Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Missing mom Bellamy Gamboa, hear desperate 911 call; Where is Mollie Tibbetts?

Episode Date: July 31, 2018

The search for Virginia mom Bellamy Gamboa is focused on Chesapeake Bay after an admission by her ex boyfriend. Nancy Grace talks to Bellamy's sister Charisse Gamboa, about her sister's disappearance. They are joined by lawyer Kathleen Murphy, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan, psychiatrist Dr. Judith Joseph, and CrimeOnline reporter Leigh Egan. Police are following new leads in the search for missing Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts. Her cousin Morgan Collum discusses the search and investigation with Nancy and her expert panel, including private investigator Vincent Hill, lawyer Ashley Willcott, and psychologist Caryn Stark.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph. A beautiful young mom goes missing and now the worst Bellamy Gamboa has been the subject of much controversy swirling around her disappearance at this hour still no indication of where is Bellamy Gamboa. But in the last hours, stunning developments take place. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.

With me, Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert and author of Blood Beneath My Feet, Kathleen Murphy, high-profile North Carolina lawyer, and special guest joining me right now, Bellamy Gamboa's sister, Cherise Gamboa.

Cherise, thank you so much for being with us. I know that this entire ordeal has been devastating to your family. Cherise, tell me what led up to Bellamy's disappearance. Let's start with how did you discover Bellamy was missing? Well, I live here in Orange County, California, and it was a Monday evening, maybe about 5 p.m. Pacific time, and my father was calling me, and I happened to be walking my dog. I did not bring both of my cell phones with me that evening. I don't know why, but I came back to my apartment,

and both phones were just blowing up with family members calling me, asking me. I finally picked up my father's call and he asked me when the last time I spoke to Bellamy and I said well verbally I mean was like Mother's Day sadly because of the way we all socialize by text and social media I told him the last time we actually texted each other was Friday, and then Sunday we were on Instagram. So you were in touch by texting and Instagram. You know, I'm very often the same way with my sister.

She's a college professor, and she works a lot of hours. She's got two kids. I have two children and work. And a lot of times the only way we can really talk is by texting because she's on a three-hour time difference than me i i know what you mean so when your father called you and asked you was the last time you talked to her did you have any indication that there was anything wrong The minute he said she did not show up to work today and text the two teens, my heart dropped. I think I unfortunately already felt something was wrong.

We are getting breaking news regarding the disappearance of Bellamy Gamboa. Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. I want to hear about the day she goes missing. I think we identified that it was around Sunday, between a Sunday and a Monday, and I found very, very peculiar the location where her vehicle was found. What can you tell me about that? Well, Nancy, her vehicle was found in an apartment complex around four miles away from her residence in Virginia Beach. But the issue is she would never go to this place. She's never been there before. There would be no reason for her car to be there. And it was parked in a way where it was in front of a dumpster where the workers could not get in and empty the trash.

And it wasn't moved for hours. And they had to call and have it actually towed from there into an impound. Okay. We're talking about missing Bellamy Gamboa, a young and absolutely stunning young mom. Cherise, question to you. Did the family know throughout her relationship with her boyfriend, Lamont Johnson, and, you know, we, as her family, reached out to her, and we would encourage her and ask her to leave unhealthy situations, but we didn't see or, you know, hear any proof. And if we did, of course, we would do anything in our power to just get her out of there and get her out of the situation. But with the twins, it's what what she wouldn't budge because of

the twins so you knew about it did you personally talk to her about the domestic abuse knowing my sister when she would refer to lamont there were times when they were out having dinner together or just even out going to a movie and she would let me know that, but not necessarily anything that was about abuse. And she did, however, inform me last May of 2017 about how his family was treating her and how they did take the twins from her, I think for about a month. I've got a question for you. So you did or did not know, I'm not clear on this,

that she was getting beaten in the home? I did not know. Okay. Did anybody in your family know? Not immediate family, but relatives, yes. How did they know? She told them. Okay.

Did they tell you guys? They didn't. Not until after the fact. Her children, her daughter and her teens actually saw bruises on her. And my sister would of course make excuses about them. them you know I have worked at the battered women's center for nearly 10 years as a volunteer on the hotline when I would be prosecuting during the day and I learned so much especially how very often women keep it a secret but I know one person knew about it and that was the operator, the 911 operator that took this call. Listen.

