White nationalist in Idaho using Iowa phone number to spread racist message about Mollie Tibbetts' death

Robin Opsahl , Linh Ta | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Family and friends attend funeral for Mollie Tibbetts On Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018, family and friends of Mollie Tibbetts attend her funeral.

Phone calls from a Brooklyn, Iowa, number are using Mollie Tibbetts' death to promote white nationalist messages.

But the calls do not originate in Iowa. Instead, the calls say they were paid for by a Neo-Nazi podcast linked to an Idaho man.

Exactly what happened to Tibbetts has been the focus of attention from the so-called alt-right and white nationalists since she disappeared on July 18. Her body was found in an Iowa cornfield not far from her Brooklyn home on Aug. 21.

The proliferation of memes and hateful messages about Mexican people and immigrants intensified after police charged Cristhian Bahena Rivera — an undocumented immigrant, according to federal officials — with first-degree murder in connection with Tibbetts death.

Gov. Kim Reynolds Thursday that she had not heard the robocalls but found what she knows of it “disgusting."

“It’s unconscionable that somebody would take and utilize a tragic death like Mollie Tibbetts is just ridiculous — and unconscionable and repulsive," she said.

More: Is he here legally? The facts surrounding the immigration status of Mollie Tibbetts' accused killer

About robocalls

Calls like the one using Mollie Tibbetts' name use prerecorded messages sent from a computerized autodialer. Commonly referred to as robocalls, they are often associated with political campaigns and telemarketers.

But extremist groups also use robocalls to inspire fear and bring attention to their messages while remaining semi-anonymous, according to academic research and multiple news reports.

Among white nationalists, robocalls can be a way to bridge the gap between anonymous online spaces where "alt-right" rhetoric thrives and the real world, without facing backlash, researchers say.

The Iowa Starting Line blog first reported on the calls linked to Mollie Tibbetts' death. It is not clear how many Iowans received the calls. An Iowa Facebook poster said at least four people were known to have received calls. WOI-TV, an ABC affiliate in Des Moines, also reported it received the same robocall Tuesday evening.

The calls, which reportedly began Tuesday night, target the comments of family members who have spoken out against Tibbetts' death being used to justify hate against the Latino community.

"The Hispanic community are Iowans. They have the same values as Iowans," Rob Tibbetts said at Mollie's funeral Sunday.

More: On the left and the right, political fervor explodes over Mollie Tibbetts' death

The robocall message attacked those comments.

"If after her life has now been brutally stolen from her, she could be brought back to life for just one moment and asked, ‘What do you think now?,’ Mollie Tibbetts would say, ‘Kill them all,'" the message said.

Her relatives have said she would think and want the opposite.

The Iowa Attorney General’s Office did not receive any complaints about the calls on Wednesday, said Lynn Hicks, spokesman for the office. The office is investigating the legality of the calls and alerted the Iowa Civil Rights Commission about them.

Complaints about robocalls are common in Iowa and across the nation, Hicks said. But the calls regarding Tibbetts are unusual since they don't ask for money or personal information from the person on the other line, he said.

Where did the calls come from?

The robocall said it was paid for by The Road to Power, a group with a website and neo-nazi podcast by the same name, according to a recording of the call.

The group's white nationalist podcast has been linked to Scott Rhodes, also known as Scott Platek, a resident of Sandpoint, Idaho. Sandpoint police identified Rhodes as the man distributing racist CDs and flyers, and who was suspected of harassing at least one Sandpoint resident, according to The Spokesman-Review.

Rhodes has also been linked to other robocall campaigns and phone calls in Oregon, California, and Charlottesville and Alexandria, Virginia. In many of the cases, including the call originating from Brooklyn, the calls use the local area code and prefix followed by a four-digit number associated with neo-nazi rhetoric.

Hicks said the call about Tibbetts is repulsive but may not be illegal.

“I’ve listened to it. It’s awful. It’s repulsive,” Hicks said. “We’re looking into it, but it’s not the typical robocall we get complaints about because it’s non-commercial and, right now, we don’t have enough information to determine if it’s illegal.”

Spoofing, the process of changing a call's ID, isn’t always illegal, Hicks said. It depends on how someone obtained a phone number.

He recommends signing up for the Do Not Call registry and downloading mobile apps that block robocalls.

“Treat this like any other robocall,” Hicks said. “Ignore it. Hang up.”