XPost: alt.fan.states.idaho, seattle.politics, or.politics   
   XPost: co.politics   
   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   Authorities still haven’t found the weapon used to stab Mollie   
   Tibbetts to death more than a year after her murder, it was   
   revealed in court Wednesday.   
      
   The 20-year-old University of Iowa student’s cellphone and   
   FitBit have also not yet been recovered, Poweshiek County   
   Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Kivi said in court, according to The Des   
   Moines Register.   
      
   The acknowledgement of the missing items came during the first   
   day of a hearing in Poweshiek County Court, where Judge Joel   
   Yates heard arguments over whether evidence against accused   
   killer Cristhian Bahena Rivera should be thrown out.   
      
   Defense attorneys for Rivera, a Mexican national living   
   illegally in the US, have claimed investigators coerced him into   
   giving an interview and failed to properly read him Miranda   
   rights.   
      
   Prosecutors admitted in court documents last month that an   
   officer “inadvertently” failed to tell Rivera that anything he   
   said could be used against him when he was busted for murder   
   around 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 20, 2018.   
      
   In court Wednesday, former Iowa City Police Officer Pamela   
   Romero testified that she made an honest mistake when she didn’t   
   read Rivera his complete rights, not realizing until later that   
   she’d left that part out.   
      
   Romero, a native Spanish speaker, said she made an error, and   
   wasn’t trying to keep the suspect talking without a lawyer.   
      
   Several hours of questioning later, Rivera led cops to a   
   cornfield where they found Tibbetts’ body.   
      
   Following the gruesome discovery, Romero said she read Rivera   
   his rights to him at around 5:50 a.m., and this time they were   
   complete.   
      
   He provided “substantial information” about how Tibbetts was   
   killed and left in the field, Romero said.   
      
   Prosecutors agree any statements Rivera made between the time   
   frame of 11:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. — which led to the discovery of   
   the body — shouldn’t be used as evidence in his trial.   
      
   But they say the body itself should be used as evidence,   
   claiming it would have been discovered anyway, since   
   investigators had already planned on searching that area.   
      
   Local farmers were anxious Tibbetts, who went missing July 18,   
   2018, would be found in their fields and were on the lookout.   
      
   Some used drones, which would have spotted Tibbetts’ fluorescent   
   running shoes, testified Agent Trent Vileta of the Division of   
   Criminal Investigation, which oversaw the massive search.   
      
   “Nobody wanted to be the one to find her,” Vileta said.   
      
   But defense attorneys cast doubt on the claim Tibbetts would   
   have been found, noting the missing phone and FitBit.   
      
   Rivera’s lawyers also claim cops suggested to their client that   
   he didn’t need a lawyer and questioned him for 11 hours even as   
   he was, at times, dozing off.   
      
   Investigators testified Rivera agreed to be interviewed and was   
   free to leave for the first six hours.   
      
   Then they discovered blood in the trunk of his vehicle and   
   obtained an immigration detainer to keep him in custody. Rivera   
   had given consent to the vehicle search, they said.   
      
   The blood turned out to match Tibbetts’.   
      
   The hearings are expected to continue Thursday. A judge will   
   have weeks to decide how much of Rivera’s alleged confession   
   will be used in the trial, scheduled for February.   
      
   With Post wires.   
      
   https://nypost.com/2019/11/13/slain-iowa-student-mollie-tibbetts-   
   phone-fitbit-and-murder-weapon-still-missing/   
          
      
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