Man convicted for 2018 murder of Iowa runner Mollie Tibbetts

An Iowa jury has found a farm worker named Cristhian Bahena Rivera guilty of the murder of Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old runner and University of Iowa student who was found stabbed to death in the summer of 2018. Bahena Rivera is a Mexican immigrant who was working in the small Iowa town of Brooklyn when Tibbetts disappeared. After his arrest and an interrogation, Bahena Rivera reportedly took police to Tibbetts’s body, which he had left in a cornfield. 

BREAKING: A jury found a farm laborer guilty of murder in the abduction and killing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, who vanished while out for a run in 2018. https://t.co/WZGVfHcWay

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 28, 2021

Bahena Rivera has been in custody since his arrest in August 2018, but his trial only began two weeks ago. After originally telling police that he had “blacked out” following a confrontation with Tibbetts on the side of the road when he stopped her in the middle of a run, Bahena Rivera changed his story, claiming that he had been held at gunpoint by two masked men and forced to drive while one of them killed Tibbetts in his car. 

RELATED: Runners show support for Mollie Tibbetts and her family with #milesformollie

The jury consisted of nine white members and three members with Hispanic, Latino or Spanish backgrounds, and they unanimously found Bahena Rivera guilty of first-degree murder. His sentencing hearing has been set for July 15, and he is expected to receive life in prison without parole. 

Tibbetts (who ran on her high school track and cross-country teams) disappeared while out on a run on July 18, 2018, and her body was found a month later following Bahena Rivera’s arrest and interrogation. When her body was found, Tibbetts’s abduction and murder led to a widespread conversation on women’s safety in running, and thousands of runners across the U.S. and globe began using the hashtag #MilesforMollie to honour the young runner and show support for her family.