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

[feralwriter]

Well said. I think people are getting hung up on what they've seen in crime shows regarding admissible evidence vs. inadmissible evidence, physical vs. circumstantial, etc.
We're not talking about evidence that one might take to court, but rather the broader definition of the term. A wet sidewalk in the morning is evidence that it rained overnight. A fifth wheel hitch in the back of a truck is evidence that the owner of the truck like to camp. Cows on the road is evidence that a fence is broken somewhere. And the fact that MT's only possessions that aren't accounted for are the things she would take running is evidence that she didn't return from her run.

Yes. That's how you're using "evidence," and that's fine. Gatekeeping terms on WS will never work. However, gatekeeping will in a court of law.

 

[InvSmith]

Keep in mind, along with all you stated, that as far as we know and as far as I believe...they don’t even have a crime scene. No victim (not fully known that she didn’t leave on her own) + no POI (as far as we know) + no crime scene = trouble solving. IMO

We have a missing persons report. The person has not come forward to law enforcement to deny being a missing person. One could argue the lack of digital communications indicates the person is impassitated in some manner.

 

[cluciano63]

I think her jogging items being missing qualifies as circumstantial evidence that she went missing while jogging.

I also think she likely used her phone while jogging, at least at times. I can’t see her telling people she would be out of contact for an hour or so, as some surmised. I have never seen a young person resist checking when they hear a text come in, even at funerals...or job interviews, believe it or not.

I have never used “ignore” feature, it is easy enough to do so without making it official. Seems like it got a bit tense here these past few hours...hope we do not get shut down.

 

[chihuahua]

arrrgghh find Mollie !!! https://findingmollie.iowa.gov/

 

[DocBrew]

Please educate me what these "countless texting and other communication apps that leave no evidence of contact" are. I am intrigued.

Here's one from 2014:

Snapchat rival hopes to pounce on security breach

JMO.

 

[Ember123]

While reading all the posts about how she could have been abducted, and if only 1 person could do it alone or not, it occurred to me, unless I missed it, no one thought of the automobile being used as a weapon, or means of subduing her. If the location of abduction was in an area that was more secluded, he could have driven up behind her, and hit her hard enough to knock her down. This would then give him reason to make contact with her, either to forcibly get her in the vehicle, or make her think he was taking her home, or to the hospital. If someone else would have happened upon the scene, he would have had an out, he was “helping” her, not abducting her. IMO

And IF in a big rig truck, could have used the length of the truck itself to hide the actual abduction from view... Pulled over a bit ahead of her, grabbed her as she came along, then took off!

 

[duster1979]

The evidence is that all the things that she usually wore/took with her when she was running were missing and nothing else was missing so the speculation on here becomes that she was taken while running. What other likely scenario could that point to? I'm genuinely curious.

Well, to me it's simply evidence that she didn't come back from her run. Whether that means she was abducted while running, hit by a car and killed and her body hauled off, went into a field to pee and fell over and broke her neck, developed amnesia and wandered away, or something else is anybody's guess.

 

[duster1979]

I think the sex offender could be from a neighboring country ………...

So are you leaning more toward Mexico or Canada?

 

[JnRyan]

A stranger did this? Or someone ‘close’ to Mollie did this? I mentioned the Tara Grinstead case earlier and realize I was dealing with absolutes. Tara Grinstead was murdered in her house by a former HS student who had graduated 1-3 years earlier. I believe she had him in one of her classes. So when she saw him did she even recognize him? Maybe she remembered his but not his name. So is that a “stranger” or someone Tara “knew”?

I wonder if this was someone from high school who knew of her or someone from a nearby town that attends college with her? Someone Mollie might see and hesitate just for a moment. Long enough for a blitz attack over power her.

 

[1987]

it could be absolutely anyone that has a mind to take her. I have thought that even a stock trailer could have been used to transport her, depending on what condition she was in. there seems to be reason that a stock trailer could be around the area. I thought maybe she was alive now I don't think so. I want to think it was someone she knew and she was a specific target, but I think that is just easier to think, makes me feel safer in my own world...put a stranger in the mix and it could be any one of us and that is where it gets hard.

edit..anyone of us meaning disappeared just like MT.

 

[gillglock]

I don't think anyone has brought this up. I am going to mention it anyway. Was Mollie really into social media? I am also guessing that she was always on her phone which was connected to social media. I am starting to wonder now if this perp was following her ONLY through social media (and she didn't know him at all--stranger). Maybe the same thing happened in the Evansdale murders and Delphi murders. I can't remember if in the Evansdale murders if the girls were on phones and whether or not they were on social media or not.

