Off the Record: Mollie Tibbetts and the Grief They Hijacked

Truer Crime

Celisia Stanton

True Crime

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a tenderfoot TV podcast.
0:09.1	Hi friends, since you're enjoying true crime, I think you should definitely check out
0:13.5	Broken Cycle Media's What Came Next.
0:16.4	What Came Next is a podcast that dives into what happens after the experiences of true crime survivors
0:21.6	have been shared with the world. Does the media truly capture all it entails to survive
0:26.8	tragedy in the public eye? What comes after the convictions are in? The cameras stop rolling
0:32.3	and the court of public opinion has spoken. And can sharing our stories lead to justice?
0:38.4	Is there ever really justice?
0:40.8	These questions and so many more are answered on what came next, which is co-created and produced
0:45.7	by Something Was Wrongs Tiffany Reese with host True Crime Survivor and Advocate, ABB Chessler.
0:51.8	What Came Next highlights firsthand accounts and behind-the-scenes insights
0:55.0	about the next steps
0:56.3	for survivors
0:57.0	of some of the world's
0:58.0	most notorious crimes
0:59.3	as well as
1:00.3	exclusive updates
1:01.3	from past
1:02.1	something was wrong guess.
1:03.7	You'll hear
1:04.1	how incredible survivors
1:05.2	find purpose and
	...

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