DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A DNA analyst says blood found in the trunk of a farmworker's vehicle was an exact match for a University of Iowa student who was abducted and killed while out for a run in 2018.
Tara Scott, a criminalist in the DNA section of Iowa's crime lab, said she analyzed a swab of a blood stain found on the trunk seal of Cristhian Bahena Rivera's Chevy Malibu after investigators recovered the body of Mollie Tibbetts.
She said she compared that DNA profile to one she already had for Tibbetts and "they were exactly the same."
Scott spoke on the third day of the prosecution's case against Bahena Rivera, 26, who is standing trial for first-degree murder in Tibbetts' stabbing death.
