Iowa authorities formally concluded Thursday that Mollie Tibbetts, the college student believed by authorities to have been abducted while on a run near Brooklyn, Iowa, last month, is a “homicide” victim and was killed by “multiple sharp force injuries.”
“The State Medical Examiner determined that the manner of death was homicide resulting from multiple sharp force injuries. Further examination may result in additional findings,” Iowa’s Department of Public Safety Division of Criminal Investigation said in a press release issued Thursday evening.
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The body of Tibbets, 20, was examined on Wednesday. The medical examiner’s office did not say what weapon caused her injuries or how those attacks led to her death.
[Related: Chuck Grassley presses Kirstjen Nielsen for details on suspect in Mollie Tibbetts’ death]
The full report will not be released to the public because Iowa law only allows the cause and manner of death to be shared.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera was arrested earlier this week and charged with murder in the first degree. On Tuesday morning, police said he led them to her dead body in a corn field just outside Brooklyn. Tibbetts had been missing for a month after going for an evening jog on July 18.
Investigators in the case have not disclosed a motive.
The case received national attention during the monthlong search for Tibbetts and this week’s revelation that the suspect is a Mexican national who was illegally living in the United States.
Rivera’s lawyer Allan Richards said earlier in the day that his client, a farm worker, was working legally and had passed E-Verify, a federal program that verifies job applicants can legally work in the country.
The federal agency that oversees all immigration applications and citizenship requests announced Wednesday it has no proof Rivera ever applied to enter the U.S. and that he is in the country illegally.
“We have found no record in our systems indicating he has any lawful immigration status,” Michael Bars, spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in an email.
