BROOKLYN, IA — Immigrants who live in the Brooklyn area were kind and supportive during the weeks-long search for Mollie Tibbetts, her father said at the 20-year-old University of Iowa junior’s funeral. Tibbetts’ body was found in a cornfield last week after a weeks-long search, and President Trump and some Republican politicians have said the arrest of a suspect believed to be in the country illegally demonstrates the need for stronger immigration laws.
Rob Tibbetts didn’t mention any politicians by name in his eulogy at his daughter’s funeral Sunday. But, he 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.”
Tibbetts was last seen on July 18 when she took a jog around Brooklyn, setting off a massive search that gained national attention. A Mexican farm worker, Cristhian Rivera, 24, led investigators to her body in a cornfield about 12 miles from Brooklyn and confessed he had killed her, authorities have said. An autopsy showed she died from “multiple sharp force injuries.” Rivera, who was charged with first-degree murder, is being held on $5 million bond.
Also this week, the man accused of killing Tibbetts by “multiple sharp force injuries” has two new lawyers, Chad Frese and Jennifer Frese, who are married but work for different law firms in the same building in Marshalltown, Iowa. They told the Des Moines Register that due to the high profile nature of the case, they thought Rivera would be better off with two attorneys. They are privately retained by the Rivera family, the report said.
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Several motions Rivera’s original attorney filed have been rescinded. The new lawyers also filed court documents waiving a preliminary hearing that had been set for Friday.
Rivera’s arrest reinvigorated an already contentious immigration debate. Homeland Security officials have said he is in the country illegally, and the effort is on among some politicians to make Rivera the Willie Horton of the 2018 midterms.
Iowa’s governor, its two senators and the president, all Republicans, said within hours of Tibbetts’ death that immigration laws should be tightened to prevent similar tragedies. Trump called for the election of more Republicans to Congress, where immigration policy reform measures are tangled in partisan posturing.
Rob Tibbetts said the immigrants he met during the search for his daughter were sensitive and kind and embraced the family just as thousands of others did.
“The Hispanic community are Iowans. They have the same values as Iowans,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re Iowans with better food.”
About 1,000 mourners attended Tibbetts’ funeral at her alma mater, Brooklyn-Guernsey-Malcom High School. Rob Tibbetts asked them to remember his daughter by “celebrating something wonderful” rather than focus on how she died. Then, he did just that in his eulogy and introduced a couple who had been married the day before.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)