Hello, this is Ann with Virginia Beach 911. Where's the emergency? I'll be okay. I can't. I'll be all right. Well, we're going to get you some help. What happened? Where are you?

Okay? I don't need any help. You said you were at 624 Spirit Court, right? Yeah. Okay, what happened? We just got into a fight. That's all, but it's all right. I'm fine.

They got into you and your... I don't have any broken bones. Okay, who got into a fight? Who fought with you? He's leaving with my twin. He's leaving with our kid, so it's all right. Okay, he beat you? No, well...

He fought with you? You know, he beat you? No. He fought you? No, he didn't touch my face. But he did hit you. Are you injured? No, I'm okay. Okay. I'm all right. But he did hit you?

I mean, I fell, but I'll be okay, ma'am. Okay. It was our first fight. And you said he took your child? We have twins together. So he took two children? He's not going anywhere with them. He'll wait here, and I'll explain if they have to show up.

Okay, yeah, they're going to come and speak with you and make sure you're okay. Where did he go? Stay on the phone with me, okay? Is he sitting in the house with you? Yes. Okay. Okay, can you repeat? Can you tell me your address for verification purposes, okay?

Is there a specific apartment number? No. Okay, so can you just repeat the address for me please? Can you just tell me the address where you're at? One more time just for verification. No. No, because it'll just get worse. You don't want to tell me it again?

No. I don't want him to take the twins anywhere. And then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then you're going to be looking for him and then You don't want to tell me it again? No. I don't want him to take the twins anywhere. And then you're going to be looking for him, and then it's just going to get worse. And I already have two of the kids, and I just had them five years ago.

I don't even want to go through this. There was one question that I asked him, and then he got upset, and then we just got into a big fight. And he's pretty big, so I don't know what he's capable of doing. Okay, what's he look like? Is he white, black, Hispanic, Asian? He's black and big. Okay, what's he wearing?

You can't take them. They already heard. You can't take them. Where are you going to take them? You can't take them. They're going to make you bring them back. You can't do that. You're not supposed to put your hands on anybody.

Ma'am, what's your name? You said your name? Yes. Okay. They're here, ma'am. They're here? Okay, I'm going to let you go ahead and speak with police, okay? Thank you. I have to tell you that as I was listening to Bellamy crying and sobbing on the phone,

I physically found myself cringing. My body was just cringing as I listened. And it took me back to the days in court when I would have to play 911 calls in front of a jury. And they would hear in the moment the anguish and the suffering that was happening at that moment. And now Bellamy is gone. You heard her on the phone at the time her ex was taking away the twins the infant twin then infant twins and the anguish in her voice nothing was done nothing and now she's gone why why we're looking for her body and in my mind this entire scenario this domino effect of domestic

beatings ending in what I believe to be her murder could have been stopped with me Dr. Judith Joseph renowned New York psychiatrist Dr. Judith thank you for being with us in a nutshell. And I know that's hard to do. I read about it. I took classes on it. I dealt with it on a hotline. But why is it moms don't leave when they're being beaten? Do they think it's going to get better? Nancy, that phone call was terrifying. I mean, when I listened to it, I got chills. And typically, from what I understand about domestic violence is that it is a cycle. And she sounded terrified. I was terrified for her. And fair is extremely crippling. And when someone is threatening to rip apart a mother and her child, that is torture.

It may not be physically painful, but it is emotionally abusive. And mothers will do anything for their children. You've seen the mama bear. You've seen the mama lion. They will do anything to stay attached to their children. And she was trying to be there for her children and that's you know I haven't treated her haven't met her however I've seen a lot of cases like this and you know it's very tempting to think well why didn't she leave why didn't she just run away why didn't the family do something because those children are there and it's not as straightforward as one might think so I think that she was being abused on both a physical level

and an emotional level. And one would argue that the emotional abuse, that threat to tear apart a mother from her twins, from her babies, that's more painful than any physical abuse that one can suffer. And also to Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert, professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University, death investigator and author, Jo Scott, she would be covered in bruises. Her children saw it. She got teenage children as well. They saw it.

They saw bruises all over Mommy. And you heard her on the 911, I fell. B.S. She did not fall. He beat her. And now I'm telling you, I don't know where her body is, but she's dead. And I'm telling you, he did it. Yeah, I'd agree with you, Nancy.

