogging in her parents neighborhood and disappeared. It was theorized that she was abducted by two men: one driving and one grabbed her. She has never been found.

But if there was only one abductor, in either MT situation or Rachel's, I would imagine an "easy" way to grab her would be using a taser. Anyone can get one and an experienced criminal would probably have no problem with a quick grab. That would also keep her incapacitated in the car and unable to escape for at least a little bit. Giving him time to get out of the immediate area before pulling over and tying her up.

 

[Crystal Regan]

Hi, first post here.

Sharon this reminds me of a girl that went missing in Georgetown, Texas in 2002, Rachel Cooke. She was home from college on a break, went out jogging in her parents neighborhood and disappeared. It was theorized that she was abducted by two men: one driving and one grabbed her. She has never been found.

But if there was only one abductor, in either MT situation or Rachel's, I would imagine an "easy" way to grab her would be using a taser. Anyone can get one and an experienced criminal would probably have no problem with a quick grab. That would also keep her incapacitated in the car and unable to escape for at least a little bit. Giving him time to get out of the immediate area before pulling over and tying her up.

Welcome Angela!

 

[SharonNeedles]

Hi, first post here.

Sharon this reminds me of a girl that went missing in Georgetown, Texas in 2002, Rachel Cooke. She was home from college on a break, went out jogging in her parents neighborhood and disappeared. It was theorized that she was abducted by two men: one driving and one grabbed her. She has never been found.

But if there was only one abductor, in either MT situation or Rachel's, I would imagine an "easy" way to grab her would be using a taser. Anyone can get one and an experienced criminal would probably have no problem with a quick grab. That would also keep her incapacitated in the car and unable to escape for at least a little bit. Giving him time to get out of the immediate area before pulling over and tying her up.

I can see that in certain situations either two abductors or a tazer could allow for a swift abduction, the reason I can’t fathom that in this case is that there are no witnesses to anything of the sort. You can’t prowl around this town without getting noticed.

 

[zencompass]

Dear SharonNeedles,

I am starting to think that perhaps a car was not involved.

Maybe even not initially?

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[CheetosDust]

Of those people at the truck stop, most would probably leave via the I-80, and only a handful would go to Brooklyn. That reduces the number of vehicles of interest between 5-7PM. I think it's a big undertaking, but it will work to identify the vehicle if everyone who was at those locations reports to police.

And that whole area of truck stop, Casey's and car wash would be crucial. Viewing each video, making a list of vehicles that make an appearance, and crossing people off a list. Is that how it works?

 

[otto]

It’s two areas I am thinking of and they are neither the car wash nor the truck stop....

I don't think there's any reason to suspect someone simply because police are interested in five locations associated with her disappearance.

I can see that in certain situations either two abductors or a tazer could allow for a swift abduction, the reason I can’t fathom that in this case is that there are no witnesses to anything of the sort. You can’t prowl around this town without getting noticed.

Apparently someone did prowl around Brooklyn without anyone realizing that they were seeing a prowler.

 

[RavenCC2020]

I think taking MT from the house, when it was not yet dark would seem foolish. Too many opportunities for the perp's vehicle to be spotted there by a passing car, neighbor or another jogger/walker. Sunset was not until 8:40 PM with twilight at 9:13 PM.

I've thought about this before...how likely would it be for someone to drive by and possibly witness something. I came to the conclusion at the time that it is not really very likely because of one thing. DJ house is one of the last homes on the street. To the side of the property is HWY 170 I believe it is called is a dirt road. If remaining on his steet shortly after his house it turns into a dirt road heading to RT 6. JMO but it's summer and I would think people might avoid using either of those roads as a crossover to where they are going simply because they are dirt roads that would either be throwing up dust all over your car, into the car if it was dry, or if wet then muddy puddles.

As someone that has a very dark car dirt shows up very easily and it drives me nuts driving around in a filthy car. I just know if it was me I would go in the other direction up the street to avoid the dirt roads therefore less likely I would witness anything happening on his property. So for me the traffic would not appear to be that great and only traffic going to or coming from that farmhouse after DJ's would intentionlly go that way unless of course someone is driving an old truck that could care less about the dust/mud.

 

[zencompass]

Great points, @RavenCC2020 !

I also keep thinking about that surveillance camera not working at the CoOp next door.

There appears to only be grass between that building and the house Mollie was staying in.

 

[SharonNeedles]

Dear SharonNeedles,

I am starting to think that perhaps a car was not involved.

Maybe even not initially?

What are your thoughts on this?

I hadn’t considered that... but even if she departed on foot with someone else I would think there would be even more opportunity to witness.

 

[Wndrlst]

"I haven't actually been on her twitter to see her personality, but to pin a tweet seems too "much" for just a silly encounter. To tweet about it sure, but to pin it and make it such a big part of her twitter? It must have unnerved her. When did she pin it? I assume not the night of her disappearance."

I don't know if anyone responded to this so if they did, I apologize for repeating it... but the "pinned tweet" is a normal thing. It's almost like your "5 minutes of fame" on Twitter. If you tweet something and it gets a lot of likes or retweets, people pin them so that it's the first thing people see when they go to your profile. Almost every person who uses Twitter has a pinned tweet at the top if they've said anything that got a good reaction from people. It's absolutely 100% normal. The content of that tweet, obviously ironic considering the circumstances.

