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Xavior Harrelson and Mollie Tibbetts- What Really Happened?
Stephanie Harlowe's 1.5-hour breakdown, the fullest single telling on file.
Watch on YouTubeWhat happened
Mollie Cecilia Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa psychology student, disappeared on July 18, 2018, while jogging near her home in Brooklyn, Iowa, a small town about 70 miles east of Des Moines. She was last seen at approximately 7:30 p.m. and was reported missing the next day when she failed to show up for work at a children's day camp at Grinnell Regional Medical Center.
Over the following weeks, investigators in multiple states pursued more than 2,300 tips and conducted over 500 interviews. Searchers focused on several areas in and around Brooklyn, including the home of Tibbetts's boyfriend, a truck stop, a car wash, and two area farms. Rewards for information leading to her safe return grew to more than $366,000.
On August 21, 2018, police announced that a body had been found in Poweshiek County, where Brooklyn is located. The body was identified as Tibbetts's in an autopsy conducted two days later by the Iowa State Medical Examiner, who recorded the cause of death as multiple sharp force injuries and the manner of death as homicide. Investigators were led to the site by 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who had become a suspect after surveillance footage showed a car linked to him driving repeatedly near where Tibbetts was jogging.
Rivera, who lived and worked at Yarrabee Farms near Brooklyn, had entered the United States illegally at age 17 and had lived in the area for several years; he worked under the name John Budd. Police said Rivera confessed to kidnapping and killing Tibbetts and dumping her body, and he led officers to it in a secluded cornfield. On August 22, 2018, Rivera was charged with first-degree murder; his bond was later raised to $5 million after prosecutors described him as a flight risk. He pleaded not guilty on September 19, 2018.
Rivera's immigration status became a matter of public record after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he had no lawful immigration status. Yarrabee Farms, where Rivera lived and worked, initially said it had verified his status through the federal E-Verify program, but E-Verify indicated the farm was not enrolled; the farm later said it had relied on a Social Security Administration check and that Rivera had provided false information. The case became a focal point in national debate over immigration policy, drawing comment from senior federal officials, while Tibbetts's father publicly criticized the political use of his daughter's death and said Iowa's Hispanic community shared Iowans' values.
Rivera's trial began on May 17, 2021, after delays related to other court proceedings and the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 28, 2021, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. Because Iowa has no death penalty, the conviction carried a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole, which the court imposed on August 30, 2021. As of May 2025, Iowa records showed Rivera incarcerated at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, Iowa.
