Iowa

Police Look Into Reported Missouri Sighting of Iowa Student

Police in Kearney, Missouri, say an employee at a truck stop reported Sunday that she saw a young girl resembling Mollie Tibbetts

Authorities are investigating a report that a missing Iowa college student might have been seen in northwest Missouri.

Police in Kearney, Missouri, say an employee at a truck stop reported Sunday that she saw a young girl resembling Mollie Tibbetts.

The department said in a statement that it spoke to witnesses and reviewed video footage before forwarding a report to a task force investigating Tibbetts' disappearance.

KMBC-TV reports Kearney police Sgt. Joe Kantola said only one person reported seeing the woman who resembled Mollie. And he noted he didn't say in the statement that she had been seen on video from the truck stop.

Kearney is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Kansas City.

Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student, hasn't been seen since July 18.

She was last seen jogging in the evening in Brooklyn, Iowa a small town Tibbetts had been living this summer. Her family reported her missing the next day after she didn't show up to work.

The reward for the safe return of Tibbetts has recently jumped to $30,000.

KCCI-TV reports that donations are fueling the reward as authorities search for the missing 20-year-old. A fund for the reward was set up at First State Bank in Brooklyn.

Dozens of local, state and federal agents are working to determine what happened to the young woman. Investigators said at a news conference Tuesday that they still don't know what happened to her.

Copyright The Associated Press
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