 

[ChiaPet]

Dear SharonNeedles,

I am starting to think that perhaps a car was not involved.

What are your thoughts on this?

Not Sharon but a few pages back the comment about parking a car and then hiding in a corn field really stood out to me. I could run with headphones on near a cornfield and feel totally safe (until now!) because I wouldn't see any cars or people near me. If someone wanted to grab someone quickly, perform whatever kind of assault on them and then leave, that would be a good way to do that.

A car parked at the co-op or some other business where a car would not stand out and you would witness saw the house where Mollie left to go on her run. Or, they might have a good guess on where her run was and would know she'd pass by a certain area to get home or would pass by it twice to get home.

 

[SharonNeedles]

(snipped by me) Apparently someone did prowl around Brooklyn without anyone realizing that they were seeing a prowler.

That assumption is unsubstantiated.

 

[zencompass]

I hadn’t considered that... but even if she departed on foot with someone else I would think there would be even more opportunity to witness.

But what if someone was at an isolated spot where Mollie was about to run past.

Is it possible that the perp grabbed her and pulled her into a cornfield?

 

[duster1979]

I thought at first that she may have been hit and dumped in the cornfields but I have taken a step back from that. I think crows and animals would have indicated where she is by now. Also, we have a farm and we had a deer die in one of the fields far away in the middle of summer and the smell was unbearable a mile away. If this was a hit and run, she was taken with the offender.

I was all set to fully agree with you 100% because it makes sense.

Then I remembered the case of the young man who went missing from a small town in my area a couple of years ago. He was a known drug abuser so initially LE and his family assumed that he was on a binge with some of his druggie friends in Fairfield or Ottumwa so no meaningful search was conducted close to home for several weeks. His body was eventually found just a couple hundred yards from the house, nobody had noticed an odor and no critters had been scattering the remains. So it's possible that a body could be decomposing in a field without being noticed.

That being said, I still think that if it was a hit-and-run situation the driver probably took the body. I could even have been a situation where he was trying to help her by taking her to Grinnel to the hospital but panicked and dumped the body when he realized she was gone.

 

[zencompass]

Not Sharon but a few pages back the comment about parking a car and then hiding in a corn field really stood out to me. I could run with headphones on near a cornfield and feel totally safe (until now!) because I wouldn't see any cars or people near me. If someone wanted to grab someone quickly, perform whatever kind of assault on them and then leave, that would be a good way to do that.

A car parked at the co-op or some other business where a car would not stand out and you would witness saw the house where Mollie left to go on her run. Or, they might have a good guess on where her run was and would know she'd pass by a certain area to get home or would pass by it twice to get home.

Dear ChiaPet,

It was a post by @Justice101 who got me thinking that someone could have been "hiding" in an isolated spot, in a cornfield and saw her, then dragged her into the cornfield.

Maybe he had been watching Mollie and knew she ran past there.

I just find that the post by Justice101 is very interesting. I will try to find the post.

 

[cujenn81]

I don’t think the pinned tweet being re-discussed is relevant, although it is ironic given what’s happened.

In the Brian Shaffer case, he disappeared in 2006 and has never been found. He was last seen on April Fool’s Day and has the tattoo of the cover of a music album titled ALIVE on his arm. MT’s tweet strikes me similarly.

Is it possible that 1 day we will learn Mollie (or Brian above) disappeared willingly and she chose the pinned tweet (or he chose the April Fool’s date) as a little tongue in cheek joke on their way out? Well sure, in the absence of any evidence about where they went so far, we have to acknowledge it’s possible.

But I think, until anyone tells us otherwise, LE and anyone else working on the case (including us) should treat their disappearance as serious, and assume they may be in desperate need of help... Especially since both of these individuals had a lot going for them and didn’t have a track record of doing irresponsible things.

If you want a mystery, in your down time, feel free to drop by Brian’s thread too. Trying to keep it alive over there.

Eerie and coincidental tweets have been discovered in a few cases I've followed in the past. AFAIK, none of them have ever been found to be relevant to the person's disappearance but the sheer irony of them have always given me the heebie jeebies.

The Heather Elvis case is one example. Roughly one month before Heather was reported missing, she retweeted the following from Daniel Tosh: hey married fellas, you can either cheat on your wife OR murder her. never both. that's when you get caught. (A married man and his wife are currently awaiting trial on kidnapping charges in relation to her disappearance. Her body has never been -- and likely never will be -- found.)

 

[Angie622]

I can see that in certain situations either two abductors or a tazer could allow for a swift abduction, the reason I can’t fathom that in this case is that there are no witnesses to anything of the sort. You can’t prowl around this town without getting noticed.

I am not familiar with the town itself, but this sort of thing has happened so many times, in neighborhoods. It's almost the stereotypical way for women this age to be abducted. Like hitch hiking in the 60s...
So maybe it's not feasible if this town is somehow different. But based on history, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Also want to mention, I don't believe she would have taken a ride from anyone, whether she knew them or not. The only thing that would put me in a car during a run was severe weather. And if there wasn't any, I don't believe she got in a car willingly.