The father of Mollie Tibbetts has spoken out against Donald Trump and other Republicans using his daughter’s death in support of “views she believed were profoundly racist”.

In an opinion piece for the Des Moines Register, Rob Tibbetts also said an op-ed for the same paper by the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, was “heartless” and “despicable”.

Authorities have said Mollie Tibbetts, 20, a University of Iowa student, was abducted while she was out for an evening run in Brooklyn, Iowa, on 18 July. The man charged in her death, 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera, is suspected of being in the US illegally.

Trump and other politicians quickly noted that element of the case and called for changes to immigration law.

Rob Tibbetts wrote that while he supports debate on immigration, some politicians and pundits went too far in using his daughter’s death to promote political agendas. His stepdaughter is Latina, he said, arguing that the suspected killer “is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people”.

“Do not appropriate Mollie’s soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist,” he wrote. “The act grievously extends the crime that stole Mollie from our family and is, to quote Donald Trump Jr, ‘heartless’ and ‘despicable’.”

That quote came from a Friday opinion piece by Trump Jr that criticized the media and Democrats for not playing up the suspect’s immigration status.

“Despite what some Democrats may wish in the depths of their hearts, Mollie was murdered by an illegal alien and her murder would never have happened if we policed our southern border properly,” the president’s son wrote.

Recorded phone calls citing Mollie Tibbetts’ death in a push for white supremacist views began on Tuesday, just days after her funeral. The robocalls cited comments Rob Tibbetts made in defense of Latinos during her funeral. The calls questioned whether his daughter would feel the same if she were still alive and describe Rivera as “an invader from Mexico”.

“She may not be able to speak for herself, but I can and will,” her father wrote in his opinion piece. “Please leave us out of your debate. Allow us to grieve in privacy and with dignity. At long last, show some decency. On behalf of my family and Mollie’s memory, I’m imploring you to stop.”