Autopsy finds Iowa student killed by ‘sharp force injuries’

BROOKLYN, Iowa — Investigators continued Thursday to delve into the background of Cristhian Bahena Rivera — the 24year-old they said killed Mollie Tibbetts, a college student who went missing last month — even as his relatives expressed shock and disbelief at what police said unfolded in this quiet stretch of Iowa.

Tibbetts went out for a jog on July 18 and never came home, setting off a weeks-long search in the area. Authorities charged Rivera, a Mexican national and farmworker, with killing her, and they said he is an undocumented immigrant, a revelation that thrust the case into the center of the country’s knotted political debate.

Preliminary autopsy results released Thursday determined that Tibbetts’s death was a “homicide resulting from multiple sharp force injuries.” In court filings, police said Rivera confessed to pursuing her and admitted to dragging her body from his car to a cornfield, where it lay hidden for more than a month. People who knew Rivera in Iowa and Mexico— including his uncle and father — were at a loss to explain the situation.

According to Rivera’s relatives and his employer, he gave off no indications of what police said he had done.

Rivera’s immigration status has drawn more attention to the case, prompting repeated comments from President Donald Trump and conservative commentators about the need for tougher immigration laws.

Tibbetts’ family has released a statement asking to be “allowed the time to process our devastating loss and share our grief in private.”