How can you sound so calm? Yeah, I agree. The woman has been beaten for god only knows how long because she didn't tell her family her children the teens saw bruises but nobody knew now she's quote missing missing she's dead joe scott and this whole thing could have been stopped if she had been convinced to leave that home. Yeah, this is not something that just happened in a vacuum just in a moment. I think that it was probably going on for some time.

Go back to the 911 call. You heard her in fear, in terror on that line. And you know what was absent in there, Nancy, is that in this heated moment, this guy was not backing down, but he wasn't saying anything either. Can you imagine him scowling at her across the room, maybe mouthing words at her, threatening her, and she's terrified. She didn't even want to go back and give the address where she was. Did you hear her say, it'll just make it worse, it'll just get worse?

Yeah, it will. If I give the address, it'll just get worse. Yeah, it will. If I give you the address, it'll just get worse. Yeah, and you know, he's shaking proverbial fist in her face. And you don't have to do that verbally, do you? You know, he can do this in nonverbal, nonverbally. And this has been going on for a while. She knew what was going on here. And it's terrifying.

Yeah, I agree with you. It's making me sick, Joe Scott. With me right now, Kathleen Murphy, renowned lawyer. Kathleen, just tell me one thing. One thing. And this is a truth that I don't like. The truth, many of them, this is one of them. Domestic homicides get pled down to manslaughter. They get pled down

to voluntary or even involuntary manslaughter. The person might get seven years and they'll walk in about five. Why is it that so often domestic abuse,

which I consider to be murder, is pled down and the person gets a light sentence. Why is that, Kathleen? They're not taking it seriously. And that is a big problem because in family court, I have a case that's coming up now, and my client is clearly terrified of her husband, and you want the court to consider factors of domestic violence because this guy was using these children against this mother.

And that happens every day. It is the leverage. And so the victim does not participate in the process because of these children. And the law needs to change and allow parents who are victims of domestic violence to keep their children safe and secure. And that is not happening. Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina lawyer, let me tell you a little story. I had just managed to fight my way out of juvenile, which, you know, in juvenile court,

there's not juries. You don't have rules of evidence. It's kind of like you try a case with a kind of a judge and a psychologist or a therapist. Somebody's in there and the parents, it's kind of like y'all sit around and you figure out what's the best thing for the perp, okay, because they're a juvenile, okay. I got out of that, and I made it to, quote, big court. And I had one of my first arraignment calendars, 150 new felonies. We're in a big court now. And I saw a woman from the side of my eyes walk in with crutches.

Crutches, Kathleen. She came in with her husband begging me to drop charges. She had a broken leg, Kathleen, a broken leg. And I did not know what was right. I didn't know what was wrong. She was begging me to drop charges. Kathleen, I couldn't do it. I could not do it. I said, listen, I know you want to drop charges, and I looked right at the husband and said, but I'm the one bringing these charges, not you. So it's not your fault.

It's my fault. And, oh, I'll never forget. It's giving me chills on my arms remembering it. When I hear this 911 call, let me just get to the point. Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. What is the latest in the search for Bellamy Gamboa? Well, so far they are searching the, apparently the ex-boyfriend, his name is Lamont Johnson. He told them that he put her in the chesapeake area he didn't say exactly where just somewhere wait wait let's be specifically

he did not say he quote put her in the chesapeake area let's talk about what he actually said that he pushed gamboa down the stairs wow that's eerily reminiscent of her 9-1-1 call where she says she fell pushed her down the stairs quote fell on top of on top of her that is a lie not fall on top of her and then choked her until she died. Documents that we have just obtained say he then put her in a bag and brought her to Chesapeake. Is that a little more like what he said, Lee, now that he put her in the bay, like he

gently laid her there for her to float on her back for a while? That is absolutely exactly what he said. I mean, Lee, I want to hear the truth. I don't want some sugar-coated, air-brushed version of what happened. Now,

what happened? He killed her. Exactly what you said. He claims that he fell on top of her. I don't see how he can just fall on top of her. He began strangling her until she died. And then he put her in a bag and dumped her body. Lee, I'm not angry at you.

