Iowa authorities say the big break in their investigation into Mollie Tibbetts’ disappearance came when they spotted her alleged killer’s black Chevy Malibu on surveillance video taken the day she disappeared.
Tibbetts, 20, was found dead Tuesday morning in a cornfield in Guernsey, Iowa, about 15 minutes by car from Brooklyn, Iowa, where she was last seen alive. Her body was covered with corn stalks.
At a press conference Tuesday, Rick Rahn of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said the surveillance video, which was given to police when they canvassed a neighborhood, showed Tibbetts jogging as well as a black Chevy Malibu belonging to 24-year-old Christhian Behena Rivera, who is now the suspect in her death.
“We were able to determine he was one of the last ones to see her running based on the video,” said Rahn, who said the video was “critical” to the investigation, though he did not specify when authorities viewed it.
Police allege Rivera confessed to circling around Tibbetts a few times with his car before he approached her and then started running alongside her. Rahn said that Rivera told authorities that at one point, Tibbetts told him to leave her alone, threatening to call the police.
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04.28.2025