President Donald Trump is making the death of Iowa teen Mollie Tibbets a topic of political debate, following news that an undocumented immigrant was charged with her murder.
Iowan police arrested 24-year-old Christhian Behena Rivera on Tuesday. After talking with police on Monday, he led them to Tibbetts’ body, admitting that he had chased her down back in July. Tibbetts has been missing for more than a month, with her disappearance making national headlines.
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During a political rally, President Trump mentioned Tibbets’ murder as he made a point about the state of immigration laws in the United States.
.@POTUS on Mollie Tibbetts: “Should have never happened.” //t.co/Oz0U9BxZiB pic.twitter.com/ZB6hYNLzNs
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 21, 2018
“You heard about today with the illegal… alien coming in, very sadly, from Mexico, and you saw what happened to that incredible young woman,” Trump said. “Should’ve never happened.”
“Illegally in our country, we’ve had a huge impact but the laws are so bad,” he added, as seen in a video released by Fox News. “The immigration laws are such a disgrace, we’re getting them changed but we have to get more republicans, we have to get…”
Rivera is charged with first-degree murder in Poweshiek County, Rick Rahn of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation told PEOPLE Tuesday. Authorities reportedly first approached him on Monday.
Nearly five weeks after Tibbets was reported missing, her remains were believed to have been found Tuesday morning, dumped in a corn field in Guernsey, Iowa, about 15 minutes by car from Brooklyn, Iowa, where Tibbets was last seen.
Tibbetts’ body was reportedly covered with corn stalks. Rivera reportedly led police to the body.
Police told the outlet Rivera confessed to circling around Tibbetts a few times with his car before he approached her and then started running alongside her. Rahn said that Rivera told authorities that at one point, Tibbetts told him to leave her alone, threatening to call the police.
Subsequently, Rivera allegedly chased Tibbetts down and at some point he blacked out.
Police would not give specifics on how Tibbetts was killed, or what motive the suspect gave for the crime, but Rahn did sat that Rivera “seemed to be drawn to her on that particular day and chose to abduct her.”
Rivera is an undocumented immigrant, according to Rahn. He said Rivera “kept to himself” and had lived in the area between four and seven years.
Rivera “was very compliant,” said Rahn. “He was willing to talk to us. There was no struggle.”
He is being held in the Poweshiek County jail on a $1 million cash only bond.