That's not it. I used to do the same thing. You sugarcoat it because it hurts. It actually tastes bad in your mouth to actually say what was done to this beautiful young mom. And now with me is Bellamy's sister, Sharise. Cherise, he has just been charged with learning with second-degree murder and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Cherise Gamboa with me, the sister of Bellamy. Tell me your reaction to what you are learning about the hell your sister was living through just an ending an under ending nightmare I cry for help and I wish that I was in Virginia every day now so sure not blame yourself don't because very often the

family the sister the parents they don't know because the woman doesn't tell them because she's either ashamed or embarrassed doesn't want the children to be taken away and you you live on the other side of the country there is no way she was telling you and there was no way you could have known it's all about finding her body now and of those children. Guys, Sharice has given me an updated tip line if you have any information. If you saw anything, that number is 757-385-4101. Repeat, 757-385-4101. Repeat. 757-385-4101. We will not rest until her remains have been found. And this man is behind bars for life. You know what? It is so hard to work cold cases. I know.

I have worked them myself, especially when you know your coworkers and colleagues have already worked the case. But there's a former prosecutor named Kelly Siegler who is a true champion for justice, and she is on a mission across America. What I love about Oxygen's Cold Justice program is that Kelly and her team of detectives take on real unsolved murder cases and get real answers for victims and their families. You will love how immersive this show is. You feel like you're right there with the team riding shotgun. They are passionate crusaders for justice and I like that. That's what makes each case so personal to this team. Watch the new season of Cold Justice Saturday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 5 Central on Oxygen. You can't give up hope. I mean, I know if it were me that were missing, Molly wouldn't give up hope. Young, healthy, beautiful, a college student

loved by her family and boyfriend, the world in front of her, missing. Where is Molly Tibbetts? The search is on. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Now, it had been put out there that Molly vanished while jogging, and I picked the evidence apart along with our awesome investigative team, and it didn't seem right to me. It was not conclusive that she was taken while jogging. I could not establish a timeline, and we all know that's where you start with any investigation. The timeline was off in my mind. It didn't make sense. And now we are hearing the very latest,

is that the missing University of Iowa student, just 20 years old, actually returned to her boyfriend's house after the jog. And she sent the boyfriend a final Snapchat before she mysteriously disappears seemingly into thin air. And this is according to the FBI. Now, this is making sense based on the facts that we know. Repeat, breaking news right now. According to the FBI, they are telling us Molly did not go missing from a jog.

And that's a fatal flaw. That's a fatal flaw because for days now, we've been taking that as truth. And that has been the basis of the investigation. That's not what happened. She was back in the boyfriend's home. Now, before you leap to the idea it was the boyfriend, which I did too, because statistically that's true, it was not the boyfriend. The boyfriend is cleared. He was working a couple hours away in Dubuque. He wasn't there. It's not him. So that leaves me with thinking of a stranger on stranger attack.

Mmm. Mmm. Let's just go straight out to Lee Egan. And with me is Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, renowned New York psychologist Karen Stark, judge and advocate, founder of ChildCrimeWatch.com, Ashley Wilcott, and cop-turned-PI Vincent Hill. Special guest joining me right now, relative and close friend, confidant of Molly, Morgan Collum. Lee, hold on a moment. I want to go to Morgan first. Morgan, first of all, please pass on to the family about all the prayers that are being sent up to bring Molly home. Number one. Number two, when did you learn Molly was missing?

I learned that she was missing Thursday, July 19th. I had gone to a movie with my cousin Joe and my cousin Jake, who is Molly's older brother. And I had received a text message from my stepsister who works with one of her best friends works with Molly. And she had sent me a text prior to the movie starting, asking if I had heard from Molly that day because she didn't show up for work. She works at a day camp for children in Grinnell, Iowa, and I did think that was odd. It's out of character for her to simply not show up for work without a phone call or a reason why. You know, that's interesting, Morgan, and you may be able to shed some light on this for me, because I was told that the day before she went missing the work day before she went missing the counselors at the camp or the daycare had been handed out some red

t-shirts they were to wear the next day they were going on a field trip I think and Molly's red t-shirt could not be found. Is that true? Yeah, we have looked at the house where she was staying, where her boyfriend lives, and then we had also checked her house that her mom owns where she lives with her siblings because she kind of bounces back and forth to both places. And we checked in the vehicle that she shares with her brother, and we cannot find that shirt see the

reason i care about the shirt morgan guys with me is relative and confidant close friend of molly tibbets now missing and i can only imagine what her family's going through i don't even want to put this out there if one of my twins was missing i I just, as I always say, just lay me on the railroad tracks. Because I don't even want to live without them. I know her family is devastated. Right now, there's a chance we can bring Molly home. And I'm focusing on this red t-shirt for a reason. Because it goes back to the timeline.

