Mollie Tibbetts

On July 18, 2018, University of Iowa student Mollie Cecilia Tibbetts disappeared while jogging near her home in Brooklyn, Iowa. A month later, police identified 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera as a suspect in connection with the disappearance; surveillance footage showed Rivera's car following Tibbetts on her jog. Rivera led police to the body of Tibbetts in a Poweshiek County cornfield on August 21. He was charged with first-degree murder.

On July 18, 2018, Tibbetts, a former cross country runner, left the home of her boyfriend's brother in Brooklyn for an evening jog. She was last seen at approximately 7:30 p.m. CDT and was reported missing by her family when she did not show up for work the following day. According to police, her last confirmed communication was with her boyfriend of three years, shortly before leaving for her jog. Her boyfriend was out of town for work in Dubuque, Iowa, over 130 miles (210 km) away. He told investigators he received a Snapchat message from her later in the evening that appeared to show her indoors.

On August 22, 2018, Rivera was charged with first-degree murder. The judge raised his bond from $1 million to $5 million when the prosecutor noted him as a flight risk.

In August 2018, after the body of Tibbetts was recovered, the Tibbetts family released a statement in which they asked for time and privacy. In addition, Tibbetts's father—responding to Donald Trump, Jr.—criticized as "heartless" and "despicable" the use of Tibbetts's death for political purposes; he especially decried its use against immigrants. Tibbetts's father said, "The Hispanic community are Iowans. They have the same values as Iowans. As far as I'm concerned, they're Iowans with better food". He denounced those who "appropriate Mollie's soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist."

Cristhian Bahena Rivera, age 24, lived and worked in the rural Poweshiek County area where Tibbetts vanished. Originally from El Guayabillo, Guerrero, Mexico, he arrived in the United States at age 17 and had lived in the area for several years. He had worked at another farm before coming to Yarrabee Farms near Brooklyn, Iowa, in August 2014. Rivera self-identified and received his paychecks under the name John Budd.

Mollie Cecilia Tibbetts was born on May 8, 1998, in San Francisco, California, to Rob Tibbetts and Laura Tibbetts. When she was in the second grade, her parents divorced, and she moved to Iowa with her mother and two siblings. Her father kept a close relationship with the children and he last saw Mollie at his wedding in June of 2018. At the time of her disappearance, she was a resident of Brooklyn, Iowa, a small town about 70 miles (110 km) east of Des Moines, and a psychology major at the University of Iowa. She worked at a children's day camp at Grinnell Regional Medical Center and was preparing for her sophomore year in college when she disappeared.