Found Deceased IA - Mollie Tibbetts, 20, Poweshiek County, 19 Jul 2018 #9

[MassGuy]

I dunno about that guy, he's perpetuating the sex trafficking thing, which we've talked about being unlikely due to demographics and so forth...

Yeah. The sex trafficking thing seems very unlikely, again because Mollie had a low risk lifestyle.

 

[Momma2cam]

Isn’t he a member here? Maybe I have that wrong. But I’ve felt the way you do every time I try to watch one of his videos.

I'm not already through the thread so forgive me if this has been answered but yes I recall him being present on Libby & Abby's thread. He may no longer be a member but know WS gave permission to share his bridge videos in that case. JMO.

ETA: and of course it was answered. Age old mistake of not reading all the way through- my apologies!! :-/

 

[Hatfield]

Its interesting how they caught the guy in the Dubuque Iowa Jogger assault case. They found video from surrounding cameras and since they knew the time and approximate route she was jogging they figured out which vehicle looked most suspicious and then found the owner and brought him in for questioning and put two and two together.

In Mollies case I am surprised there is not video from the next door electric company that could help LE. It seems they would have had cameras at that business.

Dubuque man arrested in jogger assault

 

[Seattle1]

also, if verified what does that mean exactly (genuine question, not being sarcastic).

i realize this is far fetched but if someone really wanted to set the stage that she ran off (rather than abducted or an encounter with someone turned violent), couldnt they stage this too? if they put the dogs in their basement/regular spot and left the house otherwise undisturbed, maybe they would go to this length.

does anyone know what it means by LE/FBI/professionals verifying working on homework? two basic versions come to mind:

1. was her homework some type of online school platform where you had to submit questions electronically and/or save answers as you go (re it would be easy to see if/how much progress was made in a time period). this would be fairly solid evidence it was her.

2. otherwise someone could very easily mimic this. if LE are only able to see her computer had activity - re logged into accounts, opened a word document and see some edit history from her paper, opened some internet tabs pertaining to research on said paper. particularly a pyschology major, where a lot of your work is reading and writing - its not like they'd need to sit down and solve a bunch of math problems, you could literally open a ton of tabs in her browser/make some edits in a word doc (even just grammar/highlighting stuff) and it would appear she had been working.

also, my computer has literally every password saved in chrome as well as most sites just login on my computer automatically- if someone gained access to my laptop, they could login into school/work accounts, open my itunes, social media/time killing sites one likely browses while studying etc....essentially be me.

so, can le/fbi trace down to key swipes (which i think they can) as in if someone set this up on her computer but then did not touch the computer after X time or the screen saver came on at X time. bc if all we know is someone touch the computer at X time and it was inactive after that, its a bit harder for me to convinced 100% it was mollie.

I'ts been said Mollie was taking summer school classes, and the "homework" reference assumes that LE was able to determine that Mollie logged in to Univ account, etc. Other talk is Mollie had a summer Internship, requiring homework but this is also unconfirmed.

Although not confirmed by LE, there are now 3 separate reports that LE told the family and witness that Mollie was doing "homework" in the evening on July 18. Mollie's brother was first to report this in a local news interview; 2nd report by neighbor/witness Dave Collum; and today Mollie's Mom was the 3rd to report Investigators told her Mollie was doing homework on her computer. We respect LE will not confirm, but there's no reason for these individuals to fabricate this "homework" story.

 

[Confusion]

Once again I'm having to skip a few pages in order to post before a new thread is started, you guys post too fast! Something that kept bothering me, but I couldn't figure out why, was the glasses and contacts being at home if her eyesight was as bad as her mother said it was. If she only needed them for reading and close work, nobody would have thought it was strange that they were left behind. If she only needed them at distances (was very near-sighted), most people who knew her would have assumed she was taken while reading, doing something on the computer or some other close work. Since it was made to sound like she needed them for both, a lot of people have assumed (I was one of them for a while) that she must have been taken while she was sleeping or in the morning before she finished getting ready for work.

