Mollie Tibbetts' Suspected Murderer Is an 'All-American Boy' with No Prior Record, Defense Argues

The man accused of murdering 20-year-old Iowa college sophomore Mollie Tibbetts on Wednesday made his first court appearance in her slaying. At the hearing, in Poweshiek County, Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s attorney, Allan Richards, argued against allowing expanded news media coverage of the case and shed some light on Rivera’s life before Tibbetts’ death. “The coverage that’s out there is leaning all one way and, in fact, [the] government has weighed in at the highest levels,” Richards said in court. Authorities have described Rivera as an undocumented immigrant and both pundits and politicians, including President Donald Trump, have invoked the case as a talking point in ongoing immigration debates. Tibbetts’ relatives appear to have rebuked such rhetoric, however, with her aunt writing, in part: “Evil comes in EVERY color.”