IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A prosecutor says video, DNA analysis and a partial confession will be critical to proving a farm laborer stabbed a University of Iowa student to death while she was out for a run in 2018.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera is charged with first-degree murder in 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts’ death. Poweshiek County Attorney Bart Klaver told jurors in his opening statement Wednesday that a homeowner’s surveillance video shows Bahena Rivera’s black Chevy Malibu apparently circling Tibbets on July 18, 2018, in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. He says blood found in the trunk of that vehicle matches Tibbetts’ DNA.