Page 7 - aruba-today-20180824

A7
U.S. NEWS Friday 24 august 2018
Autopsy finds Iowa student killed by 'sharp force injuries'

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — that Rivera allegedly told state and local investiga-
The Iowa college student investigators that he saw tors in "identifying, locating
who was allegedly ab- her running previously. In- and interviewing the sus-
ducted by a stranger while vestigators zeroed in on him pect."
running last month in a as the suspect after obtain- Division of Criminal Inves-
small Iowa town was killed ing footage from surveil- tigation spokesman Mitch
by "multiple sharp force lance cameras showing a Mortvedt agreed that ICE
injuries," investigators an- vehicle connected to him played a "significant role"
nounced Thursday. circling the area of Tibbetts' in the case, particularly in
Preliminary autopsy results running route. helping confirm Rivera's
from the state medical Earlier this week, investiga- identity and immigration
examiner's office also de- tors said they were uncer- status.
termined that 20-year-old tain how Tibbetts was killed Rivera's defense attorney,
Mollie Tibbetts was the vic- or whether she was sexually Allan Richards, has de-
tim of a homicide, the Divi- assaulted. They've made nounced Trump for pre-
sion of Criminal Investiga- no mention of recovering judging his client's guilt,
tion announced in a press a weapon linked to the saying the president's com-
release. death. ments would make it hard
The agency did not release Rivera, a native of Mexico for Rivera to get a fair trial.
additional details about who is suspected of being "Let's let the process go,"
the injuries Tibbetts suffered in the U.S. illegally, made he said Thursday. "The pro-
or what caused them, but his initial court appearance cess is about truth-finding
said further examination of Wednesday and is being in a rational, peaceful and A poster for missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts
her body may result in ad- jailed on a $5 million cash- efficient manner. We're hangs in the window of a local business, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018,
ditional findings. Autopsy only bond. He faces life in only at the very preliminary in Brooklyn, Iowa.
reports are confidential prison without the possibility stages."q Associated Press
under Iowa law, except for of parole if convicted.
the cause and manner of Within hours of the arrest,
death. President Donald Trump
The man charged with first- seized on the news that Ri-
degree murder in Tibbetts' vera was allegedly in the
death, Cristhian Bahena country illegally and called
Rivera, allegedly led inves- for stricter immigration
tigators to her body early laws. And in an interview
Tuesday in a cornfield out- that aired Thursday, he told
side of Brooklyn, Iowa, the "Fox & Friends" that Tibbetts
town where she was last was a "beautiful young girl"
seen last month. While in- killed by a "horrible person
vestigators were confident that came in from Mexico,
then that the body was illegally here."
that of Tibbetts, the au- Trump has claimed that
topsy definitively confirmed people living in the U.S. ille-
her identity. gally often commit crimes,
Prosecutors allege that Ri- but studies by social sci-
vera abducted Tibbetts entists and the libertarian
while she was out for an Cato Institute reject that
evening run in Brooklyn on assertion. The studies show
July 18, killed her and dis- that states with higher
posed of her body in the shares of people living in
secluded location. the country illegally have
A criminal complaint al- lower violent crime rates.
leges that Rivera con- The president also said the
fessed during a lengthy suspect was "found by"
interrogation that began agents from Immigrations
Monday to following Tib- and Customs Enforcement,
betts in his car, getting out an agency that some liber-
on foot and chasing after als have called for abolish-
her. Rivera told investiga- ing because of tactics they
tors that he panicked after view as overly harsh. An ICE
Tibbetts threatened to call spokesman said Thursday
police on her cell phone, that its agents worked with
he blacked out and later
came to when he was un-
loading her bloody body
from the trunk of a car, it
says.
Rivera worked for the last
four years at a dairy farm
a few miles from where Tib-
betts was last seen. He and
Tibbetts have no known
connections, other than