Slain Iowa student’s aunt: ‘Evil comes in every color’

The aunt of Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old Iowa college student who was found murdered this week, has spoken out following the identification of her niece’s suspected murderer.

“Please remember, Evil comes in EVERY color,” Billie Jo Calderwood, who has been described in various reports as Tibbetts’ aunt, said on Tuesday night in a post on Facebook. 

“Our family has been blessed to be surrounded by love, friendship and support throughout this entire ordeal by friends from all different nations and races,” Calderwood added.

The post came just hours after the late college student’s remains were reported found following her month-long disappearance.

The man accused of killing her niece, Cristhian Rivera, 24, was charged with the murder of the University of Iowa student earlier this week. Law enforcement identified him as an undocumented immigrant. His lawyer has since disputed that claim, but officials maintain Rivera has no immigration status in the U.S.

Shortly after his arrest, President Trump delivered remarks on the case at a rally on Tuesday and labeled Rivera an “illegal alien.”

{mosads} 

“You heard about today with the illegal alien coming in, very sadly, from Mexico and you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman,” he said. “Should’ve never happened. … The laws are so bad, the immigration laws are such a disgrace. We’re getting it changed, but we have to get more Republicans.” 

Rivera’s lawyer, Allen Richards, has since filed a court document on Wednesday stating that his defendant was legally working in the U.S., the Des Moines Register reported.

In the court document, Richards accused the government of wrongly promoting that notion that his defendant was in the U.S. illegally and called Trump “sad and sorry” for weighing on the case.

“Sad and sorry Trump has weighed in on this matter in national media which will poison the entire possible pool of jury members,” Richards wrote, citing Trump’s comments on the case.

However, both U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have maintained that Rivera is not in the country legally. 

An ICE spokesperson also referred to Rivera as an “illegal alien from Mexico.”