With family and neighbors saying that she did make it home from her run, and going with the mother's description of her eyesight (sounding like she couldn't function well without them), I have another new (and probably wrong!) theory. My new time line is that her brother dropped her off at the house, she went in, let the dogs out for a while, worked on her homework for a while, texted her mother and made plans for dinner, sent a quick SC to DJ to let him know she was thinking about him, changed into her running clothes (from her work clothes), put the dogs back downstairs and went for her run. Whether the door was usually locked or not, she probably didn't bother locking it since she wouldn't be gone long. Somewhere near 8:00 she went back to the house to get ready to go to her mother's place and took out her contacts to switch to glasses before taking a quick shower and changing clothes, but someone who knew she was gone and everybody else was out of town had slipped in and was waiting for her. After she had removed her contacts, but before she had grabbed her glasses, he made his move. If he took her out right away, she would still have on her Fitbit and phone, but not any corrective lenses; he would also not be likely to grab her wallet/ID. By that time it may have already started getting darker so it wouldn't be real noticeable to neighbors if he had parked in the parking lot of the utility company (or whatever that business is by the house.)

That's as far as I've gotten, but I put in as much as I can remember of "facts" we've heard from family and neighbors. As always, MOO

ETA: I never finished my first point because of all my babbling. If she was getting ready for work in the morning and her eyesight was that bad, she probably would have put her glasses on or contacts in before doing much else (I know for years I had to put my glasses on just to find the lamp to turn on the light. They were always the first thing I put on when getting up (or out of the shower) and the last thing I took off (before going to bed or getting into the shower.)

 

[YiYa]

Is it confirmed that the red tee shirt is missing? I read in a post somewhere that it was found, but I don’t remember confirmation.

Also, I think it was interesting at the PC that the agent suggested that if people hear something suspicious while home to call police. It seemed casual enough, but it stuck out to me. He said this after the long pause to the question about the public being at risk. I may be reading too much into it, but I felt as though he was careful and wanted the public to think about that scenario.

 

[Seattle1]

I had asked this one time before and not sure if there was ever anyone that knew the answer.

Was wondering if maybe Mollie went to the town library to do her studying. Maybe the dogs bothered her too much and she wanted peace and quiet. I know lots of college kids that loved the library to do studying and coursework. They favored the quiet atmosphere of it.
We even saw a twitter post she made when she was at the library back in 2017 so she may have liked them to study.

So the question is
Does that town have a library and would it have been open as late as 9:30pm or 10pm ?

Was wondering if maybe the perp saw her at the library and followed her when she left.

There is a Library in Brooklyn but the hours are posted as 11AM-6PM. The link is below.
Welcome! — Brooklyn Public Library

 

[Deleted member 227095]

Cops Investigate Sighting Of Missing Iowa College Student After Spotted At Truck Stop

Interesting this tidbit ended up at Radar Online - does this outlet qualify as MSM? This story originally discussed extensively online in places that violate TOS here. If true, its unfortunate video/CCTV isn't usable.

 

[otto]

Its interesting how they caught the guy in the Dubuque Iowa Jogger assault case. They found video from surrounding cameras and since they knew the time and approximate route she was jogging they figured out which vehicle looked most suspicious and then found the owner and brought him in for questioning and put two and two together.

In Mollies case I am surprised there is not video from the next door electric company that could help LE. It seems they would have had cameras at that business.

Dubuque man arrested in jogger assault

I've been wondering about that too. If she was abducted from the house-sitting home, cameras from the Electric Co. should be pointing to their parking lot, which should also include activity at the house.

 

[borndem]

Welcome to Websleuths,
Consultant
Homeschool Mom
and
stolenmerch
and
marie224!!​

 

[altissima]

What if Mollie sleepwalked out of the house and something happened to her?

Ridiculously far fetched, right? I’m trying to think of scenarios that work with what we know of the house, glasses/contacts, dogs, timeline...

 

[nch14]

Will never forget Hannah, I joined because of Heather Elvis. For those that don't think a random tip can't solve a case need to know that Hannah's murderer was found because of a random sighting, states and miles away from where Hannah was killed, by an observant woman on a beach in Galveston. Random tips and sightings do help!

