Mollie Tibbetts, Missing University Of Iowa Student, Found Dead
(CBS) -- Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student missing for five weeks, has been found dead, CBS News has learned.
Police have scheduled a news conference for 4 p.m. Tuesday to provide an update on the latest developments. So far, no details have been released about where she was found or what the cause of death might be.
She was last seen July 18, jogging in Brooklyn in central Iowa. A video released last week from the day before she went missing showed Tibbetts having fun and laughing — displaying no signs that anything was out of the ordinary that day.
Her family reported her missing the day after she disappeared when she didn't show up for work.
Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts has been found dead, just over a month after she was reported missing, CBS News has learned. The 20-year-old was last seen July 18, jogging near her home in the central Iowa town of Brooklyn https://t.co/OjIkhmjIuK pic.twitter.com/azexbX3BcZ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 21, 2018
Last week, authorities said they were focusing their investigation on five areas in and near Tibbetts' hometown. Those areas reportedly included her boyfriend's home in Brooklyn, a car wash, a truck stop, a farm more than three miles from downtown Brooklyn, and another farm more than six miles away.
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In an interview earlier this month, Mollie Tibbetts' father said he believed his daughter may have left willingly with someone she knew.
Investigators said the landscape of the tiny rural town where she lived was a challenge during their search. Police had to comb through cornfields and use drones to navigate large farms.
Tibbetts' family and friends said she was the kind of person who would brighten anyone's day, and she had no enemies.
Photos of Tibbetts were posted all over Iowa after she vanished.
Her father has told CBS News he believed she was still alive, and had gone willingly with someone, perhaps having met online.
"I think someone went to the house that Mollie knew or that Mollie trusted and that she left with them willingly," Robert Tibbetts told CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz. "Now they're in over their head and they don't know what to do."
He said if he could talk to his daughter, he would tell her to "hang on."
"We're gonna come get you," he said. "Everybody's looking."
Tibbetts had been staying at her boyfriend's home the night she disappeared, and there were no signs of a struggle, a break-in, or that she had left in distress.
Investigators said she had been wearing a FitBit, and was carrying her cell phone, and police were hoping to track their locations to find her, but they were turned off or lost power before investigators could find them.
More than $385,000 was raised for a reward for Mollie's safe return. Greg Willey of Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa tells the Associated Press the fund will now likely be used for any information that helps police catch whoever is responsible for her death.