I know a while back this guy was following one of my friends' friends and she got scared because he was in the state (not far from her) she lived in. I am a member of several forums online because I have chronic illness. Well, this guy apparently became a member in all those groups just to stalk women. Then he followed this one woman (didn't even know her personally) through her digital footprint so to speak via her phone location online (or something like--I don't have a phone with wifi so I don't know everything about Iphones and such). Anyway this guy found out where she lived (this happened about 2 months ago) and broke into her gated community. Apparently from what I heard the cops never caught him. I don't know the full details, but I heard she was safe and nothing happened to her thank goodness. Then when the authorities (from what I heard) went into his Facebook page it was all fake (it was another guy's name, a completely different city and everything). So now no one knows where this guy is. He could STILL be in forums online under another fake name (and fake Facebook profile) and stalking other women under another Facebook account.

This guy COULD have followed Mollie not necessarily through HER Facebook account, but through a friend of a friend's Facebook account if the setting on her Facebook account were not locked. You would have to lock them (I have mine locked) so that friends of friends can't get into your account. But then there could be other ways probably to follow people on social media (I wouldn't know). Wondering how much Mollie actually broadcasted about her social life on social media?

I think I remember with the Delphi murders that the girls broadcasted (if I am not mistaken) that they were going on that trail that day on social media. People on Mollie's social media may have already knew Mollie jogged every day maybe through Facebook posts or something. Maybe somehow someone heard (through her social media) that she was going to be alone that night. And this perp found out.

Just a thought I had.

I'm a bit ignorant with SM functionality; however I thought one could geographically track another via SC.
Snapchat’s new map feature could be tracking you all the time

 

[feralwriter]

<modsnip> I'm not convinced she didn't make it home to DJs. I can't shake that he may have been *inside* the house since he would know, by the night he took her, she didn't lock the door. I think if this was a SK, he knew exactly what to do and how to do it that night. Very calculated. Theory. Theory the operative word for me.

 

[JnRyan]

Well, to me it's simply evidence that she didn't come back from her run. Whether that means she was abducted while running, hit by a car and killed and her body hauled off, went into a field to pee and fell over and broke her neck, developed amnesia and wandered away, or something else is anybody's guess.

Yep, it's all on the table. I've kicked around everything and every possible time. The only thing I haven't put on the table is an alien abduction. And that may be more because I have no experience with aliens than the probability of such an event.

 

[Dushi]

A stranger did this? Or someone ‘close’ to Mollie did this? I mentioned the Tara Grinstead case earlier and realize I was dealing with absolutes. Tara Grinstead was murdered in her house by a former HS student who had graduated 1-3 years earlier. I believe she had him in one of her classes. So when she saw him did she even recognize him? Maybe she remembered his but not his name. So is that a “stranger” or someone Tara “knew”?

I wonder if this was someone from high school who knew of her or someone from a nearby town that attends college with her? Someone Mollie might see and hesitate just for a moment. Long enough for a blitz attack over power her.

Yes!

Thats how I feel.

When i say stranger (probably the wrong word) I mean someone that she doesn't know personally. Not necessarily a person driving through from a distant local.
She may have seen this person before but no interaction with this person

I am not really feeling a love interest or someone who misunderstood her intentions

Of course, I have been so wrong many times before
Its all just based on a feeling

As info comes along, I do tend to change my mind

 

[Abcdefgh]

To make an obvious point that might be productive /

I was in the NY area when Son of Sam was killing young couples and remember how elusive he was despite his frailty. Ultimately he ended up being caught because he got a parking ticket near one of the murders.

1) As this disappearance drags on, it becomes more likely that the person involved is from further away than the immediate area.

2) Somebody who is in the mindset to 'disappear' somebody, for whatever motive, is not going to be especially mindful of traffic rules, in most cases.

3) It would seem smart to gather all motor vehicle tickets within 50 miles on the day or so around the disappearance, then filter them by male, out of state, then look at things like maintenance on those vehicles that might be associated with somebody who might be involved in that kind of thing. I don't know if traffic tickets are publicly accessible but if they are that might be more productive than other things.

 

[Alethea]

My head is spinning trying to read the thread but I'll chime in that evidence is whatever you say it is. Whether the evidence is relevant, probative, and admissible is a different story and the Federal Rules of Evidence (and the state equivalent) give you rules about what you can present and how you can object to it.

But in a normal everyday conversation I don't know that it's particularly useful to argue about.

 

[wary]

Since snapchat is not automatically deleted like people think (What Really Happens to Your Deleted Snapchat Photos), wonder if FBI have tried to trace it. Also, the digital footprint that's left on her account would show if and when she sent snapchats.

