Volunteers in search of missing 20-year-old reach out in Newton

The search for 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, the Brooklyn woman and University of Iowa student who was last seen July 18 before taking a jog through the small central Iowa town, is expanding to surrounding communities.

While law enforcement focuses its investigation within Poweshiek and Iowa Counties and attempts to use Tibbetts' Fitbit data to piece together clues to her whereabouts, volunteers are trying to widen their reach.

During RAGBRAI's overnight stop in Newton, volunteers from Brooklyn hung posters and signs in the windows of businesses, the public library and on light posts. Bike riders could be spotted with the missing person posters featuring Tibbett's picture taped to the back of their bicycles.

According to Jasper County Sheriff John Halferty, law enforcement has not found any direct ties locally to the missing person case, but the sheriff's office did help provide investigators with resources in the initial search.

On day 1 of the effort, the Jasper County law enforcement answered a request for assistance from the Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office, sending reserve deputies and personnel to aid the search.

Halferty said his people spent a day near Brooklyn and have put information about the Tibbetts case on the agency's Facebook page. Halferty has an open offer to Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office and investigators to provide additional help if needed.

Wes Breckenridge, Democratic state representative and member of the nonprofit Newton Says No To Human Trafficking, said the group posted Tibbetts' missing person signs on their float at the Jasper County Fair parade Monday to bring more awareness to her disappearance.

Legislatively, Breckenridge said he's working toward getting proper funding for anti-human trafficking programs at the Iowa statehouse.

Federal and state investigators are poring through "massive amounts of data" related to a missing University of Iowa student's digital footprint in an effort to track her whereabouts in the hours before she disappeared.

The Associated Press reports, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation spokesman Mitch Mortvedt said Wednesday investigators believe they've "put together a pretty solid timeline" of what 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts was doing before she was last seen jogging in her hometown of Brooklyn the evening of July 18. Mortvedt said he couldn't give details of those activities, citing the active investigation.

"We wish it could go faster, too," Mortvedt said of the investigation. "As you can imagine, it can be massive amounts of data we're going through."

Investigators with the FBI and Mortvedt's agency were combing through information returned from several search warrants issued to social media and fitness tracking companies, including Fitbit. Friends and family say Tibbetts, an avid runner, was usually wearing her Fitbit.

Other information comes from her cell phone provider, Instagram and Snapchat, Mortvedt said.

Tibbetts' boyfriend has said he received a Snapchat message from her the night of July 18 after she would have returned from her run.

Tibbetts was staying at her boyfriend's home at the time of her disappearance. She was there to watch his dogs because he had a construction job about 100 miles northeast in Dubuque.

Mortvedt said that with each passing day that Tibbetts isn't found, the possibility grows that she was taken against her will. But he added that investigators "haven't ruled anything out."

If you have information about Mollie Tibbetts, family and investigators are asking people to call the Iowa Missing Person Information Clearinghouse at 1-800-346-5507 or the Poweshiek County Sheriff's Office at 641-623-5679.

Contact Mike Mendehall at 641-792-3121 Ext 6530 or at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com