'Today, we need to turn the page. We're at the end of a long ordeal,' Rob Tibbetts tells crowd at daughter's funeral

Luke Nozicka , Kevin Hardy | 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.

BROOKLYN, Ia. — Rob Tibbetts broke through the somber atmosphere and called for a couple in the packed gymnasium to stand up.

In eulogizing his 20-year-old daughter, Mollie, who was found dead Tuesday after she vanished more than a month earlier, Tibbetts said he wanted to celebrate "something wonderful."

The couple popped up — they had just been married the day before — to the crowd's joyful applause.

"That felt good. That’s what Mollie would have done," he said. "Let’s try one more. Let’s hear it for the Bears football team — for their first win." Mollie’s younger brother, Scott, the starting quarterback, helped lead the team to victory.

More: Mollie Tibbetts' brother Scott scores three touchdowns in game he nearly missed

Rob Tibbetts was among four people to deliver emotional eulogies Sunday afternoon to a crowd of more than 1,200 people inside the gymnasium at Brooklyn-Guernsey-Malcom High School. The school, in Brooklyn, a town of about 1,500, is just a short walk from where Mollie Tibbetts lived with her mother and two brothers.

"Today, we need to turn the page. We’re at the end of a long ordeal," he said. "But we need to turn toward life — Mollie’s life — because Mollie’s nobody’s victim. Mollie’s my hero."

Rob Tibbetts called upon the devastated community and family to come together in honoring his daughter.

"The person best equipped to help us through this is Mollie," he said. "So let’s try to do what Mollie would do. Let’s say what Mollie would say."

Complete coverage: Everything we know about Mollie Tibbetts' disappearance, death

The body of Tibbetts, a University of Iowa student, was found amid relentless attention on her July 18 disappearance.

Rob Tibbetts thanked the many volunteers, law enforcement officers and the media for assisting in the search for his daughter. While it wasn't the return home he had hoped for, the weeks of coverage allowed many across the globe to get to know his daughter, he said.

"You want to know why there's been such an outpouring?" he said. "It's because we see ourselves in Mollie."

More: She's nurturing. She's a Harry Potter fan. We all know Mollie Tibbetts' face, but her friends and family say she's so much more.

Davenport Bishop Thomas Zinkula led Sunday's Mass of the Resurrection for Tibbetts.

"I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry," were the first words sung as a long line of altar servers and priests led a procession into the gym.

Much of the service was dominated by the rituals typical of a Mass: The choir, complete with a violinist and pianist, went through several songs, including a solo of "Ave Maria" in Latin, as the bleachers emptied for a communion service.

A table covered in a plain white cloth served as a makeshift altar, while several of Tibbetts' senior portraits were displayed at the front of the gym. No casket or urn was present in the gym, which is decorated in the school's conference and state championship banners and a giant mural of the Bears' mascot.

In delivering his homily, the Rev. Corey Close, pastor at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Brooklyn, described Tibbetts as a “bright, shining light” who affected others with her “infectious joy and smiling.”

“When I think of the life of Mollie Tibbetts and her tragic death, I wonder why she is gone and I am still here,” he said.

He acknowledged the existential questions swirling in the community: How can a good God allow such horrible things to happen?

But he called upon the faithful to find hope in the promise of the resurrection. Tibbetts often attended St. Patrick with her grandmother. The priest said her example — and the numerous stories of how she touched the lives of others — has changed him in the weeks since she went missing.

"Do not let Mollie die in vain," he said. "Rededicate yourselves to live a good life, a faithful life, a life of goodness and compassion. It is so easy to be bitter, to feel like we have nothing to contribute. But Mollie’s energy, her smile and her tenacity for doing good reminded me who I am called to be."

An hour before the Mass was to begin, dozens of vehicles filled the parking lot of the school where Tibbetts graduated in 2017. Law enforcement guided traffic as an overflow crowd began gathering in the cafeteria outside the gym.

In previous interviews with the Des Moines Register, Tibbetts' family and friends said she demonstrated a desire to help others, a natural ability to work with children and a gift for making anyone feel like the most important person in a room — because she genuinely believed they were.

Those closest to Tibbetts described her nurturing character and nodded in approval at her decision to study psychology in college, a career path they said was an obvious match. In her obituary, her family said she aspired to be a child psychologist and work with children with mental health issues.

More: She's nurturing. She's a Harry Potter fan. We all know Mollie Tibbetts' face, but her friends and family say she's so much more.

"Mollie loved life," the obituary said, noting she left behind more than 30 relatives and the "love of her life," Dalton Jack, and his family. "Her passion for it radiated from those beautiful brown eyes and the smile that she was so quick to share with everyone she met."

Rob Tibbetts has said law enforcement took the case personally. At the service, he recalled one veteran investigator who said he was trained to be dispassionate and unemotional. But as he learned more about Mollie, he “fell in love with her,” making him a better father, husband and detective, Tibbetts said.

Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, of rural Poweshiek County, has been charged with first-degree murder after authorities said he led investigators to Tibbetts' body in a secluded part of a farm field near Guernsey.

Tibbetts' death was ruled a homicide. The state medical examiner said she died from "multiple sharp force injuries."

Federal officials say Rivera was living in the U.S. without authorization. He is being held at the Poweshiek County Jail on a $5 million bond. The killing has inflamed the national debate over immigration — drawing criticism of the nation's immigration system from President Donald Trump and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Rob Tibbetts has not publicly commented on the issue. But in his eulogy, he highlighted how the local Hispanic community had embraced him as he searched for his daughter in recent weeks.

While in Iowa for nearly six weeks, Hotel Grinnell put him up for free. During that time, he said he ate at a number of Mexican restaurants, where employees were sensitive and kind. They knew when he needed space or when he needed to joke, he said.

"The Hispanic community are Iowans. They have the same values as Iowans," he said, including an emphasis on family. "As far as I'm concerned, they're Iowans with better food."

The crowd applauded loudly.

Mollie Tibbetts' older brother, Jake Tibbetts, also offered a loving eulogy.

He noted how his sister had been painted as a perfect, all-American girl. But as someone who has known her his entire life, “I can tell you, she was not perfect,” Jake said, prompting chuckles and laughter among the mourners.

Morgan Collum, Tibbetts’ cousin, recalled her first memory of Tibbetts, when she was just a "wee babe." She thought back to when Tibbetts, as a brown-eyed baby, fell asleep in her arms.

"I immediately fell so in love with her," she said.

Her cousin's gift was to love others, to make people realize their flaws were not flaws after all, Collum said. She called on those gathered to share their talents with others, saying Tibbetts sought to find the good in everyone she met.

"Please, don’t be mad at God for taking Mollie away from us," Collum told the crowd. "Rather, praise God for his perfect creation in making a soul so sweet, so pure and so caring to all."

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