Off the Record: Mollie Tibbetts and the Grief They Hijacked

What happens when the worst day of your life becomes a talking point on national TV? In this special ‘Off the Record’ episode, we go deeper into the making of our two-part story on Mollie Tibbetts. I sit down with my co-producer Olivia Heusinkveld to unpack why we told this story, what didn’t make it into the episode, and the uncomfortable questions we wrestled with along the way. We talk about the political hijacking of Mollie’s story, the haunting parallels to Aiden Clark, and the reality behind the headlines about immigrants and crime. Sources for today’s episode: ⁠ PBS⁠ ⁠Des Moines Register 1⁠⁠ Des Moines Register 2⁠ Want early access to every episode, all at once? Tenderfoot+ subscribers get the full case at the start of each month—plus ad-free listening and exclusive content from over 30 shows. Sign up at ⁠tenderfootplus.com⁠. Find the complete list of action items, sources, and resources for our Mollie Tibbetts coverage in the show notes at ⁠⁠truercrimepodcast.com⁠⁠. Keep up with us through our ⁠⁠Truer Crime Substack Newsletter⁠⁠. Follow @truercrimepod on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠X⁠⁠. Follow me @celisiastanton on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠. Sign up for my weekly Substack newsletter, ⁠⁠Sincerely, Celisia⁠⁠. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices