Man charged in Iowa slaying worked under fake name
BROOKLYN, Iowa — A Mexican man charged with killing an Iowa college student worked on a dairy farm for years under a false name just a few miles from where the young woman was allegedly abducted while running last month, his employer said Wednesday.
The employer’s assertion came shortly after an attorney for Cristhian Bahena Rivera challenged the government’s statement that he was living in the country illegally, while also acknowledging that the suspect’s immigration status may be a “matter of interpretation.” The attorney said his conclusion was based on a statement from the employer, who later said it was incorrect.
Rivera was a good employee who showed up to work on time to take care of the cows and got along well with his co-workers, said Dane Lang, manager of Yarrabee Farms in Brooklyn, Iowa.
The 24-year-old kept coming to work after Mollie Tibbetts disappeared July 18, and “nobody saw a difference” in his demeanor, Lang said. His colleagues were stunned Tuesday to learn that he was not only the suspect in Tibbetts’ death, but that he had a different real name than what he went by on the farm, he said.
“Our employee is not who he said he was,” Lang said at a news conference at the farm. “This was shocking to us.”
When Rivera was hired in 2014, he presented an out-of-state governmentissued photo identification and a matching Social Security card, he said. That information was run through the Social Security Administration’s employment-verification system and checked out, he said.