Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Young woman jogger Mollie Tibbetts snatched from Iowa street, killed, dumped in cornfield

Episode Date: August 22, 2018

A man admits to dumping Mollie Tibbetts body in a rural Iowa cornfield after encountering her while the college student was jogging, but Christhian Rivera claims he doesn't remember what happened to cause her death. Nancy Grace updates the tragic case with her experts, including forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan, private investigator Vincent Hill, Atlanta juvenile judge & lawyer Ashley Willcott, New York psychologist Caryn Stark, RadarOnline.com reporter Alexis Tereszcuk, and CrimeOnline reporter Leigh Egan. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. It was not the ending we had hoped for. It was not the ending we had prayed for. When you have been in the business of crime, you know in your head to expect this, but then when it happens, you're not ready for it. No matter how many cases I've tried, how many cases I've prepared and investigated or covered, still not ready. Molly Tibbetts, 20-year-old co-ed from Iowa, found dead. In the last hours, we learn who her alleged attacker is. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Take a listen to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations. A complaint and affidavit

names Christian Bahena Rivera, age 24, who resides in rural Poweshie County, and he has been charged with murder in the first degree. A body was discovered early this morning in a farm field southeast of Brooklyn, Iowa. The identity has not been confirmed. However, we believe it to be the body of Molly Tibbetts. In first degree, murder carries a penalty of life without the possibility of parole. Missing Iowa student Molly Tibbetts, just 20 years old, her world ahead of her, found dead on a rural property just 15 minutes from where she vanished

weeks ago. One week after the feds say her kidnapper was hiding in plain sight. So clearly they knew. They knew at that time pretty much what had happened to Molly. And they were focusing on five areas because of what they knew. Now this, we believe, is what they knew. Listen. And during our neighborhood canvas, we came across an individual that had security cameras. We took those cameras.

He was kind enough to give us the footage from it. And through that, we were able to identify a vehicle that we believe belonged to Mr. Rivera. It was a black Malibu and from that we were able to track his pattern and the routes in which he took. We're also able to find Molly running on this video and we're able to determine that he was one of the last ones to have seen Molly running based on the video again that we were able to see from the general public. You are listening to Crime Stories. I'm Nancy Grace. Again, thank you for being with us. We are taking your calls, your tips, your questions.

909-49-CRIME. 909-492-7463. Straight out to Alexis Tereschuk, RadarOnline.com. Alexis, did they know for the last week, after they said her killer is hiding in plain sight? Did they already know? Had they already seen the security surveillance, home security surveillance that showed so much, revealed so much? Did they? Yes, it seems like they did. And this is what they used to identify him and and they described in the video that they

had seen Molly running so they knew this is where she was and then this car was so suspicious he kept driving back and forth and back and forth on this road when you're driving you just drive one way maybe you turn around and come home the second way but back and forth back and forth they knew that this was the car and this had something to do with Molly. So they had identified this car. They knew that this man was the one that they wanted to talk to about Molly. And they had realized that with the way they had said there were five points of interest, that his car had been tracking around this area. So there were multiple instances of places where they had seen him and they wanted people to know that this is the man that they were looking for.

Well, here's the thing. Lee Egan with me, investigative reporter with CrimeOnline.com with everything you need to know about this story and all breaking crime news. Lee, this is what did it, okay, which really broke our hearts. And it's nobody's fault but our own. See, for weeks now, we've been led to believe she could still be alive from sources inside the investigation saying that they think her captor may have her and that she's alive, that it's somebody she knew. And we, all of us, guys with me, Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com, Alexis Tereszczuk,

RadarOnline.com, Karen start renowned new york psychologist joining me from manhattan ashley wilcott judge lawyer founder of childcrimewatch.com vincent hill cop turned pi and joseph scott morgan forensics expert professor of forensics jacksonville state university and author of blood beneath my feet well that's aful. I want to get back to this. Lee, they told us that they thought she was still alive. And they, quote they, air quotas, said that she had been back at her home working on her homework on her computer. And that was the point that I kept saying over and over. That's the fly in the ointment it doesn't fit the dogs are still in the basement where she would put them locked up when she ran everything is at her ID is at the house her Fitbit and her cell phone are

with her which is what I would take to go jogging but then the computer the computer that she came back and worked on homework that night and sent a Snapchat photo from inside. That messed up the theory of her being grabbed when she was jogging. Where did that even come from? The FBI, Nancy, never once said what time she was on that computer. Local reports said that she, at some point in the evening evening was on her computer before she disappeared. We were never given the exact time or even if she was on the computer directly from the FBI. So as far as we know, she may have never went back to the house at all.

