XPost: alt.fan.states.iowa, alt.politics.immigration, alt.journalism.newspapers XPost: sac.politics

A law enforcement investigator testified on Thursday that it was
only by chance that he scored the biggest break in the 2018
disappearance and slaying of University of Iowa student Mollie
Tibbetts.

Poweshiek County, Iowa, sheriff's deputy Steve Kivi testified
that he was driving home on Aug. 16, 2018, when he spotted a
black Chevrolet Malibu matching the description of a vehicle of
interest in the case of the missing 20-year-old student.

Kivi said he jotted down the license plate and followed the car
until it stopped and the driver got out.

"I said, 'Hey, can I talk to you for a second?"' Kivi testified
of his initial contact with the driver.

The driver turned out to be Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 26-year-
old farmworker now on trial in Scott County, Iowa, on a first-
degree murder charge in the slaying of Tibbetts. He has pleaded
not guilty.

Kivi said that just two days before his encounter with Bahena
Rivera, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, other
investigators on the case were combing through security video
they had collected from homes and businesses in Brooklyn, Iowa,
and came upon footage of Tibbetts jogging in the rural farming
community. Investigators also noticed in the footage that a
black Chevy Malibu with chrome side mirrors and chrome door
handles kept appearing over and over again in the same area and
around the same time Tibbetts was out exercising.

Kivi said that when he first asked him about Tibbetts, Bahena
Rivera denied having "any knowledge that would be useful to us."

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Chad Frese, Kivi
said Bahena Rivera "seemed calm, not nervous." He said Bahena
Rivera provided him with a birth certificate confirming his name
and that he said he worked at a dairy just outside Brooklyn.

Kivi testified that prior to his first contact with Bahena
Rivera, investigators had received no tips or intelligence
pointing to Bahena Rivera as a possible suspect or that a
Hispanic man was involved in Tibbetts' disappearance.

At that time, he said investigators had spent a month searching
for Tibbetts, who went missing on July 18, 2018, and that the
investigation had chased down numerous leads that led them to
dead ends.

Video recorded Tibbetts jogging
Agent Derek Riessen of the Iowa Division of Criminal
Investigation testified he and other investigators were going
through about 30-days worth of video taken from the home of
Brooklyn resident Logan Collins, 27. Collins testified that he
turned over to authorities in mid-August 2018 video taken from
four security cameras he had mounted on his garage.

Riessen said that one of Collins' cameras captured a person
jogging in a distance around 7:45 p.m. on the day Tibbetts went
missing.

"I looked at it numerous times," Riessen said. "I can say it was
a runner, [who] had a ponytail."

He said investigators determined the jogger seen in the video
was Tibbetts, testifying that another witness had seen Tibbetts
jogging not far from Collins' home just before she went missing.

"What we decided to do is start logging everything we saw on the
video: vehicles, pedestrians, anything in and around that area
prior to 7:45 and also after 7:45," Riessen said.

Riessen said a black Mailbu was seen going past Collins home six
different times and that the last time it was seen it was headed
in the direction Tibbetts was running.

"We wanted to know who was driving the vehicle to determine if
they had seen Mollie," Riessen said.

Suspect question further
Acting on the information Kivi had gotten from Bahena Rivera,
Special Agent Michael Fischels of the Department of Homeland
Security said he and other investigators went to the dairy where
Bahena Rivera worked on Aug. 20 and questioned him and other
employees with the permission of the dairy owners.

Fischels said Bahena Rivera again denied any knowledge of
Tibbetts' disappearance but allowed investigators to take a DNA
sample and fingerprints and gave them permission to search his
car and home.

"He agreed to come down to the sheriff's office and continue the
interview," Fischels said.

Under cross-examination from Frese, Fischels testified that
Bahena Rivera's boss offered to have the company's attorney
accompany him to the interview.

"I told him he didn't need the company attorney," Fischels
testified.

'Mr. Rivera said that he got angry'
Pamela Romero, a former Liberty City, Iowa, police officer, said
she was asked to help interview Bahena Rivera because she speaks
Spanish.

Romero said that during an 11-hour interview, Bahena Rivera
confessed when he was confronted with a still image of his car
captured on Collins' security camera.

Romero, who now works for a turkey processing factory in Iowa,
said Bahena Rivera allegedly told her that he spotted Tibbetts
jogging, waved at her, and that she smiled and waved back. He
allegedly said, according to Romero, that he found Tibbetts
"hot" and decided to follow her.

She said Bahena Rivera was given numerous breaks during the
interview, offered food and something to drink.

She said the interview continued into the early morning hours of
the next day, Aug. 21, and that Rivera went with her and other
investigators to his home, his place of work and then directed
them to a cornfield on the outskirts of Brooklyn.

Romero said that while sitting in a police vehicle parked near
the cornfield, she read Bahena Rivera, who had been placed under
arrest, his Miranda rights. He said he waived his right to
remain silent and agreed to continue the interview.

"I asked Mr. Rivera to give me all the details that he could
remember," Romero said. "He told me he saw her running three
times. One of those times he parked his car and ran after her,
or jogged after her, came close to her that she noticed him."

Romero said Bahena Rivera allegedly claimed Tibbetts said she
was going to call the police.

"Mr. Rivera said that he got angry," Romero said. "After he said
that he got angry, he stated that they started fighting. He said
that Mollie tried to slap him and was screaming at him."

Romero said that Bahena Rivera allegedly claimed that when he
gets angry, he usually blacks out.

"So the next thing that he told me was he remembered driving and
looking down to his legs and finding the earbuds that belonged
to Mollie and that is when he remembered he had Mollie in the
back of his vehicle, in the trunk," Romero said. "He stated that
he did not remember putting her inside the car. He did not
remember how she got there but he did remember how he took her
out of the vehicle."

Romero said Bahena Rivera allegedly said he drove to the
cornfield, opened the trunk and saw blood on Tibbetts' neck.

During his opening statement at the trial on Wednesday,
prosecutor Bart Klaver told the jury that an autopsy determined
Tibbetts was stabbed seven to 12 times in the neck, head and
chest.

"He told me that he took her out of the car, put her on top of
his shoulder, carried her into the cornfield, laying her down,
covering her with corn leaves and leaving right away," Romero
said.

Romero testified that when she pressed Bahena Rivera for more
details, he allegedly replied, "I brought you here, didn't I?
So, that means that I did it. I don't remember how I did it."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/key-takeaways-day-trial-accused-killer- university-iowa/story?id=77801084

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)