A body found in a Northern California reservoir is believed to be that of a missing California teenager Kiely Rodníwho was last seen at a large high school graduation party in Truckee, northeast of Sacramento, on Aug. 6, authorities said Monday.
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a news conference that the body had not yet been identified, but “we believe it is our missing person.”
Earlier, a volunteer diving group said they found a body while searching for 16-year-old Rodni.
“We found Kiely Rodni’s vehicle and confirmed there was debris inside,” said Doug Bishop of Adventures with Purpose in a live broadcast Monday. He said his team began searching for Rodni at Prosser Creek Reservoir at 10:40 a.m. local time on Sunday. They placed two sonar boats in the water and, at 11:15 a.m., spotted Rodni’s car 55 feet offshore.
In a Facebook post, they had said the car was submerged in 14 feet of water. The car’s license plate matches the number police previously released to help identify Rodni’s vehicle, a silver 2013 Honda CRV.
Video footage shown during the dive team’s live stream shows Rodni’s vehicle, including the license plate, underwater. Once they confirmed it was their vehicle, Bishop said the team contacted authorities and Rodni’s family.
WE JUST FOUND KIELY RODNI… 🙏🏻😭 ==== The car is upside down in only 14′ of water. We have CONFIRMED that Kiely is in…
published by Adventures with purpose activated Sunday, August 21, 2022
Moon confirmed at a press conference Monday that the car is Rodni’s and said it was discovered in an area authorities had been searching since the start of the investigation. Authorities said the lake where Rodni’s car was found was thoroughly examined and they will have to “report” on why the car was not found sooner. They had been looking for Rodni and her car for almost two weeks and the volunteer dive team found it in just over half an hour of their own search. Police said divers have been in “many bodies of water” throughout their investigation and there were “numerous” teams searching the area where the car was found.
“We recovered the vehicle last night. We located a deceased person inside the vehicle,” Moon said. “We believe it’s our missing person. We haven’t been able to positively identify it, but it’s more than likely where we are today.”
There was only one body in the vehicle, police said, which has not yet been officially identified. Once the car was located, it was removed from the lake and is now being analyzed.
An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday, police said, and a toxicology report will be conducted. It usually takes four to six weeks to get toxicology results, they said.
On Sunday, police said they had multiple detectives and investigators from multiple agencies assigned to the case and had reviewed more than 1,800 tips related to Rodni’s disappearance. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office dive team conducted an underwater search last Thursday, but officials said they did not locate her or her car at that time.
Adventures with purpose he said he would help in Rodni’s case on August 15. The dive team typically takes on cold cases, not active investigations.
The all-volunteer group, which has more than 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube, says it has helped solve 23 missing persons cold cases since 2019.
Earlier this year, a Pennsylvania man’s body and car were found James Amable 24 feet under water. Amabile disappeared in December 2003 after she called a babysitter to say she was running late picking up her two daughters.
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