Search for missing Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts enters second week

University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, 20, has now been missing for over a week. The 20-year-old was first reported missing from her hometown in Brooklyn, Iowa, when she was last seen jogging near a corn field on the evening of July 18. The Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s assistance in locating Tibbetts, described as a white female, 5’3”, weighing 120 lbs. with long brown hair.

The FBI has joined in the search for Tibbetts with investigators “poring through ‘massive amounts of data’ related to a missing University of Iowa student’s digital footprint in an effort to track her whereabouts in the hours before she disappeared,” according to a July 26 report from NBC News. FBI spokesperson Mitch Mortvedt believes investigators have a solid timeline and can account for Tibbetts’ whereabouts leading up to the time of her disappearance – but are not releasing any specific details.

Mollie Tibbetts Missing Poster — Image credit: County Emergency Management Agency

“We wish it could go faster, too,” Mortvedt said of the investigation. “As you can imagine, it can be massive amounts of data we’re going through.”

Mortvedt said that with each passing day that Tibbetts isn’t found, the possibility grows that she was taken against her will. But he added that investigators “haven’t ruled anything out.” ~ per NBC

Because Tibbetts was an avid jogger and usually wearing a Fitbit tracking device, investigators are gleaning through data received from warrants served to Fitbit tracking companies and also combing through information received from her cellphone provider and social media accounts including Instagram and Snapchat.

USA Today reported that Tibbetts’ boyfriend, Dalton Jack, informed the media yesterday that Tibbetts sent him a Snapchat message the night she went missing. He opened that message around 10 p.m. on the night of July 18. The picture seemed to depict that she was indoors. The Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office reported that the boyfriend is not considered a suspect in Tibbetts’ disappearance.

Anyone with any information related to Tibbetts’ disappearance is asked to contact the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s at 641-623-5679 or tips@poweshiekcosheriff.com.