She was supposed to wear that the following morning. If she disappeared the night before, it should still be somewhere in her closet, laid out to wear the next day, folded up in a stack in the bathroom. Somewhere. In her backpack, in her car. We can't find it. me that she may have been alive the following morning and had put it on to go to work when something went sideways. That's why I care about her red t-shirt. Morgan, does this making any sense at all what I'm saying? Yeah, it does. You know, my family and I have rattled our brains trying to think of what the timeline could be, what could have possibly happened. And, you know, for the longest time we had told ourselves, oh, that's out of the norm

for Molly. She wouldn't do anything like that. And we had to stop thinking that way because, you know, we, we just need to be open to different possibilities of what could have happened. And it's difficult, but yeah, but I understand the red shirt you mean she wouldn't just disappear on her own is that what you're saying right absolutely we do not think that she would have ever done something like that so that that really didn't even cross our minds we were just more so thinking you know what routes did she run that evening who saw her you know, what routes did she run that evening? Who saw her? You know, was the house unlocked? Just various things like that. Let me ask you this. We know now that she did jog that evening and apparently came back to the boyfriend's house where she was dog sitting. Do I have that

much right? Right. Okay. Do we have any idea what time that was she came back to the house I'm not sure um she usually does a pretty lengthy run so my guess is it would have taken her possibly over a half hour to maybe 40 45 minutes was she the kind of person like to run in the evening I used to love to run at night after work, you know, just before it was getting dark or after it was dark. Then, you know, once I had the twins, I have to get up first thing in the morning before they're awake and do whatever I'm going to do. Because once they're awake, it's, it's, you know, full on 24, 7, 365 with them. So was she a nighttime runner or an evening runner, Morgan? Yes, I would say, um, right before the sun was about to set, which here for us, that's, you know,

right around that six, seven o'clock timeframe that she likes to go. And then typically she'll eat supper after she's done having her run. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody wants to run after they eat. Not that I know of anyway. So let me get this straight. The reason I'm asking, I'm back on the timeline. I hate to be a harpy, but I'm trying to figure this thing out. So if she runs in the evening, was there any

evidence that she had had dinner supper that night, a drive-through receipt, use of an ATM, evidence she cooked in the home, anything like that to show me she had dinner after she ran? No, not that we're aware of. The interesting comment that I have to make about that, she had actually been in a texting conversation with my aunt, Laura, who's Molly's mother. And Molly had shared with my aunt that she had planned to come over for supper that night and she didn't end up coming over for supper which concerned me but my aunt had said that that's not out of the norm for molly to say she's going to come over for supper and then not come over for supper so as far as did she eat anything what did she eat i'm not sure yeah the only reason i ask is if there's

evidence that she had you know made a sandwich or or cooked something and there was trash in the trash can i mean she was the one living there while the boyfriend was out of town and i'm just wondering don't laugh at me vincent hill you remember uh very often they still do it in the tabloids you know the inquirer the globe the star they'll go through celebrities trash and they'll like lay it all out and then take a picture of it and they'll say something like oh look you know liz taylor had six buckets of ice cream in just two days things like that all right so what i'm saying is but then fast forward i remember uh many you see on TV, you look out your kitchen window, there's the FBI picking through your trash. That's not a good thing. It's for a reason, because it shows you something.

I wonder if the cops looked in the trash to see, did she make a linguine or Annie's bowl or whatever? Because that's helping me with my timeline, Vincent. Nancy, you're absolutely right. I mean, when I was working narcotics, we would do what was known as a trash bowl to look for things that led to the belief that there was narcotics. So when you're looking at a missing person, you do want to look at these things like, hey, did she recently eat? Is there a receipt? Is there a box from a frozen meal? Is there a dish in the sink? You want to look at all of these things to establish some type of timeline. And if there is no forced

