Mollie Tibbetts

On the evening of July 18, 2018, 20-year-old Mollie Cecilia Tibbetts, a University of Iowa student, went for a jog in the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa, where she was dog-sitting for her boyfriend. She was tracked by her Fitbit activity tracker, which showed her running route. She never returned. Her disappearance sparked a massive search and national media attention.

For a month, law enforcement searched for Mollie using GPS data, surveillance footage, and tips from the public. On August 20, investigators identified 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who worked at a nearby dairy farm, after reviewing security camera footage from houses along Mollie's jogging route that showed his car following her.

Under questioning, Bahena Rivera led investigators to a cornfield in rural Poweshiek County where Mollie's body was hidden under cornstalk leaves. He initially claimed he blacked out and couldn't remember what happened. At trial, he changed his story to claim that two masked men had actually killed Mollie and forced him to dispose of the body.

In May 2021, Bahena Rivera was convicted of first-degree murder by a jury in Davenport, Iowa (the trial was moved due to pretrial publicity). He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Mollie's case became entangled in the national immigration debate, with some politicians citing it as an argument for stricter immigration enforcement, while Mollie's family asked that her death not be used to promote anti-immigrant sentiment.