The Latest: Hundreds attend Mass for Iowa college student

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) – The Latest on the funeral being held for an Iowa college student whose body was found earlier this month in a cornfield outside her small hometown (all times local):

3:05 p.m.

Several hundred people are attending the funeral for the University of Iowa student whose body was found last week in a cornfield outside her hometown.

The funeral Mass was being held Sunday afternoon inside the gymnasium of BGM High School in Brooklyn, Iowa. Twenty-year-old Mollie Tibbetts attended the school before her death.

Bishop Thomas Zinkula of Davenport, Iowa, planned to lead the funeral. Mollie Tibbetts’ father, cousin and one of her teachers planned to speak at the service.

Cristhian Bahena Rivera is charged with first-degree murder in Tibbetts’ death. Investigators say the 24-year-old Mexican farmworker led them to a cornfield Tuesday where Tibbetts’ body had been left since her July 18 disappearance.

___

9 a.m.

A Mass will be held for an Iowa college student less than a week after her body was found in a cornfield outside her small hometown.

The funeral for 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts will be held Sunday afternoon in the gymnasium of BGM High School in Brooklyn, the city of 1,500 in central Iowa where she grew up. Tibbetts graduated from the school in 2017.

Cristhian Bahena Rivera is charged with first-degree murder in Tibbetts’ death. Investigators say the 24-year-old Mexican farmworker led them to a cornfield Tuesday where Tibbetts’ body had been left since her July 18 disappearance.

Tibbetts had been staying in Brooklyn during a summer break from her studies at the University of Iowa.

A ribbon for missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts hangs on a light post, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018, in Brooklyn, Iowa. Tibbetts was reported missing from her hometown in the eastern Iowa city of Brooklyn in July 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)