Iowa authorities "looking into everything" in search for Mollie Tibbetts
Authorities in Iowa said that they were "looking into everything" in the case of a college sophomore who disappeared over two weeks ago. Mollie Tibbetts was last seen July 18 on her daily run.
Kevin Winker, investigative operations director for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, wouldn't tell reporters Friday whether there was a suspect in the case. Winker said the University of Iowa student's disappearance was being treated as a missing person's case.
"We continue to look at all possibilities," Winker said. "I'm not in a position right now to say we have suspects, we don't have suspects, persons of interest or anything else."
On Thursday, investigators went back to an area they previously searched near Brooklyn, Iowa, where the 20-year-old vanished, CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz reports. Wayne Cheney, who lives near the search area, told a local station he was questioned for two hours by investigators.
Court documents show Cheney was given two years probation for a felony stalking charge in 2014.
Winker said Friday that ponds have also been searched. "We have been searching ponds, fields and even from the air," he said.
Also Thursday, police ruled out a possible sighting of Tibbetts at a Missouri truck stop. Police in Pella, Iowa, also questioned a man spotted taking photos of female joggers from his car.
"A lot of sex offenses, they just don't happen," Pella Police Chief Robert Bokinsky said. "There is a period of surveillance… There's no indication that there was criminal misconduct, but we still have not cleared the individual."
Tibbetts' boyfriend, Dalton Jack, was the last person to hear from her. He was working a construction job 100 miles away the night she disappeared.
"Imagine if this was you, somebody had taken your Mollie," Jack said at a press conference Thursday. "Wouldn't you want to help? Wouldn't you want her back? How would you feel? Just do the right thing and let her go."
