Agent Says Lack of Spanish Skills Delayed Iowa Investigation
An agent who oversaw the 2018 investigation into the disappearance of a University of Iowa student testified Monday that a shortage of Spanish-speaking officers delayed and hindered his ability to question the man on trial in her stabbing death.
Division of Criminal Investigation agent Trent Vileta said he wanted to speak with Cristhian Bahena Rivera after investigators linked him to a car seen on video driving near where Mollie Tibbetts disappeared while running in Brooklyn, Iowa.
But that took four days, in part because investigators knew they needed to question Bahena Rivera and his co-workers in Spanish, and “we didn’t have any Spanish speakers,” Vileta said.
Vileta testified at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport as the first-degree murder trial of Bahena Rivera entered its second week. Prosecutors rested their case Monday afternoon, and the defense is expected to begin calling witnesses Tuesday. Bahena Rivera, 26, faces life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors say Bahena Rivera followed Tibbetts while she ran on July 18, 2018, killed her after she threatened to call police then hid her body in a cornfield. They say Bahena Rivera led investigators to the body after making a partial confession on Aug. 20, 2018, and that Tibbetts’ DNA was a match for blood found in his trunk.
Vileta acknowledged Monday that investigators never found a murder weapon and do not have physical evidence proving Bahena Rivera killed her, only that her body was in his vehicle’s trunk. Bahena Rivera told police that he “blacked out” and couldn’t remember how he killed Tibbetts.
Vileta said the evidence suggests Tibbetts was abducted on a road outside Brooklyn after 8 p.m., but that he does not know precisely where or when she was killed.
Data from Tibbetts’ cellphone provider shows her phone was moving at a running pace before accelerating to over 60 mph around 8:27 p.m. and eventually slowing down and stopping more than 10 miles away, FBI agent Kevin Horan testified. By 8:53 p.m., her phone went dark.
Agents narrowed their focus to that rural area near the town of Guernsey, where her body was later found. Her cellphone and FitBit device were never recovered, Vileta said.
An autopsy determined Tibbetts died of multiple sharp-force injuries consistent with stab wounds from a knife with a single-edged blade, State Medical Examiner Dennis Klein told jurors Monday afternoon.
Tibbetts suffered up to 12 wounds to her head, neck, chest and other body parts, including one injury that penetrated her skull, he said. An injury to her right hand suggested she was trying to defend herself.
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