Mollie Tibbetts, 20, was last seen jogging around her Brooklyn neighborhood in Iowa last Wednesday
The FBI believed a missing Iowa student’s Fitbit holds the key to finding her after she vanished last week while out on a run.
Federal agents announced yesterday they would be taking over the search for Mollie Tibbets, 20, as fears grow over her whereabouts.
Investigators are now sifting through electronic data from social media accounts and a physical activity tracker in search of clues.
Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said: ‘We are getting a lot of information back from that process. We are very hopeful with the electronic data we are getting back.
‘We are relying on the FBI heavily because it’s an ever-changing world in technology.’
Local police had been conducting the operation to try and find Mollie who was last seen in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Iowa last Wednesday.
The extensive search efforts near her home have so far been unsuccessful. Footage from KCRG shows hundreds of people preparing to search corn fields on foot
Her mother described Mollie as ‘an outgoing, fun, loving life, loving person’. She had been preparing to move into her first apartment and go on a holiday to the Dominican Republic
Mortvedt confirmed on Tuesday volunteer searches had been called off in favor of professional FBI investigators.
‘We’re still asking for the public’s help,’ Mortvedt said. ‘We’d like to get any information we can. The more eyes and ears we have, the better.’
Mortvedt said officials have little to go on, but they’re ‘leaning more and more toward something happening to her against her will.’
The extensive search efforts near her home have so far been unsuccessful and her mother Laura Calderwood says the past five days have been ‘excruciating’.
‘(There are) no words to describe how you feel when you don’t know where or how your child is,’ Calderwood told ABC News.
Poweshiek County Sheriff Tom Kriegel said this is the longest ever missing person investigating that the farming town of 1,500 people has dealt with
Her mother went on to say that Mollie was ‘an outgoing, fun, loving life, loving person’.
‘She was getting ready to move into her first apartment. She and her boyfriend Dalton were getting ready to go to the Dominican Republic on August 2 to attend Dalton’s brother’s wedding.’
Poweshiek County Sheriff Tom Kriegel said this is the longest ever missing person investigation that the farming town of 1,500 people has dealt with.
Video courtesy KCRG
Authorities have spent the past five days combing every field, barn, shed and building near the missing girl’s home.
The farming ground has made it difficult to conduct air searches.
‘We’re surrounded by farm ground – corn and soy beans,’ sheriff Kriegel told ABC News. ‘Right now the corn is probably 8, 9 feet tall. The only way you can search it is basically walk down every other row. It’s difficult. Even the planes flying over have a difficulty looking down in the corn rows.’
Kayakers also continue to search nearby rivers.
Mollie was last seen wearing gym shorts, a black sports bra and running shoes. She is described as a 5-foot-3, weighing 120 pounds.
Tibbetts, a college sophomore, is described as a 5-foot-3 white woman, weighing 120 pounds