Cristhian Bahena Rivera biography: 13 things about Iowa prisoner from El Guayabillo, Mexico

Who is Cristhian Bahena River?

Cristhian Bahena Rivera is a Mexican inmate at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, Lee County, Iowa, United States. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. He speaks Spanish and is not fluent in English.
2. He grew up in El Guayabillo, Guerrero, Mexico.
3. He allegedly entered the U.S. illegally and used false documents to obtain employment.
4. Iris Monarrez was a high school student in Brooklyn, Poweshiek County, Iowa when he dated her.
5. He was really romantic and would bring Monarrez flowers, according to her second cousin Aby Felix.
6. He drove a Nissan Altima and a Chevy Malibu.
7. He worked at the Yarrabee Farms outside of Brooklyn.
8. He always did his work on time but he was not much for conversation, according to Yarrabee Farms co-owner Craig Lang, who is a former Republican candidate for Iowa agriculture secretary.
9. He asked Brooke Bestell out on a date but she turned him down.
10. He and Monarrez have one daughter together.
11. He is 4 years older than Bestell.
12. He was 4 years older than University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts.
13. Investigators identified his Chevy Malibu as the same car circling in the area where Tibbetts was last seen on July 18, 2018. That day, she went out for a run near her Brooklyn home, disappeared and was murdered.

TIMELINE

2012

• In 2012, he moved from Mexico to the U.S.

2013

• In 2013, he met and dated Monarrez.

2014

• In August 2014, he was hired as a farmhand at Yarrabee Farms.

2015

• In 2015, Monarrez gave birth to their daughter.

2016

• In 2016, he and Monarrez separated.

2018

• According to Bestell, he would not make conversation when she encountered him in person but would send repeated social media messages over a period of months most recently at 3:00 a.m. on June 13, 2018.
• During the investigation of Tibbetts’ disappearance, former Iowa City Police Department officer Pamela Romero, a native Spanish speaker, was brought in to interview him. According to Romero, he confessed that on July 18, 2018, Tibbetts tried to call the police when he approached Tibbetts so he got angry, blacked out then remembered Tibbetts’ body was in his trunk, left the victim’s body in the cornfield then drove away.
• On August 16, 2018, Poweshiek County deputy sheriff Steve Kivi spoke with him.
• On August 20, 2018, he was interviewed at Yarrabee Farms by three law enforcement agents including a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent who speaks Spanish. He signed consent forms for them to search his two cars.
• On August 21, 2018, he was charged with first-degree murder after leading police to her body in a corn field in Brooklyn near the area where she was last seen jogging. She was found dead with at least nine stab wounds. Blood stains found in his Chevy Malibu matched her deoxyribonucleic acid.

2019

• In March 2019, he filed a motion to suppress.
• In August 2019, he filed a supplemental motion to suppress.
• On November 14, 2019, the court found that his statements about his involvement in Tibbetts’ murder were not involuntary.
• In December 2019, Iowa District Court Judge Joel Yates decided to suppress only parts of his initial interview with police and to allow the rest to be used as evidence at trial.

2021

• His jury trial were held from May 19-27, 2021.
• On May 26, 2021, his defense attorneys Chad Frese and Jennifer Frese called him to the stand. He testified that on July 18, 2018, two masked men forced him to drive his Chevy Malibu into the area where they found Tibbetts running, drive by Tibbetts several times and later turn off the road into a corn field. He claimed that he saw Tibbetts’ body in his trunk and explained that he did not call the police because the men told him not to say anything and that they knew of Monarrez and their daughter.
• On May 28, 2021, he was found guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of Tibbetts. The verdict was announced at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport, Scott County, Iowa. Yates ordered him into custody without bail.
• On August 30, 2021, Yates sentenced him to life in prison with no eligibility for parole.

2023

• On October 11, 2023, the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed his murder conviction.

2024

• Aired on December 19, 2024 on Oxygen, the “Dateline: Secrets Uncovered” episode “The Last Mile” is about his involvement in Tibbetts’ murder.

2025

• In May 2025, he will turn 28.