Tibbetts family thinks search is narrowing for Mollie
Mollie's father Rob Tibbetts and her boyfriend Dalton Jack believe she is still alive nearly a month after her disappearance.
The father of missing college student Mollie Tibbetts is set to return home after an excruciating month of trying to find his vanished daughter, The Des Moines Register reported Sunday. '
Rob Tibbetts plans to fly home to the San Francisco area.
The father has been on the road for the last month looking and raising awareness about his missing daughter. Together with Mollie’s boyfriend, Dalton Jack, and her aunt, he recently travelled to the Iowa State Fair to pass out buttons, T-shirts and missing-person flyers.
“Nothing is too big or too small,” Tibbetts’ boyfriend said. “Just let the authorities decide what’s worth investigating.”
Tibbetts praised the community members, law enforcement and reporters for aiding in the search, saying he never thought so many strangers will lend a helping hand.
Mollie was last seen jogging around Brooklyn, Iowa.
On July 19, Jack messaged Mollie but didn’t receive a response. He alerted the family members who reported her missing to the police.
The FBI and Iowa state investigators took over the investigation, calling off various volunteer search efforts in the area. By the end of the month, investigators remain baffled to what actually happened to Tibbetts, only confirming that her disappearing on her own is “not consistent with her past.”
In an interview with Fox News earlier this month, Tibbett’s father made a public appeal asking anyone to come forward with any information his missing daughter.
“The bottom line is somebody knows something," he said, adding Brooklyn is a small city and “you can’t do anything there without someone seeing it.”
As investigators were following “hundreds” of leads, Mollie’s father said on August 5 that he believes her daughter is still alive.
“It's totally speculation on my part, but I think Mollie is with someone that she knows, that is in over their head,” he told Fox News. “That there was some kind of misunderstanding about the nature of their relationship and at this point they don't know how to get out from under this.”
Authorities last week launched a website dedicated to sourcing information regarding Tibbetts' whereabouts. The site, findingmollie.iowa.gov, details Tibbetts' case and encourages people to submit tips.
The reward for Tibbetts currently stands at $331,000. Crime Stoppers told Fox News it’s the largest reward for its organization in Iowa state history.
Fox News' Matt Finn, Christina Corbin, Andrew Keiper, Matt Finn, Madeleine Rivera, Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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