Cristhian Bathena Rivera, 24, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday in Tibbetts' death, officials confirmed.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday in the death of Mollie Tibbetts, a missing 20-year-old college student from Iowa. (Iowa Department of Public Safety)
Authorities said Rivera, who lived in the rural Poweshiek County area, is being held on a federal immigration detainer. He's believed to have been in the area for four to seven years.
The body of Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student, was found Tuesday in a field covered with corn stalks. Her father and two sources confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday morning that Tibbetts was found dead; investigators said later in the day they were working to formally identify the body.
Investigators said they used surveillance footage to track down Rivera. The video showed Tibbetts jogging in a rural area near her hometown of Brooklyn, and also showed Rivera's car. She was last seen around 7:30 p.m. on July 18 after she went for a jog around a neighborhood in Brooklyn.
Tibbetts' family pleaded for her safe return and had remained hopeful she would be found alive. Her father, Rob, previously told Fox News that "somebody knows something."
Brooklyn, according to her father, is a small city and “you can’t do anything there without someone seeing it.”
Iowa's Division of Criminal Investigation received more than 4,000 tips during the investigation, and had roughly 30 to 40 investigators working on the case.
Investigators followed "hundreds" of those leads — interviewing several hundred people and canvassing a nearby hog farm, cornfields and other properties for traces of the college student. Two items Tibbetts typically took with her — a Fitbit and cellphone — remained missing.
Investigators announced last week that they were focusing the search on five locations in and around Brooklyn, which included a car wash just a block away from the city’s main commercial strip and a TA truck stop next to Interstate 80, which runs across the entirety of Iowa.
Mollie Tibbetts was reported missing from her hometown in the eastern Iowa city of Brooklyn in July 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Brooklyn, a town of just 1,400 people, was shaken by Tibbetts' disappearance. Blake Jack, the brother of Tibbetts’ boyfriend, told Fox News on Aug. 8 there was no sign of a struggle at the Brooklyn home she was staying in at the time.
Dalton, Tibbetts' boyfriend of two years, said he believed the doors of the home where his girlfriend last stayed had been left unlocked.
“It’s Brooklyn. You don’t lock your doors,” Dalton said. “We lock our doors now. Every night.”
Vice President Mike Pence said he's "heartbroken" about Tibbetts' death, and called the college student an "amazing young woman." He tweeted that "justice will be served" against the murder suspect.
"We will never forget Mollie Tibbetts," the vice president added.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds shared similar sentiments, calling the news about Tibbetts "heart-wrenching," and said that Iowans "are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community."
"Mollie Tibbetts, our hearts are...
Mollie Tibbetts was reported missing from her hometown in the eastern Iowa city of Brooklyn in July 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Brooklyn, a town of just 1,400 people, was shaken by Tibbetts' disappearance. Blake Jack, the brother of Tibbetts’ boyfriend, told Fox News on Aug. 8 there was no sign of a struggle at the Brooklyn home she was staying in at the time.
Dalton, Tibbetts' boyfriend of two years, said he believed the doors of the home where his girlfriend last stayed had been left unlocked.
“It’s Brooklyn. You don’t lock your doors,” Dalton said. “We lock our doors now. Every night.”
Vice President Mike Pence said he's "heartbroken" about Tibbetts' death, and called the college student an "amazing young woman." He tweeted that "justice will be served" against the murder suspect.
"We will never forget Mollie Tibbetts," the vice president added.
Heartbroken by the news about Mollie Tibbetts. Mollie was an amazing young woman and we are praying for her parents, brothers & friends in this time of unimaginable grief…. dailycaller.com/2018/08/21/ill…
We commend the swift action by local, state, & federal investigators working in Iowa in apprehending an illegal immigrant, who’s now charged with first-degree murder. Now, justice will be served. We will never forget Mollie Tibbetts.
"Mollie Tibbetts, our hearts are...
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Appearing on MSNBC’s The Beat early Tuesday night, frequent MSNBC guest and Fordham University professor Christina Greer smeared the memory of late University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts as “a girl in Iowa” that “Fox News is talking about”. (Via Newsbusters)
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