entry inside that home, which we haven't heard any wind of, that makes you question big time. Was it someone she knew? Was the door unlocked? Did she answer the door? Maybe she ordered the pizza. And we don't know nancy there's so many questions does she typically use her cell phone morgan or was she would she have used a landline she would have used her cell phone yeah yep yep yep the other day morgan my twins are 10 the landline rang and they said what's that i said children that's what we call a landline okay I mean we use it so rarely they didn't even know what it was so Morgan once you you're telling me you found out Molly was missing the day she didn't show up for work at the daycare what happened next right so my cousins

and I had gone to a movie on Thursday afternoon and my cousin, Jake, who was sitting next to me in the theater, kept getting phone calls. And I mean, he received probably eight phone calls. And finally he said to me, I'm going to go step outside of the theater. My phone won't stop ringing. I have this call from a number I don't recognize. And he was outside of the theater for a majority of the movie. And it, it was really strange. I remember telling my cousin Joe, who was also there with us, that I was going to get out my cell phone and send a text to Jake and just ask him if everything was okay. And when I did pull out my cell phone to check, I noticed that I had a missed call from my dad, who's Molly's uncle, my brother, who is Molly's cousin, my cousin Scott, who is Molly's brother, you know, and from Molly's mother. And that was definitely concerning.

I knew right away that something was not right. And it wasn't really until we got home from our movie that reality kind of set in. The cops had been called. They were at the scene of where she had gone missing. And it just, it was terrifying. It's hard to describe that feeling when you know that something's not right and you're seeing all of the pieces kind of come together. And, you know, there's, there's somebody that I love that's missing and I have no idea, you know, it's frustrating and

it's scary. Morgan, how are her parents, how's her family doing? They're hanging in there. You know, they're just taking things one day at a time. My aunt, who's Molly's mother, is being incredibly strong. And she is remaining incredibly hopeful. And, you know, like I I said just taking things one day at a time obviously we're Morgan let me ask you this uh has Molly ever gone missing before has she just gone away for the weekend and not told anybody no Molly is a very social creature and she is constantly in communication with her friends or her family or her boyfriend. And someone, someone always knows where she is most like, I mean, she, because she's social, she's usually with people constantly. She's not the type of person that is alone often. I mean, if she is, it's when she's

going for a run or, you know, in the case of Wednesday evening when she was dog sitting and no one else was there. But typically she's always surrounded by friends or she's with her boyfriend or she's with family. She's very, very social. Is it true, Morgan, that she, when she ran, she liked to run through cornfields? Because I've never heard of that. No, that is not true. I'm so glad you told me that. I've never heard of anybody running through cornfields because you know there's corn snakes. No, I'm glad you dispel that myth that never made sense to me having grown up around cornfields. Yeah, that would be incredibly difficult to run through a cornfield hey hey hey nancy can i can i interject really quick jump in hey so i do have a question for morgan since she was dog

sitting and this could be very crucial you know smaller dogs can't hold their urge to go to the restroom as much as bigger dogs so what kind of dogs would she actually dog sit? Because that could be crucial if there was something inside the house like dog urine, dog feces, that could be crucial to the timeline. Right. They're larger size dogs. I know, I think one of them is a yellow lab. So it's a good size dog. And the other one, I'm not sure on the breed, but I do know that it's a larger size dog. We've learned the dogs are kept in the basement. Typically, that's where they stay. Were the dogs back in the basement, Morgan?

Because that would tell me she had gotten back and put them in the basement. I was told that they were in the basement, yes. And I know we sound like we're splitting hairs, but at this point, we're trying so hard to help find molly guys if you have information there is a financial reward the tip lines 800-452-1111 will be back with morgan friend and relative of molly we're looking desperately to bring home mollybets listen to what Molly's mother says to ABC my son Scott he gave me a call about 5 15 p.m. saying mom did you know Molly didn't go to work at which point I said I will be right home she's in big trouble she's making me do TV interviews.

Because she was very comfortable going on stage and, you know, I'm not. But, you know, finally I was like, okay, if this is what it takes to get the word out there and get Molly home, I'll do it. Because you can't give up hope. I mean, I know if it were me that were missing, Molly wouldn't give up hope. It's just been excruciating, mind-numbing, you know, all the range of emotions. You won't see me giving up hope. That's not an option. There's really an option.