I'm sure the FBI has tried to trace that Snapchat. I doubt that they'll tell us anything about what they found, in the foreseeable future.

 

[Veracity]

Someone posted an article the other night about an estimated number of sex offenders in Iowa that for whatever reason haven't been registered. I cannot find that article anywhere and have searched and searched. If anyone can relink to here that would be helpful. The other statement someone made last night that I keep thinking about is the relatively high percentage of renters that lived in Brooklyn. I still can't say I have a handle on this town at all. But maybe the high percentage of renters means that people come and go and folks don't really know each other all that well? Curious if the real estate is owned by some of the original families in town that now live elsewhere. Renter populations are somewhat different vs owner occupied populations. I'm wondering if one of these rentals is where someone who isn't well known to neighbors could be holding MT right now? Just a thought....

This has been on my mind from the start. I have wanted a grid search. The Sheriff claimed every property had been cleared yet yesterday there was news properties near the Car Wash were being searched.

WHY? If what the Sheriff said was true weeks ago? The only explanation I could come up with was a tip Mollie had been MOVED TO such a location after the Sheriff cleared every property in that town!

Which made me scratch my head - how on earth did that happen?

Even if cameras were NOT installed at the time of Mollie's disappearance it would seem logical to have some sort of surveillance in the days/weeks following to gather possible leads. In some cases there are officers who stand in the road and speak to folks traveling along a particular route to determine if they were on that route on a particular day during a particular block of time.

I don't recall that being part of this case.

I wondered if hunter's trail cams might be something police need in their arsenal. They could be installed in the middle of the night or by someone who looks like an utility worker and...

Can think of all sorts of things that could be done.

But in the end it is up to LE who are charged with solving this disappearance and bringing Mollie home to figure out the particulars. Keep hoping their strategies are going to bear fruit TODAY and Mollie will be found.

 

[MsBetsy]

<modsnip> I'm not convinced she didn't make it home to DJs. I can't shake that he may have been *inside* the house since he would know, by the night he took her, she didn't lock the door. I think if this was a SK, he knew exactly what to do and how to do it that night. Very calculated. Theory. Theory the operative word for me.

I would definitely not rule that out, in fact I think that is very possible. Besides some of the secluded areas on her run, also those dirt roads, there are not many other houses around their home. Although someone may have noticed a vehicle, if it was dark or raining it's possible that no one saw a thing.

 

[bizzle2]

Well, to me it's simply evidence that she didn't come back from her run. Whether that means she was abducted while running, hit by a car and killed and her body hauled off, went into a field to pee and fell over and broke her neck, developed amnesia and wandered away, or something else is anybody's guess.

Agree with this. Obviously some of those are more likely than others. Early on I remembered to preface it by saying "whatever it was that happened to her was on her run" or something along those lines because I couldn't think of a good all-encompassing way to describe it. And lately I've just been shortening it to "abducted on run" because it is shorter to type. I think I was doing a better job of this before and have fallen off the wagon a little bit.

Here's where I'm at:
WHO - Only people I would rule out are family, boyfriend, and boyfriend's family. Pretty much anyone else is on the table, though I do think it was likely an acquaintance/friend who was not in her close circle of friends. Secret admirer? Maybe. Stalker? Maybe. Complete stranger? It's possible.
HOW - I'm the least sure of this one. Could have voluntarily or involuntarily gotten into a car. If it was voluntarily I think it eventually became involuntary. Could have been a hit and run (either on purpose or not). I guess it's possible she wandered off and was injured though I think they would have found her by now if that were the case. About the only thing I'm fairly certain of is that she did not voluntarily disappear, meaning ran away.
WHEN - Around 8pm, give or take about 30 min. It's near the middle of the times (5PM-10PM) for which LE is looking for information. And as has been discussed ad nauseum, I think everything known indicates it was when she was jogging.
WHY - I think there was likely a sexual motivation involved in some way simply because she is an attractive young girl who likely had a few other than her boyfriend who would be interested. (Not saying I think their interest was reciprocated.)
WHAT - Maybe abduction -- again, didn't necessarily start that way. Maybe hit and run. Possibly other things I'm not thinking of.

Anyone else care to take a swing?

 

[dlharris2712]

Happy Friday - Websleuthers...I have been following since day one and only comment occasionally. In reading through all 28 threads - I have come to the conclusion our thoughts and ideas and sleuthing has brought us no closer today than we were a month ago; as to what happened to Mollie. Except for the "five red dots" there is very little information to use to come up with who has her and where she is. Tempers seem to be flaring - most likely out of frustration. Please remember...we are all her to help find Mollie and bring her home to her family. IMO...