Well, it was from sources close to the investigation, which makes me think that she had been on her computer at some point, and maybe that came from the family, but that the time, the time, and as Joe Scott Morgan told us a while back, he's a professor of forensics at Jacksonville State. Joe Scott, you were telling us about how students would do assignments together in a group. I mean, it could have been something like that, but

before she went running. Yeah, yeah, and that's one of the things that, you know, kind of echoed with me. I was thinking, well, she's probably taking summer classes. She's online on, you know, doing an online course. There's people that you have a time stamp and an awareness, so, you know, it kind of opens up the door for a larger group of people to be aware of her surroundings and comings and goings. Guys, we are taking your call. I'm getting a Facebook question. Let's see.

This says, did the owner of the video come forward? Had they seen the video and recognized Molly? That's a good question. Okay, what do we know? Alexis Tereschuk, how were police led to this home surveillance video, or do we know? Well, the police have said that they knew Molly went jogging and that they went out and canvassed the neighborhood,

which means they knocked on doors of every single person, every single business along the route where they thought she was going to be. And one person had a security, a home security system, and they gave them the footage because they didn't know that they would have had it. So the police requested, they said, we need the footage from July 18th from probably about, you know, 5 p.m. on. And this one person, this one neighbor along the route where Molly was running, gave them the footage of the

security. And they looked at it and it took a while to figure out because you just look and you think, oh, well, there's Molly. Okay, fine. There's a car. But the police are trained to look for these things. This is their job. Well, you know how that works, Alexis. You can see your home security video and then you can play it back and you can look at it hours, days, weeks in the past. And I guess that's what homeowners did. We are taking your calls. I'm going to go to Max in just one moment. But I want you to hear what the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Rick Ron says.

We conducted a lengthy interview with Mr. Rivera. And during that interview, he tells us that he sees Molly running and was able to come upon her, approach her. And while he was interfacing with her, he actually tells us that he ran alongside of her or behind her. And then at one point, he tells us that Molly grabbed a hold of her phone and said, you need to leave me alone. I'm going to call the police. And then she took off running he in turn chased her down and then he tells us that at some point in time he blacks out and then he comes to near an intersection which we believe he then placed Molly blacked out he

blacked out guys I am just sick I am sick over what has happened to Molly. And yes, I know it happens all the time, but I feel that I got to know Molly and I had hopes that this would be the one that could be saved. This morning with me, Lee Egan, Alexis Torres, Chuck Kieran, Starke, Ashley Wilcott, Vincent Hill, and Joe Scott Morgan. We're taking your calls this morning on the way to taking the children to school, Ashley. I broke down and started crying

about Molly Tibbetts. We always say a prayer on the way to school. You know, thanking God for the day and what we hope happens that day and to be good to other people and to help us be strong. And I prayed for Molly Tibbetts' family and I just couldn't stand it. But I managed to pull myself together, Ashley, to tell Lucy that this lovely girl was jogging and some bad guy snatched her and it made me think ash all the time the many

many times i have gone running in areas i didn't know anything about them when i would be traveling you name it it and but this wasn't true with molly ashley she knew this area she was familiar with it she ran it every night and to have this guy jump up and say he blacked out and doesn't remember. I mean, did you hear what the special agent said? He was interfacing with her. What the H-E-L-L is that? Interfacing, i.e. chasing after her and grabbing her. That's interfacing.

Don't put perfume on the pig. No, I agree. And so here's the, you know, this case is harder for me than most, and I deal with these cases day in and day out, and that's because I, too, believe that she would be okay and that she would be found alive. So, first of all, yes, clearly this man was stalking her, chasing her, chased her down.

