INDEPENDENCE, IA — The reward for information about missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts jumped to $260,000 over the weekend, according to Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa. The 20-year-old’s relatives think she may have been kidnapped and the money will help lead to her return.
“If someone has abducted her, we are pleading with you to please release her,” Tibbetts’ mother, Laura Calderwood, said at a news conference last week. “It is our greatest hope that if someone has her, that they would just release her and claim that money we have raised for her freedom.”
Tibbetts was last seen around 7:30 p.m. on July 18 when she went for a jog in her small hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. She was dog-sitting for her boyfriend, Dalton Jack, who has been cleared of any involvement in her disappearance, authorities have said.
In other developments this weekend, investigators say a body of a white female in her 20s discovered about 100 miles southeast of where Tibbetts was last seen is not that of the missing woman, according to a news release.
Authorities also have said that a report of a woman who looked like Tibbetts at a struck stop more than 230 miles away near Kansas City wasn’t Tibbetts.
Also Sunday, a neighbor of Jack’s told Fox News that she saw a black SUV slowly circling their neighborhood from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. July 18-19. She said she told the FBI about what she had seen when she was questioned, but investigators have not commented.
Authorities have questioned a pig farmer who lives nearby, three times in connection with Tibbetts’ disappearance, though it’s not clear why. The farmer told Fox News he wasn’t involved and doesn’t know Tibbetts.
Kevin Winker, the director of investigative operations for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said at a Friday press conference that authorities have been searching ponds, fields and have conducted air searches in the effort to find Tibbetts. Winker provided few new details into the investigation but said that the focus continues to be to find Tibbetts.
On the day she was last seen, Tibbetts was believed to be wearing dark colored running shorts, a pink sports top and running shoes.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa at (800) 452-1111. Tips can also be submitted online via the Crime Stoppers website. Tips can also be submitted via email at [email protected].
Photo via Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Department