Autopsy reveals 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts was killed by 'multiple sharp force injuries'

Charlie Neibergall/AP

A poster for missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts hangs in the window of a local business on Aug. 21, 2018, in Brooklyn, Iowa.

• Preliminary autopsy results reveal that 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts was killed by "multiple sharp force injuries."
• The man charged with first-degree murder in Tibbetts' death, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, allegedly led investigators to her body early Tuesday in a cornfield outside of Brooklyn, Iowa.
• While investigators were confident then that the body was that of Tibbetts, the autopsy definitively confirmed her identity.
• Authorities said Rivera admitted to following Tibbetts, approaching her, and then blacking out and later discovering her body in the trunk of his car.

Mollie Tibbetts was killed by "multiple sharp force injuries," investigators announced on Thursday.

The Iowa college student was allegedly abducted while running last month by a stranger who was living in the US illegally.

Preliminary autopsy results from the state medical examiner's office also determined that 20-year-old Tibbetts was the victim of a homicide, the Division of Criminal Investigation announced in a press release.

The agency did not release additional details about the injuries Tibbetts suffered or what caused them, but said further examination of her body may result in additional findings.

Autopsy reports are confidential under Iowa law, except for the cause and manner of death.

The man charged with first-degree murder in Tibbetts' death, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, allegedly led investigators to her body early Tuesday in a cornfield outside of Brooklyn, Iowa, the town where she was last seen last month.

While investigators were confident then that the body was that of Tibbetts, the autopsy definitively confirmed her identity.

Murder suspect allegedly led investigators to Tibbetts' body

Charlie Neibergall/AP

Cristhian Bahena Rivera is escorted into the Poweshiek County Courthouse for his initial court appearance, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018, in Montezuma, Iowa. Rivera is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Mollie Tibbetts, who disappeared July 18 from Brooklyn, Iowa.

Prosecutors allege that Rivera abducted Tibbetts while she was out for an evening run in Brooklyn on July 18, killed her, and disposed of her body in the secluded location.

Authorities said Rivera admitted to following Tibbetts, approaching her, and then blacking out and later discovering her body in the trunk of his car.

A criminal complaint says Rivera confessed during a lengthy interrogation that began Monday to following Tibbetts in his car, getting out on foot, and chasing after her.

Rivera told investigators that he panicked after Tibbetts threatened to call police on her cell phone, he blacked out, and later came to when he was unloading her bloody body from the trunk of a car, the complaint says.

Earlier this week, investigators said they were uncertain how Tibbetts was killed or whether she was sexually assaulted. They've made no mention of recovering a weapon linked to the death.

Rivera worked for the last four years at a dairy farm a few miles from where Tibbetts was last seen.

His employer, Yarrabee Farms, initially said Rivera had passed the government's E-Verify system, which is designed to flag unauthorized immigrants for employers.

But manager Dane Lang told the Associated Press on Wednesday that they were mistaken, and had not used E-Verify.

Rivera and Tibbetts have no known connections, other than that Rivera allegedly told investigators that he saw her running previously.

Investigators zeroed in on him as the suspect after obtaining footage from surveillance cameras showing a vehicle connected to him circling the area of Tibbetts' running route.

Trump is calling for stricter immigration laws after arrest

Rivera, a native of Mexico who is suspected of being in the US illegally, made his initial court appearance Wednesday and is being jailed on a $5 million cash-only bond.

He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Within hours of the arrest, President Donald Trump seized on the news that Rivera was allegedly in the country illegally and called for stricter immigration laws, calling current laws a "disgrace" while at a rally in West Virginia.

And in an interview that aired Thursday, he told "Fox & Friends" that Tibbetts was a "beautiful young girl" who was killed by "a horrible person that came in from Mexico, illegally here."

The president also claimed the suspect was "found by" agents from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, an agency that some liberals have called for abolishing because of tactics they view as overly harsh.

An ICE spokesman said Thursday that its agents worked with state and local investigators in "identifying, locating and interviewing the suspect."

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

Native-born Americans are convicted of many more violent crimes than unauthorized immigrants are.

Division of Criminal Investigation spokesman Mitch Mortvedt agreed that ICE played a "significant role" in the case, particularly in helping confirm Rivera's identity and immigration status.

Rivera's defense attorney, Allan Richards, has denounced Trump for prejudging his client's guilt, saying the president's comments would make it hard for Rivera to get a fair trial.

"Let's let the process go," he said Thursday. "The process is about truth-finding in a rational, peaceful and efficient manner. We're only at the very preliminary stages."

Before Tibbetts went missing, she had been dog sitting at her boyfriend's house while he was at work 100 miles away.

Her family reported her missing after she did not show up for work on July 19.

Tibbetts' family has tried to downplay the link between the 20-year-old's death and illegal immigration.

"We are not so f---ing small-minded that we generalize a whole population based on some bad individuals," Tibbetts' cousin tweeted in response to the right-wing commentator Candace Owens.

"Evil comes in EVERY color," Tibbetts' aunt, Billie Jo Calderwood, wrote in a statement.