Second of all, blacked out, I don't buy it, chasing her, chased her down. Second of all, blacked out. I don't buy it. I don't buy it. I don't buy it. That's what he's saying. But I think he purposely killed her, murdered her. He didn't black out at all. And I guess that all this time they have managed to, as they canvassed neighborhoods, call some home security video.

And on that video, that must be what they see his car following right after her as she ran they probably slowed it down slowed it down got the make and model long story short home surveillance video can cover your front yard your front gate your mailbox it could be one of those ring no ring wouldn't work because that rings right at your front yard, your front gate, your mailbox. It could be one of those ring, no ring wouldn't work because that rings right at your front door. But long story short, it's home security surveillance video put to use. For those of you just joining us, thank you for being with us. The missing Iowa student Molly Tibbetts has been found. Not the way we wanted. I can only imagine what her family and longtime sweetheart

are going through right now as we are broadcasting. The search, the hopes, the raising the money, the sending out flyers, going to the state farm, state fair to pass out flyers, help us find her, help us find her, the t-shirts, the blah, the blah, the blah. And now this, this. I know that in their heads they knew it was a possibility, but now it's happened. Molly's remains were found in a rural property close to the town of Guernsey, about 10 miles from Brooklyn, where Molly vanished. Right now, there's a no-fly zone in the area, which will last a few more hours to stop choppers, news choppers, from flying overhead, possibly seeing Molly's remains or the crime scene itself. We learned all this in the last hours when a press conference goes down.

Oh, gosh, the way it all played out. We're taking your calls. Let's go straight out to the lines. Max. Hi, Max. What's your question? The moment I heard about the terrible, sad ending of finding Molly Tibbetts murdered, I thought of something years

ago that corresponds Kate Steinle was murdered also by an illegal immigrant how much of this do we need to keep going with why can't the why can't Americans value the possibilities of new immigration laws that will get through with illegal immigrants who are in this country, who have committed murders and other crimes, and yet continue to live here? Now, Max, I appreciate what you're saying. Okay. He has brought up a San Francisco case, and it was the case that garnered a lot of attention where an illegal immigrant stabbed a beautiful young girl dead,

assault with a deadly weapon, there in San Francisco. Wait, wait wait wait no no let correct me if I'm wrong and I think I was he shot Steinle it's all coming back to me because it was a Sig Sauer and I was always thinking how could an illegal immigrant get his mitts on a 40 caliber Sig Sauer and she was walking along with her father on San Francisco's Pier 14. That's how I recall it. And as true as what you're saying is, I don't want to politicize Molly's horrific death. I cover horrible crimes committed by illegal immigrants. I don't know why illegals, especially with criminal

histories, are here. Why are they our problem? However, I don't know what the solution is. I can only tackle, Max, one thing at a time. And right now, I want justice for Molly. I want this guy to have life without parole. I'm telling you, if they deport him, he'll probably get back in. I feel like there's no answer, and that's not the right attitude to Karen Stark, New York psychologist joining us. Sometimes it just feels like there's no right answer, and that's the feeling I would have in court. I would finish one jury trial,

get a guilty verdict, send that jury out, strike another. The next Monday morning there would be 150 brand new felonies. It was like putting your finger in the hole in the dam and if you moved it, it would all come rushing, rushing. I would get back to my office from a jury trial. I hadn't been in my office for, you know, two, three weeks. There would be files so tall, new ones, they had fallen over on my desk to new crimes. I don't know what the answer is in the big picture that Max is talking about with illegal immigrants committing crimes. Crime, period.

There's no stopping it, Karen. There's no stopping it, Karen. There's no stopping it. And if you look at the percentages, Nancy, of the crimes committed by illegal immigrants, which I've been following, it's not nearly the same as people that are actually legal. Well, I mean, that makes sense, Karen. But now hold on. Wait a minute. Of course it's not, because there's more legal immigrants and there's more citizens and naturalized citizens by the millions compared to illegal immigrants. So, of course, they're the bulk of crime. But I agree with Max. I agree with Max in the sense that why are they here committing murders? That's a whole other can of worms.