What was the tip?

 

[KaaBoom]

If it was a personal crime then the risk to the public is minimal. If they have a POI then the risk is minimal. If it is a predatorial offender, and they don’t know who he is, then the risk to the community is more substantial. Not all predators are drifters.

There are millions of predator offenders on the streets. There are probably a couple of more right in that town. That's just part of the risk of living in any society. If you are going to worry about it, you are going to have a lot of anxiety. The risk is still pretty minimal.

 

[seeker179]

My bad- I posted the wrong video in my earlier post. See below for the Massachusetts jogger who was nearly pulled into an SUV:

Massachusetts jogger attacked in broad daylight speaks out

I only saw this video the other day, when I was already well invested into the MT case, and this really struck me as to how much easier this could be in a rural area at night.

 

[PommyMommy]

Ok... I'm sorry if I missed something here. My understanding is that she didn't go over to her mom's for dinner.. did she? I thought the brother's text was the next am to see if she needed a ride to work? Can you link me to a news article where it says she asked her mom what was for dinner?

Disappearance of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts remains a mystery

MISSING WOMAN: 20-year-old missing in Poweshiek County

 

[MassGuy]

There are millions of predator offenders on the streets. There are probably a couple of more right in that town. That's just part of the risk of living in any society. If you are going to worry about it, you are going to have a lot of anxiety. The risk is still pretty minimal.

My point is that if this is a sexually motivated offender, there is no guarantee that he won’t reoffend in the same area. I’m talking specifically about the perpetrator here and not predatory offenders in general. Because yes, there are predators everywhere.

 

[Ilovemy3boys]

Interesting this tidbit ended up at Radar Online - does this outlet qualify as MSM? This story originally discussed extensively online in places that violate TOS here. If true, its unfortunate video/CCTV isn't usable.

If it doesn’t qualify as MSM. There’s another article same info from the local news.

Here

Kearney, MO Police investigate reported sighting of Mollie Tibbetts

 

[Seattle1]

M

Thinking about it some more, I think a key question may be why did she cancel dinner with her mom and why did she decide she didn't need the car. Am I correct in my information that Mollie worked at a day care? Has anyone here thought that maybe a pretty 20 year old day care worker attracted the attention of the dad's of one of the children. Attention from an attractive older man would be flattering and not something you would want to share with your mother or your BF...

Mollie worked at a Day Camp, and the Camp Director reported that Mollie had worked there at least 2 summers. It's questionable that Mollie "canceled" dinner with her Mother. It's reported that her Mother texted she was cooking brats, and Mollie replied "OK."

 

[borndem]

Welcome to Websleuths, Twinny!!​

 

[Momma2cam]

What do we know about Mollie's planned dinner with her mom? I know we aren't privy to LE's timeline but something here doesn't make sense to me. She has dinner plans with mom, maybe even asked what they were having and then presumably doesn't show up, but family and neighbor state that LE told them Mollie was up late at night doing homework. So I have 2 college age daughters and if I was planning to have either of them over for dinner and they didn't come and they were only staying a mile away I'd probably follow up on why they didn't come...even if it was just a "hey did you change your mind for dinner?" Did Mollie's mom do that? Did she get a response. If it were me and I texted and didn't get a response and the house was only a mile away, I'd probably just walk down the street and see what was up... perhaps I'm just way off base here... but obviously I'm missing something.

There has been a lot of discussion on this. Overall, IMO, the consensus is not to judge without knowing their family dynamics. She texted to ask what's for dinner, mom said brats, she said OK and never showed up. It is debatable whether or not that constitutes confirming "plans". We also do not know if this was typical. Perhaps Mom makes dinner and kids show up later. Maybe even after she's asleep. Maybe it isn't formal dinner together. I find it impossible to know or judge without knowing their relationship dynamics. I am sure mom is looking back now and wishing she had followed up. But obviously at the time it wasn't concerning. I can't imagine her pain. JMO.