With few answers around Mollie Tibbetts' disappearance, citizen sleuths surface online

Aimee Breaux | Press Citizen

As professional investigators comb through leads on missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, thousands of amateur sleuths-by-hobby, too, are poring over the case.

Far-removed true-crime fans from across the U.S. have taken to online forums to dissect publicly available information in the Tibbetts case.

The official investigators warn that misinformation is rife on the internet, that there is a great deal the amateurs cannot know, and that even their well-reasoned conclusions are almost certain to be speculative. Extra awareness of Tibbetts' disappearance, though, could help lead to the tip that finds her, the investigators say.

Websleuths, a popular true-crime forum, promotes its "very active" discussion of the case. Closed Facebook groups devoted to Tibbetts have garnered between 3,000 and 6,000 members who post their thoughts and speculations about the 20-year-old who went missing from Brooklyn, between Des Moines and Iowa City, on July 18.

While detectives with the FBI, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and local agencies follow more than 200 leads, strangers online work through the limited available information. In one Facebook group, members theorize about whether one of Tibbetts' tweets about an interaction with a police officer is related to her disappearance.

Read: Mollie Tibbetts reward fund up to $172,000, mother says at news conference

In another group, a mother with a college-aged daughter says she's "heartsick" before inquiring whether members think this disappearance might be related to another missing-person case. In yet another group, a member asks for users to post what they think happened in five words or less.

Organizers behind the Facebook groups say they aren't necessarily trying to solve the case. For the organizer behind one such Facebook page, Crystal Corbin, the case is one of more than a dozen that captivated her interest enough to make a page.

The latest: Everything we know about the Mollie Tibbetts investigation

Corbin said digging through the details helps her process the steady flow of horrific crimes that are reported. She expects the strangers from across the U.S. who join in on the conversation likely have a similar reason.

"We do not set out to solve any cases, and I try to make that clear: We're not detectives, we are not law enforcement," Corbin said. "But there are so many people out there that follow cases really, because they are concerned about the victim, and their hearts are in it. They just want to know what's going on."

An important caveat from law enforcement

Mike Krapfl, special agent in charge at the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, has a caveat about the Facebook groups that have popped up. He says the forums can be helpful in generating awareness for the investigation and keeping Tibbetts in the forefront of the community's daily thoughts.

But the forums also disseminate falsehoods.

"We must all be aware that the discussion groups also contain misinformation, rumor, and innuendo that should not be taken as fact," Krapfl said in a statement sent to the Press-Citizen.

Krapfl also notes that even the accurate information discussed on these forums is only a limited piece of the picture.

"As investigators are, obviously, not disclosing case facts to protect the integrity of the investigation," he said, "one can assume that any information viewed in Facebook discussion pages is speculative at best."

'They want to talk about it, but it goes deeper than that'

Corbin, who does not live in Iowa, said she began making her own Facebook forums for cases under the label "Crime Connect" in part to help piece together a clear timeline from conflicting news reports. She said she also wanted to be in a moderator role so she can remove disrespectful posts and squash misinformation when possible.

When Corbin was young, she says, a boy who used to play at a nearby baseball field was kidnapped and murdered. She sees a similar anxiety among group members.

"I read once when you hear of a crime happening, just reading about it gives you a little bit of trauma," she said. "You still need to heal, and I think you need to see the end of it. I think just knowing Mollie is missing, you need to know what's happening for your own heart to heal."

Corbin posted a set of rules next to a disclaimer that the group is a "victim-friendly group." Don't harass people involved in the case, no "in my visions" types of posts, and be kind to each other make the list.

Another group called "The Official Case Discussion of Mollie Tibbetts Disappearance" includes a warning, in all caps, that viewer discretion is advised.

"We understand that reading theories/speculation may be distressing for family and friends," reads the rules. "This a closed group so only people who seek out the information will see it."

Jillian Anne, one of the founders of the group, said she started the group because she wanted to be able to talk with people interested in true crime.

"People want to discuss it; they want to talk about it," she said. "But it goes deeper than that. We want to know — what on earth — how does this happen?"

Susan Brodnax, the founder of the Sleuth Syndicate Facebook groups, said people come to the true-crime forum for their own reasons.

"I suspect the random people get different things out of it," she wrote in response to a Press-Citizen inquiry. "Some have lived a similar situation. Some knew someone who did. Some just want to know how criminal minds work."

For Anne, Tibbetts' case specifically reminded her of her own daughters. She expects many people identify on some level with the Tibbetts family.

"Everyone just wants to make sure (the people in their lives) are safe," she said. "And Mollie, she's kind of the face of it right now. We don't understand what's happened."