Iowa City, IA (AP) — The lead investigator in the death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts says he’s confident the right man was convicted of murder and rejects claims that her abduction could be tied to two other men.
Division of Criminal Investigation agent Trent Vileta said Tuesday that had they known, detectives searching for Tibbetts in 2018 would have looked into another woman’s claim that she’d been lured by a man from Tibbetts’ hometown and held in a nearby home for sex trafficking.
But the woman’s complaint didn’t lead to charges and Vileta says it should be disregarded given the evidence tying Tibbetts’ death to local farmhand Cristhian Bahena Rivera.
He testified at a hearing on whether to grant a new trial to Bahena Rivera.
