Boyfriend of Missing Iowa Student Mollie Tibbetts Is Holding Out Hope She Is OK

The boyfriend of an Iowa college student who went missing after a jog two weeks ago is holding out hope that she is OK.

Dalton Jack, 20, spoke out about the disappearance of Mollie Tibbetts from the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa on July 18 after the case sparked nationwide attention.

“The only thing that comes into your head when you’re not investigating, don’t have all the facts, is that something bad happened,” he said in an interview on NBC’s Today Show Thursday. “I personally don’t want to believe that, even if that might be the reality. I don’t want to think about that.”

Jack also spoke in an interview on Fox News, which aired Wednesday.

“I don’t want to go wracking it through my brain thinking of what happened, what happened, what happened, just driving myself insane,” he said. “I love you and I miss you and I want you to come home.”

Tibbetts had been dog-sitting at a house where Jack and his brother lived house while Jack was away in Dubuque for work at a construction company. The two met in high school and have dated for more than two years. He has been ruled out as a suspect in the disappearance.

Police announced Wednesday that they had investigated reports that 20-year-old Tibbetts was seen on July 26 at a truck stop in in Kearney, Missouri – more than 230 miles from Brooklyn, reported ABC News. Law enforcement officials searched the area, spoke with witnesses and examined potential surveillance video.

Tibbetts, a rising sophomore at the University of Iowa, was last seen on the evening of July 18, after she went for a jog in the rural town of Brooklyn.

Officials had earlier said they would be examining Tibbetts’ Fitbit, a wearable device that tracks movement and has a GPS feature.

“Initially it was shock and then it gets harder day by day because she’s not here,” Jack told Today. “You miss her. You miss her more than anything in the world.”