Adventures with Purpose says divers found Kiely Rodni’s car 35 minutes after launching boats
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Kiely Rodni found after two-week search
Click the arrow below for more coverage on Kiely Rodni, a Northern California teen who was found by a volunteer team of divers after she had been missing since early August.
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Update: Authorities say remains found in lake “likely” those of Kiely Rodni
As the community, family members and other loved ones await official identification from authorities, Adventures with Purpose, the volunteer search-and-rescue organization that announced Sunday that its divers had found missing 16-year-old Kiely Rodni and her vehicle in a Northern California reservoir, shared more details Monday morning about its weekend search effort.
The group said it found the vehicle within about 35 minutes of deploying boats in the water Sunday morning.
“We have found Kiely Rodni’s vehicle, and have confirmed that there were remains inside,” Adventures with Purpose diver Doug Bishop said in a video news conference live-streamed to YouTube and Facebook at 9 a.m. Monday.
“An official identification of remains will be made and announced by authorities once their investigations are complete,” Nick Rinn, another diver with the group, said in the live video. “Please understand and respect that this is a highly active investigation by the FBI and multiple local sheriff’s offices. We are limited to the scope of details we can release.”
Law enforcement officials on Sunday evening announced a news conference was planned for 11 a.m. Monday.
The teen had been missing since the early hours of Aug. 6, after attending a party of about 200 to 300 teenagers and young adults at Prosser Family Campgrounds. The recreation area is located along the Prosser Creek Reservoir, about a 10-minute drive north of Truckee.
Kiely’s SUV was 55 feet offshore
Divers with Adventures with Purpose, which according to its verified Facebook page is an “underwater sonar search and recovery dive team helping families locate missing loved ones underwater” using specialized equipment, first arrived at the scene Saturday. Adventures with Purpose first searched nearby Donner Lake and the Boca Reservoir, Fox 40 reported Saturday.
Bishop said the team deployed Sunday to the Prosser Creek Reservoir at 10:40 a.m. and placed two sonar boats in the water.
By 11:15 a.m. Rinn had “detected an object underwater,” and Bishop was “able to then confirm that it was, in fact, a vehicle in roughly 14 feet of water and only 55 feet off shore,” Bishop said.
Bishop said they then marked the vehicle using a magnet, and that Rinn geared up and dove underwater to identify the vehicle.
“Once we confirmed it was indeed Kiely’s vehicle, we immediately notified family, law enforcement, and (Kiely’s) dad and grandpa were on scene within minutes,” Bishop said.
Video shows matching license plate
Brief video clips shared by the two divers showed a vehicle with the same license plate number released by the Placer County and Nevada County sheriff’s offices two weeks earlier. Kiely’s vehicle is a silver Honda CR-V, which Bishop and Rinn said they found upside down.
The remains that were found inside by AWP have not yet been identified by law enforcement officials.
If confirmed as Kiely’s, the finding would mark the end of a more than two-week search effort that the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday totaled close to 20,000 personnel hours across numerous local, state and federal agencies including the FBI. Prosser Creek Reservoir and the nearby campground are both located on federal land within Tahoe National Forest.
Adventures with Purpose said it would release a longer, edited video version of its search, likely within the next week.
“Please keep the Rodni in your thoughts and prayers, as we are,” Rinn said. “Hug your loved ones a little tighter.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2022 at 9:56 AM.
