XPost: alt.fan.states.iowa, alt.politics.immigration, alt.journalism.newspapers   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   A law enforcement investigator testified on Thursday that it was   
   only by chance that he scored the biggest break in the 2018   
   disappearance and slaying of University of Iowa student Mollie   
   Tibbetts.   
      
   Poweshiek County, Iowa, sheriff's deputy Steve Kivi testified   
   that he was driving home on Aug. 16, 2018, when he spotted a   
   black Chevrolet Malibu matching the description of a vehicle of   
   interest in the case of the missing 20-year-old student.   
      
   Kivi said he jotted down the license plate and followed the car   
   until it stopped and the driver got out.   
      
   "I said, 'Hey, can I talk to you for a second?"' Kivi testified   
   of his initial contact with the driver.   
      
   The driver turned out to be Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 26-year-   
   old farmworker now on trial in Scott County, Iowa, on a first-   
   degree murder charge in the slaying of Tibbetts. He has pleaded   
   not guilty.   
      
   Kivi said that just two days before his encounter with Bahena   
   Rivera, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, other   
   investigators on the case were combing through security video   
   they had collected from homes and businesses in Brooklyn, Iowa,   
   and came upon footage of Tibbetts jogging in the rural farming   
   community. Investigators also noticed in the footage that a   
   black Chevy Malibu with chrome side mirrors and chrome door   
   handles kept appearing over and over again in the same area and   
   around the same time Tibbetts was out exercising.   
      
   Kivi said that when he first asked him about Tibbetts, Bahena   
   Rivera denied having "any knowledge that would be useful to us."   
      
   Under cross-examination from defense attorney Chad Frese, Kivi   
   said Bahena Rivera "seemed calm, not nervous." He said Bahena   
   Rivera provided him with a birth certificate confirming his name   
   and that he said he worked at a dairy just outside Brooklyn.   
      
   Kivi testified that prior to his first contact with Bahena   
   Rivera, investigators had received no tips or intelligence   
   pointing to Bahena Rivera as a possible suspect or that a   
   Hispanic man was involved in Tibbetts' disappearance.   
      
   At that time, he said investigators had spent a month searching   
   for Tibbetts, who went missing on July 18, 2018, and that the   
   investigation had chased down numerous leads that led them to   
   dead ends.   
      
   Video recorded Tibbetts jogging   
   Agent Derek Riessen of the Iowa Division of Criminal   
   Investigation testified he and other investigators were going   
   through about 30-days worth of video taken from the home of   
   Brooklyn resident Logan Collins, 27. Collins testified that he   
   turned over to authorities in mid-August 2018 video taken from   
   four security cameras he had mounted on his garage.   
      
   Riessen said that one of Collins' cameras captured a person   
   jogging in a distance around 7:45 p.m. on the day Tibbetts went   
   missing.   
      
   "I looked at it numerous times," Riessen said. "I can say it was   
   a runner, [who] had a ponytail."   
      
   He said investigators determined the jogger seen in the video   
   was Tibbetts, testifying that another witness had seen Tibbetts   
   jogging not far from Collins' home just before she went missing.   
      
   "What we decided to do is start logging everything we saw on the   
   video: vehicles, pedestrians, anything in and around that area   
   prior to 7:45 and also after 7:45," Riessen said.   
      
   Riessen said a black Mailbu was seen going past Collins home six   
   different times and that the last time it was seen it was headed   
   in the direction Tibbetts was running.   
      
   "We wanted to know who was driving the vehicle to determine if   
   they had seen Mollie," Riessen said.   
      
   Suspect question further   
   Acting on the information Kivi had gotten from Bahena Rivera,   
   Special Agent Michael Fischels of the Department of Homeland   
   Security said he and other investigators went to the dairy where   
   Bahena Rivera worked on Aug. 20 and questioned him and other   
   employees with the permission of the dairy owners.   
      
   Fischels said Bahena Rivera again denied any knowledge of   
   Tibbetts' disappearance but allowed investigators to take a DNA   
   sample and fingerprints and gave them permission to search his   
   car and home.   
      
   "He agreed to come down to the sheriff's office and continue the   
   interview," Fischels said.   
      
   Under cross-examination from Frese, Fischels testified that   
   Bahena Rivera's boss offered to have the company's attorney   
   accompany him to the interview.   
      
   "I told him he didn't need the company attorney," Fischels   
   testified.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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