I want to talk about Molly Tibbetts. What happened to Molly? Why it happened? And I can tell you how this guy was caught. Listen to this. Well, we got the video a week or two ago, and we spent hours going through the video trying to first of all locate molly on it secondly see if there's anything suspicious following molly which is what we did

and so we again spent hours going through that officers did a great job coming up with the timeline i mentioned to you last week that we felt very good about our timeline that just confirmed our timeline that we had and then again we were able to determine what vehicle was following Molly. We identified that vehicle belonging to Mr. Rivera, and then we located him, interviewed him, and subsequently he led us to her location. Gut-wrenching. Our innocence has been taken away. You know, you hope for the very, very best that she could come back,

but we were always scared to death what might happen. It will be forever in our hearts and minds. She was a beautiful soul. Yeah. If that's a beautiful person, very kind and generous. She was very kind and just very sweet. We're a small community, and everybody's family, whether you know her or not, I think her boyfriend said it best when he says everybody has a Molly and man that hits

home. It is closure but it is we hope for the best and that's unfortunately. I think a situation like this definitely brings us all closer and we do find out who our friends and our neighbors are and what we can do for each other and support and understanding and caring and that's what our small communities do. Things change just the sense of you know safe being in a little community I guess that has gone aside. I mean it touches, and we just hope for the best and prayed and prayed and prayed.

That from the Des Moines Registered residents of Brooklyn, Iowa, just 1,500 to 2,000 people at the announcement of Molly Tibbetts found dead. Joining me from CrimeOnline.com, investigative reporter Lee Egan. Lee, we have managed to obtain, you have managed to obtain the police affidavits. What have you learned? The police affidavit gets a little bit more into detail than was told at the press conference. And what we're learning is Rivera said that once he blacked out and came to, he noticed like an earbud on his lap and from that earbud, he determined that he must have put Molly in his trunk.

He went around to the trunk and opened the trunk, noticed that one side of her head was bloodied. At that point, he lifted her from the trunk, threw her over his shoulders, and walked by foot into the woods, into a cornfield, and that's where he just dumped her there. Threw some corn leaves over her and left. He left her face up. Lee, the way you describe that, when you said that, I'm watching Jackie Howard with me here in the studio.

She just put her hand up over her mouth and eyes when you said he threw the corn leaves over her face. It's just almost too much to take in. I mean, I know this is wrong, but I project my little Lucy, she's about to turn 11. And she loves to go when I go jogging or walking. She loves to go with me. And one day she's going to go by herself.

And I just can hardly stand to even think about it. And putting those corn leaves over her face. You know, it goes back, Alexis Terescha, to the very beginning. Remember when Molly first went missing and people were walking through cornfields? They really weren't wrong, were they, Alexis? No, this whole town knew somehow that this, unfortunately, that this is where they were going to find molly because there's these are desolate areas but they're accessible from the road because this

guy says that he walked back there he he drove to he told them he said i drove to an intersection and then i walked he knew to hide her and so that's what everyone in this town was walking and walking and walking looking for molly because because they just couldn't imagine that someone would have taken her so far, even though they were looking for her to be alive. What they, I guess, subconsciously were doing was looking for her body, and they were looking in this town. But that's all that there is in this town, these huge cornfields. And the fact that he covered her up, you know, he was hiding this, and he hid in plain sight for six weeks.

You know, another issue that's being uncovered, and Lee, I'm going to circle back to you on just, he says he finds an earbud in his lap and then he figures out, wow, I must have put her in the trunk. Right now, they have not really released too much information about cause of death, but if there is blood, that tells me either a gunshot wound or a knife wound, if that's even true. And what does that tell me? That tells me he came with a weapon. Also, he said something about he had seen her before.

What can you tell me, Lee lee about his girlfriend being facebook friends with molly didn't his girlfriend have a little child and wasn't molly a day day camp counselor for little children molly was a day camp counselor and this was it it wasn't his girlfriend it was his baby's mother apparently they they never really had a relationship or at least a relationship that lasted too long and not only was this lady on Molly's Facebook but she was also on Molly's brother's Facebook pages so somehow she knew all of the siblings and according to police yes the suspect had watched or had he said he had seen Molly jogging in the past Vincent Hill cop turned PI I now right now I'm literally feeling sick. Literally sick to my stomach thinking of this guy and all

of his BS claiming he saw her jogging. Then he quote interfaced with her. What the H-E-L-L is that interfacing? Then suddenly he finds her earbud in his lap. And what I'm understanding is he actually led them to her body. I just, the death penalty is not good enough. It's not bad enough. It's not enough punishment for him. It's too good for him is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, absolutely. And what we can say, Nancy, for sure, is this guy didn't black out.

