Police believe body found in reservoir is missing California teen Kiely Rodni
A body found in a Northern California reservoir is believed to be that of missing California teen Kiely Rodni, who was last seen at a massive high school farewell party in Truckee, northeast of Sacramento, on August 6., authorities said Monday.
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon told a press conference that the body had not been identified yet but "we believe it is our missing person."
Earlier, a volunteer dive group said it found a body while searching for the 16-year-old Rodni.
"We have found Kiely Rodni's vehicle and have confirmed that there were remains inside," Doug Bishop of Adventures with Purpose said in a live stream on Monday. He said that their team started their search for Rodni at Prosser Creek reservoir on Sunday at 10:40 a.m. local time. They placed two sonar boats in the water, and by 11:15 a.m., they detected Rodni's car 55 feet offshore.
In a Facebook post, they had said the car was submerged in 14 feet of water. The license plate on the car matches the number that was previously released by police to help identify Rodni's vehicle, a silver 2013 Honda CRV.
Video footage displayed during the dive team's live stream shows Rodni's vehicle, including the license plate, underwater. Once they confirmed it was her vehicle, Bishop said the team contacted authorities and Rodni's family.
WE JUST FOUND KIELY RODNI... 🙏🏻😭 ==== Car is upside down in only 14' of water. We have CONFIRMED Kiely is inside....
Posted by Adventures With Purpose on Sunday, August 21, 2022
Moon confirmed in a press conference on Monday that the car is Rodni's and said it was discovered in an area that authorities had been searching from the beginning of the investigation. Authorities said the lake where Rodni's car was found was looked at extensively and that they will have to "debrief" as to why the car was not found earlier. They had been searching for nearly two weeks for Rodni and her car and the volunteer dive group found it in a little more than half an hour of their own search. Police said divers have been in "lots of bodies of water" throughout their investigation and that there were "numerous" teams searching the area where the car was found.
"We recovered the vehicle last night. We have located a decedent inside the vehicle," Moon said. "We believe it is our missing person. We have not been able to positively identify, but it's more than likely where we are today."
There was only one body in the vehicle, police said, which has not yet officially been identified. Once the car was located, it was removed from the lake and is now being analyzed.
The autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday, police said, and a toxicology report will be conducted. It usually takes between four to six weeks to get the toxicology results, they said.
On Sunday, police said they had several detectives and investigators across multiple agencies assigned to the case and that they have reviewed more than 1,800 tips related to Rodni's disappearance. The Placer County Sheriff's Office Dive Team had conducted an underwater search last Thursday, but officials said they didn't locate her or her car at that time.
Adventures with Purpose said it would assist in Rodni's case on August 15. The dive team typically takes on cold cases, not active investigations.
The volunteer, group, which has more than 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube, says it has helped solve 23 missing person cold cases since 2019.
Earlier this year, they found the body and car of Pennsylvania man James Amabile 24 feet underwater. Amabile went missing in December 2003 after he called a babysitter to say he was running late in picking up his two daughters.