Administrators are to refund almost all of a $400,000 reward fund aimed at gathering information about a missing Iowa student.
The money will all be returned to donors now that she’s been found dead.
Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa said Tuesday that most of the donations from individuals and businesses were provided on the condition of Mollie Tibbetts’ safe return.
Group vice president Greg Willey says the donations will now be returned.
Administrators almost off of a $400,000 reward fund aimed at gathering information about a missing Iowa student will be returned to donors now that she’s been found dead
The bulk of the money collected will now be refunded to the generous donors
‘Crime Stoppers wishes to thank all of the many individuals and businesses who responded so quickly to give to the fund,’ Greg Wyllie, vice president of Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa, said in a statement.
‘Your kindness and compassion is greatly appreciated.’
For donors who did not request their contribution be returned, the money will go to the Tibbetts family or the Crime Stoppers General Fund.
Crime Stoppers did not reveal how much money will go to the family.
Tibbetts vanished on July 18 while she was out running in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa.
Crime Stoppers started the fund, set up with First State Bank in Brooklyn, shortly after Tibbetts was reported missing.
In the weeks since, donations grew to more than $385,000, a 36-year-record at Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera is charged with first-degree murder in the death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts
Last week Rivera led police to Mollie Tibbetts’ body. She had been missing since July 18
Last week, police say 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera led them to Tibbetts’ body in a cornfield on August 21.
Rivera faces first-degree murder charges after leading police to Mollie Tibbetts’ lifeless body last week that had been left stabbed to death since her July disappearance.
The dairy worker was arrested last Monday when police traced him through surveillance footage that showed his car following Mollie.
When Rivera, a father-of-one, was approached by police he went willingly to participate in an interview where he confessed to attacking Mollie, putting her body in the trunk of his car and driving her to a field 10 miles away.
It was later revealed that Rivera was an illegal migrant farm worker from Mexico who used a fake ID to pass background checks, his employers say.