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Title
Poweshiek-History-Criminal Cases-Tibbetts, Mollie
Date(s)
- 2018 - ? (Creation)
Extent
Background: On July 18, 2018, University of Iowa student Mollie Cecilia Tibbetts (1998 - 2018) disappeared while jogging near her home in Brooklyn, Iowa. A month later, police identified 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera as a suspect in connection with the disappearance. Rivera led police to the body of Tibbetts in a Poweshiek County cornfield on August 21. He was charged with first-degree murder. Rivera was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Rivera's immigration status became a politicized issue after police, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicated that he had been in the United States illegally. The Trump administration and some Republicans, including Iowa governor Kim Reynolds, used the murder to argue for more restrictive immigration policies.
Content: 95 articles covering Mollie Tibbetts' disappearance, the search for her, the murder trial, and the political tension surrounding her death
Keywords: Crime, murder, immigration