There's really no clues. There's a DCI agent who said she's been in the business for 23 years and only one other case where she had so few leads. So I can't speculate. I'm just hoping for the best. The desperate search for Molly Tibbetts, beautiful, young, healthy, in love, about to move into her first apartment. She goes jogging, gets back, Snapchats her boyfriend who's out of town,

and she's never heard from again. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Please help us bring home Molly, tip line 800-452-1111. To Lee Egan with me, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. We are now learning that the timeline we first heard was all wrong. This is significant.

She was not snatched while she was out jogging. She got back to the boyfriend's home and snapchatted him before she mysteriously disappears. Lee Egan, who actually called 911 to report her missing? Who was that? That was Molly's mother. She called right after her son, Molly's brother, told her that Molly had missed work that day. Lee Egan, what more do we know right now? We have new information that authorities have determined that she did log into her laptop on the evening of Wednesday, July 18th to work on some kind of school project. They're saying it's late in the evening, but they're not giving an exact time because they said it's private to the investigation. And then we also know another neighbor came forward and said that he, too, saw her walking down the road in their neighborhood.

Well, he said she was walking nonchalantly as if she had no care in the world. I bet that was after she went running because, you know, with me is Morgan Column Molly's a friend, confidant, relative. If she were running that's one thing but then when you finish your run many people will like walk a few minutes as they're walking back to their destination or they're cooling down. That tells me that's what she was doing right then when he saw her just walking nonchalantly. But Nancy this is Ashley. It all depends on the chronological time frame of this, right? Like we've talked about in the chronology. So yes, that might've been it, but I have to play devil's advocate. And I'm, I'm really hopeful that she's okay because at this point we don't

have enough evidence and thank God law enforcement's looking at both sides of this. We don't know if she may have, even though it's out of character, even though she's never done it, had enough and said, I'm going to go on, or I'm going to go take off and do this. And maybe it's irresponsible, but at her age, we act irresponsibly sometimes, or did something really happen to her? So these timeframes are so imperative because we really don't know which of these two things happened. You know, I'm glad you brought that up, Ash. With me, Ashley Wilcott, judge, lawyer, founder of childcrimewatch.com. With me, Karen Stark, Lee Egan, Vincent Hill, and Morgan Collum. Morgan, let's talk about what Ashley brought up. Did she just take a powder? Did she go away? Right. Where was her? Do we know where

her cell phone is? Does she have her cell phone with her? We presume that she had her cell phone with her. One thing that we had talked about as well, her boyfriend's brother and his fiance are actually to be getting married later this week down in the Dominican Republic. And Molly had her passport for that. She was extremely excited to take that trip. She'd been talking about it for months. She loves her job. She's currently taking a college class. And, you know, we think,

we just don't think that she would have often gone because of those. Also because I think she would feel extremely guilty having known how much pain and hurt we've been experiencing since she's been gone um you know we did run that scenario through our heads very briefly and it was dismissed we we don't think that she would have run off like that. Let's talk about it. I think you're right from what I know of Molly,

what I've gleaned about Molly. But let's put it to rest. Where was her driver's license and credit cards? Where were they? Her wallet, what I've been told, was at the house where she was last seen. Okay. I find it very difficult to believe

that somebody's going to take off karen stark uh karen stark renowned new york psychologist without their id cell phone says to me that maybe she grabbed it on her way out i don't know what the cell phone means to me yet but i do know if i were leaving to go to just vanish, I would need at least an ID, at least an ID, just my driver's license. But she left her wallet behind, driver's license, ATM, credit cards, everything. Yes, I agree, Nancy. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Cell phone, we hardly go anywhere without our

cell phones these days. So even if she took a little walk, she might take her cell phone. But any place important, she would know to take her wallet, I mean, just to get extra cash and had her ATM. So I don't see her just going out, deciding that she's going to take a trip somewhere and leaving something that important behind. This also brings up the brother, the longtime boyfriend, Dalton Jack, is not a suspect. We know that the Snapchat from her around 10 p.m. the night she goes missing appears to be taken indoors. All right. So the jog was done. Morgan, do you understand that the Snapchat was sent around 10 p.m. or he opened it around 10 p.m.? To my knowledge, it was sent around 10 p.m. Just based on what I've heard, it sounds like her boyfriend Dalton was getting pretty sleepy, and I believe that he had fallen asleep and then opened the Snapchat the next morning.

