A jury announced Friday that they had found Cristhian Bahena Rivera guilty of first degree murder in the 2018 killing of University of Iowa Student Mollie Tibbetts.

On July 18, 2018, 20-year-old Tibbetts disappeared from Brooklyn, Iowa, while on a jog. 

She was found on Aug. 21 in a Poweshiek County cornfield after Bahena Rivera, 24 at the time, led investigators to her body. 

Tibbetts’ DNA was found in the trunk of Bahena Rivera’s car.

Bahena Rivera was named a suspect after a surveillance camera caught his car following Tibbetts while she was on her jog. After being questioned, Bahena Rivera admitted to killing Tibbetts and showed investigators where she was. 

During the trial, Bahena Rivera told a different story, saying that two masked men had forced him into a car and told him where to drive. He then said that the men presumably killed her, left her in the trunk and ran off. Bahena Rivera testified in court that he was the one that left her in the cornfield, but did not kill her. 

The jury was in deliberation for about seven and a half hours before coming to their verdict. 

Bahena Rivera is now facing a sentence of life in prison without parole.