Missing college student likely left with someone she knew, profiler says

Missing Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts most likely left her boyfriend’s home with someone she knew, a former FBI profiler said in a new report.

Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former FBI profiler and director of forensic sciences at George Mason University, told Fox News that kidnapping Tibbetts “would be a hard feat to pull off.”

“To have a complete stranger to come into a small town like this, someone would have come forward and mentioned that they’ve seen this person,” O’Toole said. “She either got into the car of someone she knew or had a relationship with, or it was someone who had a non-threatening demeanor.”

O’Toole also did not believe that Tibbetts, a rising sophomore at the University of Iowa, ran away from home.

Iowa investigators canceled two press conference this week without explanation — leading O’Toole to believe that they are working on leads in their investigation.

“It is unusual that they canceled,” she told Fox. “I would suspect that something could be developing and they want to put their complete focus on that. They could be serving warrants or conducting more interviews. Holding press conferences could delay an investigation. It can get in the way.”

Like O’Toole, Tibbetts’ father, Rob Tibbetts, said earlier this week he believed the person who took Mollie was not a stranger.

“I do believe Mollie is with someone she knows, probably someone who cares about her,” Rob Tibbetts told ABC News on Monday. “But that relationship was misguided, misinterpreted and went wrong, and I think they’re in a place with Mollie and don’t know how to get themselves out of this horrible situation.”

Tibbetts was last seen jogging through tiny Brooklyn, Iowa — about 70 miles east of Des Moines — on July 18.

When she didn’t show up to her job at a day-care center the next day, she was reported missing.

Tibbetts’ boyfriend has been ruled out as a suspect in the case.

Blake Jack, the brother of Tibbetts’ boyfriend, Dalton Jack, told Fox News on Wednesday that there was no sign of struggle at his brother’s Brooklyn home the day before she vanished.

Source: Read Full Article