Just days after the body of a missing Iowa jogger was found, authorities are piecing together more details about her last moments.
20-year-old Mollie Tibett was last seen jogging on the evening of July 18 in her rural “farming town.” Now, after finding Tibbett dead just over one month later, an autopsy has revealed that her cause of death was “multiple sharp force injuries,” according to Yahoo.
Tibbett’s body was discovered Tuesday after authorities were able to locate Tibbett running on old footage from a local resident’s security camera.
“Through that we were able to identify a vehicle that we believed belonged to Mr. Rivera,” one official said. “From that, we were able to track his patterns and the routes that he took. We were also able to find Mollie running on this video, and we were able to determine that he was one of the last ones to have seen Mollie running.”
Rivera is a 24-year-old undocumented immigrant who has since been arrested as the suspected killer of Tibbett.
According to officials, Rivera told police that he saw Tibbett running, exited his vehicle, and ran alongside her. At that point, Rivera says that Tibbett threatened to call the police, causing him to “panic” and “block [his] memory.”
According to Rivera, by the time he “realized” he had Tibbett in his trunk, he had already driven to a secluded cornfield, where he then dragged her bloody body and left her.
Rivera is currently being held on a first-degree murder charge. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds released a statement earlier in the week sharing her sentiments on the matter along with that of the family of Mollie Tibbetts.
“We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can bring justice to Mollie’s killer,” Reynolds said.