I mean, listen, he was cyber stalking her. He was stalking her. He saw her running before. He knew exactly where the body was. That's not something you do if you blacked out all of a sudden. This guy planned this for quite some time, and it's unfortunate that no one picked up on it before he actually got Molly. To you, Lee Egan, tell me again, in the affidavit that you have obtained, he says he sees her earbud in his lap and that jogs his mirror. He realizes, oh, she must be in the trunk. Tell me that again. That's absolutely correct. He comes to at an intersection, a rural intersection,

looks down at his lap and sees an earbud in his lap. And from that, he determines, oh, I must have put her in the trunk. So then he gets out and walks to the trunk, and there she is. Then he goes on to lead investigators to her body. What thousands of volunteers, police, canines couldn't do, he did. Don't tell me. He's not guilty. Ash, what do you make of him leading police to her body? Well, here's what bothers me. He says that she was in the trunk with blood on her head. Who knows if there was blood or not, but we have no way of knowing at this moment whether or not she was actually dead when he hit her in the cornfield.

And so what really bothers me even more is maybe she was unconscious. She could have been alive. Maybe she could have been saved, but he chose to dump her and cover her with corn leaves. We just don't know. He definitely led police to his body. And just so you know, Iowa doesn't have the death penalty. So we will have the privilege of taking care of him for the rest of his life, three hots in a cot the rest of his life, education, Internet, visits, probably get married behind bars, books, art class, macrame, basket weaving.

Yeah, listen to this. After we got done interviewing Mr. Rivera, he led us to her location. And that location was near 460th Street or Avenue in rural Powshey County? I'm sure you've driven around the area, and it's a rural county, and there are a lot of fields, a lot of woods, a lot of ditches. We have certainly had extensive searches throughout the county. We just didn't have success locating her. In this particular case, she was found in a cornfield, and there were corn stalks placed over the top of her.

You are hearing from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Rick Ron, who has worked the case from the beginning, not the ending we all had prayed for, not the ending we had hoped for. The only thing left to do now is to plan Molly's funeral, console her family, and get ready for trial. And what a trial this is going to be. Already, we know that public defenders have been alerted and are working the case. We know that this guy, Rivera, had worked for four years on a local farm, according to the Des Moines Register. The company said he had been vetted before he had been hired wonder how they didn't know he's an

illegal immigrant no motive announced but there doesn't have to be a motive motive is not required under the law the law does not expect a prosecutor to crawl into the mind of a freak like this guy and figure it all out and like set the table like a tea party for a jury. It doesn't, crime doesn't happen that way, does it, to Joe Scott Morgan? No, it doesn't, Nancy. It doesn't occur in a vacuum. Let's, you know, this is such a horrific crime. I'm still absolutely dumbfounded by the fact that this young lady was snatched off of the street and pulled into this car. She wasn't taken and thrown into the trunk immediately.

That's why this car is going to be central, central in the court proceedings. This is a rolling crime scene. My thought is she was initially put in there, and either she was subdued physically, that is, beaten down or harmed in some way to get control over her or she may have actually been killed and furthermore she may have been sexually assaulted in this vehicle so this vehicle is key to harvesting as much information as we can not only the cabin of the car but but also the trunk. Because as he stated, she had blood on her. I'm going to want to know if there's blood in that trunk

and if that blood is Molly's blood. I'm looking at the affidavit right now. It talks about Molly being reported missing. It goes on to talk in depth about the video. And this is on CrimeOnline.com if you want to look at it. The video from the evening of July 18. That's how they know the exact time and date she was taken. They determined Molly was out running near Boundary and Middle Streets. A dark colored Chevy Malibu was spotted numerous times driving back and forth and back and forth. And that's what I always tell the twins. When you

