DAVENPORT, Iowa - The defense for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, the suspect facing trial for the 2018 murder of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, rested its case Wednesday after he took the stand and gave a far different narrative than presented by the prosecution.Bahena Rivera, 26, is charged with first-degree murder.
Tibbetts, 20, vanished while out running on July 18, 2018, in Brooklyn, Iowa, and investigators recovered her partially naked, decomposing body from a cornfield a month later.Closing arguments in the weeklong trial were scheduled for Thursday.
Prosecutors have used the DNA evidence, surveillance video showing Bahena Rivera’s Chevy Malibu driving near where Tibbetts was running, and his partial confession during an 11-hour.