But the sent time would have been around 10. So that, in my mind, places her alive at 10, unless somebody's smart enough to break into her Snapchat and send the photo to the boyfriend, which I doubt. So I've got her live at 10 o'clock. Everything seems to be normal because she's sending a Snapchat. What in the hay happened after 10 o'clock? To Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Lee, that Snapchat may be central to this case. What do we know about the Snapchat? Yeah, it absolutely would. But we're getting a bit of differing information. Police reported that Dalton opened it at 10 p.m. and they are still not clear when it was sent

unless there was something new that developed since then. That was the last we heard. Okay. So that tells me I can't rely on that for my timeline. Okay. We are on the search for Molly Tibbetts. Last seen visually out jogging. She was a University of Iowa student looking forward to a big trip to the Dominican Republic for a destination wedding, her boyfriend's brother getting married. Where was the boyfriend's brother, Morgan, the night she goes missing?

He was out of town. But I do know that he was out of town somewhere. So he's out of town. Did he travel? What was his job? To my knowledge, I think he recently opened his own construction company. And I think that that could have possibly been that he was out of town for his work. You're right. He was out of town. He was out of town with his girlfriend somewhere. All right.

So the reason I was asking is to rule him out as well, because this is a home shared by the boyfriend and the boyfriend's brother. We are on the search for Molly Tibbetts. Take a listen to this. What you are hearing is the boyfriend, Dalton Jack, discussing Molly with WITV5. This is not like her. I figured I'd speak to her in an hour or so. I came home as soon as her mom said that she called the hospital and she wasn't there. The last time the 20-year-old saw Molly was on Wednesday at 10 p.m.

when he opened a Snapchat from her. It was just a selfie with a caption, and I don't remember what the caption said, but it looked like she was inside. One of her co-workers called me said Molly had not called into work that day and she hadn't showed up and then I looked at the messages and she hadn't opened or read any of them so I started getting in contact with her friends and her family saying hey have you seen her have you heard from her and everybody came up with the same thing no I haven't seen her since yesterday. If this is her running off, this is just nobody would have seen coming.

Nobody in the world, not her family, not me, nobody would have ever guessed that she would just take off and not tell anybody. Take a listen to what Molly's mother says to ABC. She was very much so looking forward to this um vacation she and dalton were going to take to the dominican republic first part of august she had her first passport to lee egan crime online.com investigative reporter lee tell me how police and the fbi are using molly's fitbit what they're trying to to do is get GPS information off of her Fitbit. And they're also trying to figure out her heart rate at the time of the time she goes missing

and if there was any major activity during that time to show any distress. You know what's interesting to Morgan Collum, Molly's close relative, is we're not hearing anything about a struggle within the home. We're not hearing anything about a forced entry. Trying to figure out who Molly would have let into the home or with no struggle, her cell phone missing. I agree with her mom. It's hard to figure out which way to go. Morgan, what do you have to say to everyone listening now? I would just encourage everybody

to stay vigilant. And if they see anything, please call it in. We've been told that there's no such thing as a tip too small because you never know what piece of information could help to bring Molly home. Morgan, tell me about Molly. I mean, I see the beautiful photo of her and the big smile. What is Molly like? Yeah. The smile matches the personality completely. Molly is very caring. She's helpful. She's funny. She's smart. She loves want to spend time with her because she's such a light, you know, she's just radiates positivity and she's, she's amazing. What was she studying Morgan?

Psychology. And, um, it's interesting. She actually had to take a foreign language course at her, uh, at the University of Iowa, and she actually chose sign language, which I think is really cool. But that's not her main course of study. She was studying psychology. She is studying psychology. The very latest right now, the Missing University of Iowa student, just 20 years old, breaking now, was not kidnapped while on a jog.

She returned to the boyfriend's house after the jog, sending him a final Snapchat before she mysteriously, seemingly, disappears off the face of the earth. Right now, we know the FBI has taken command of the investigation, and they are focusing on her digital footprint, including data they are obtaining from her Fitbit tracker. There has been an extensive volunteer search effort all around her home, out into cornfields where she may have run. There is a reward right now for information on Molly's disappearance. Boyfriend and boyfriend's brother ruled out.

That's very rare you hear that up front. They have been ruled out. Where is Molly Tibbetts? Tip line 800-452-1111. Take a listen to Molly's mother. If it were me that were missing, Molly wouldn't give up hope. That's not a thought. You won't see me giving up hope. That's not an option. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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