see a car come back and forth, even once, go home, go back to somewhere safe. It was determined that the dark colored Chevy Malibu was connected to this guy, Christian Rivera. He was questioned by law enforcement on 8-20, August 20. He admitted he made contact with a female running, that he pursued her in his vehicle. I'm reading directly from the affidavit that he parked the vehicle, got out, and was running behind her and along beside her. Can you imagine how scared she was? She, quote, grabbed her phone and said, I'm going to call the police. And then he says he panicked. Why not just go back to your car and got mad? And then he, quote, blocked his, quote, memory, which is what he does when he, quote quote gets upset and he doesn't remember anything i wonder if he remembers if he raped her he says he doesn't remember anything until he came to an

intersection made a u-turn drove back to a cornfield drove into a driveway to a cornfield noticed there was an earpiece from headphones in his lap, and that is how he realized she was in the car trunk. He went to get her out. He noticed blood on the side of her head. He described her clothing, including an earphone or headset. He put her over his shoulder, took her about 20 meters into the cornfield, and left her covered in corn leaves and left her there face up. He used his phone to determine the route he traveled from Brooklyn. He later guided police to her location from memory. He located the remains, law enforcement located Molly's remains in the exact area.

The surrounding of her location and the scene matched his description of what he said. Also, based on that interview, clothing found at the scene where the body was located and certain articles of her clothing. Cops know it's Molly. Does that mean, Joe Scott Morgan, that she was unclothed, or do you believe the clothing was with her remains? I don't know. They're throwing around terms, Nancy, like clothing that was found.

That implies that she was in a state of undress. I don't know that, but what I do know is that the autopsy will be performed today, and they are going to go over her remains with a fine-tooth comb. And they're going to have to, Nancy. They're going to absolutely have to because we're talking a month out, and her body will be in such a state that they will really have to take their time and focus on what they need to do. I'm very interested. You had mentioned modalities a few moments ago relative to how she may have been killed. If this was some kind of impassioned rage, I don't know that it would require a knife or a gun. He may have beaten this poor girl to death.

He may have just subdued her and strangled her. I'm assuming that he's larger than she is. Yeah, I was just going to bring that up. Vincent Hill, this guy is just 5'6", and he weighs 130 pounds. How could he get over her? Yeah, he's not that big, but, I mean, if she was fearful for her life, there's no telling. Maybe he had a weapon to, you know, get some type of control over her.

Maybe he caught her off guard, hit her over the head. You know, we don't know. But, you know, Joseph can tell you it doesn't take a lot to strangle someone if you get the jump on them. So we just don't know. There's a lot that we have to get from the autopsy, but I'd be, as an investigator, curious to see what's actually inside that car because as much as they're going to examine Molly's body, you better believe those investigators are looking every inch of that car

inside and out. Nancy, something else that's just absolutely striking to me about this whole thing is that how bold does this guy have to be in order to do this in this tiny little town on a city street where this young lady is jogging and is known to jog in this particular area. And not only does he just kind of catcall her from the car, he unmounts his car, leaves it in the street, and then follows, by his own admission, follows her down the street. And I'm just wondering, what kind of area is this where no one was paying attention to it? Does this actually occur? Did she not put up a struggle?

Did she not yell out, you know, and this goes to this idea of, was he, uh, you know, introducing some kind of, uh, method of terror in here where he's got her at knife point, gun point, whatever the case might be, because if he's just wrapping his hand around her neck, you know, you would think that she would be screaming out. So it, it, it boggles the mind as an investigator for me. And what about other cars, that there are no other cars, no one saw this happening, or she didn't step toward another car? I doubt. It's really very strange.

I doubt pretty much in a town of 1,500, and she's out in the hinterlands jogging amongst the cornfields. I don't know. I mean, clearly a car was not around when he actually attacked her. This is what I know. The family left to try and put the pieces back together. Now face the ordeal of planning a funeral,

which I can tell you is pure hell. And then the trial. Listen to Molly's mother. Every day I feel Molly's presence with me. You know, sometimes I just feel her sitting on my shoulder. And Molly was an incredibly strong young woman. And I don't know that I have the strength in me, but Molly's lending me her strength every day, every night. God, please be with Molly's family. You are listening to Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.