A suspect in Mollie Tibbetts’ death is under arrest and is “subject to [an] immigration detainer,” according to police officials.

During a Tuesday press conference, police confirmed that the man is an illegal alien.

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Rick Rahn, special agent in charge at the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, told reporters that law enforcement has “confirmed with Homeland Security Investigations that he is an illegal alien, and we believe he’s been in this area [of Iowa] for four to seven years.”

The suspect, Christian Bahena Rivera, 24, apparently led investigators to the location of Mollie Tibbetts’ body after confirming that he interacted with her while she was running — and that she felt threatened by him.

Rivera claimed he “blacked out” at some point during their interaction, officials said.

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Nick Miroff, a national security reporter for The Washington Post who covers immigration, tweeted out earlier on Tuesday afternoon: “SCOOP: Iowa investigators have made arrest in Mollie Tibbetts’ murder, and the suspect has a fed[eral] immigration detainer, meaning likely in the country illegally.”

Tibbetts, a 20-year-old college student whose disappearance in mid-July sparked national attention, disappeared while jogging in the rural farming town of Brooklyn, Iowa.

Rahn told the media that Rivera said he saw Tibbetts running, got out of his car, and ran alongside of her, Rahn said.

Law enforcement officials became focused on a rural area of farm fields near a wildlife area and the small communities of Guernsey and Deep River, Iowa, specifically near Highway 21, about 12 miles from Brooklyn.

Related: Tragic Ending in the Case of Missing Iowa Student Mollie Tibbetts

A KCCI-TV live report said there was law enforcement activity underway in a location south of Guernsey, Iowa, and a medical examiner’s van had driven to that spot, noted Heavy.com.

The television station reported that the location was about 15 minutes south of Brooklyn, just off Highway 21 on 460th Avenue.

There was a detour put up at about 5 a.m., according to locals, as the television station reported.

Investigators were able to link Rivera to the Tibbetts case after “catching his black Chevy Malibu on surveillance camera the day Tibbetts disappeared,” the New York Post reported late Tuesday afternoon. “He was allegedly tailing her as she ran.”

“He followed her around,” said Rahn on Tuesday afternoon. “Circled around a couple times, located her, then began to interface with her.”

Officials will be doing an autopsy; the results are likely weeks away.

President Donald Trump, at his rally in Charleston, West Virginia, on Tuesday night, addressed the sad case, saying Mollie Tibbetts’ death “should never have happened.”

“You heard about [this] today, with the illegal alien coming in, very sadly, from Mexico,” said Trump. “And you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman … The laws are so bad. The immigration laws are such a disgrace.”

Rivera is being held on a $1 million bond.

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This article has been updated.