Suspected Killer of Mollie Tibbetts Acted Normal During Weeks-Long Search

The illegal immigrant who confessed to approaching Mollie Tibbetts, “blocking his memory,” and then finding her dead body in his trunk, acted normally during the weeks-long search for the missing college student, a co-worker said.

Cristhian Rivera, 24, worked and lived at Yarrabee Farms in Iowa near Brooklyn, where Tibbetts, 20, was living and grew up.

A co-worker of Rivera’s, who asked that her identity not be made public, told CBS that Rivera acted totally normal while the search was going on.

No Anxiety Noticeable

“Rivera’s coworker [said] that someone who would have done something like this would be nervous and not be able to eat and he seemed like nothing was wrong. She said she doesn’t want to believe it’s him,” the broadcaster reported.

“She also said Rivera—who entered the U.S. as a minor—is calm, not violent, and a good father.”

Rivera has a 3-year-old daughter with an ex-girlfriend. The daughter was born in America. Rivera is from Mexico and in the United States illegally.

Dane Lang, the co-owner of Yarrabee Farms, echoed the sentiment that Rivera appeared to act normally as he went about his job at the dairy farm.

“Nobody saw a difference” in his demeanor, Lang said at a press conference, reported the Associated Press.

An aunt of Rivera’s ex-girlfriend told Fox News that Rivera regularly spent time with her family and during the search for Tibbetts, he joined in discussions about it.

“We would talk about the situation,” and Rivera “would comment as well and we would all say that we were surprised and scared because this is a quiet town,” she said.

“This has never happened around here and we were all sad while awaiting, pleading to God that she would be found alive and that everything would be fine. He never displayed signs for us to suspect that he had anything to do with this.”

Rivera’s Confession

According to a probable cause statement, Rivera confessed to investigators that he spotted Tibbetts as she jogged just outside Brooklyn on July 19.

Rivera was driving a car that he either owned under his fake identity or borrowed from someone, circling around the block several times.

He eventually pulled over, shut off the engine, got out of the car, and jogged behind Tibbetts until he caught up to her. Then, he was running alongside her.

Tibbetts noticed Rivera and got out her phone. “I’m gonna call the police,” she told him, Rivera said.

“Rivera said he then panicked and got mad and that he then ‘blocked’ his ‘memory’ which is what he does when he gets very upset,” investigators stated. “He doesn’t remember anything after that.”

Rivera said the next thing he was conscious of was being back behind the wheel in the car and at an intersection.

He looked in his lap and saw an earpiece from headphones and realized that Tibbetts’ dead body was in his trunk.

Rivera then dragged Tibbetts on foot from his vehicle to a secluded location in the cornfield and covered her body in some corn leaves, leaving her there face up.

Rivera later led investigators to the location of the body, on Aug. 21. Officials said Tibbetts died from “sharp force injuries.”

From NTD.tv