A body that was found in a car in a Northern California reservoir on Sunday has been identified as Kiely Rodni, the Placer County Sheriff’s office said in a statement Tuesday. The 16-year-old disappeared after going to a high school party in Truckee, California, on Aug. 6.
On Monday, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said in a press conference that the car found by a volunteer dive group on Sunday was Rodni’s, and said it was discovered in an area that authorities had been searching from the beginning of the investigation. Moon said officials believed the body in the vehicle was Rodni’s, but they were waiting for confirmation from the autopsy.
Authorities had been searching for nearly two weeks for Rodni and her car. The volunteer dive group found it in the Prosser Creek Reservoir a little more than half an hour into their search.
“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 the 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.
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.
The car was removed and is being analyzed, authorities confirmed.
On Aug. 15, Adventures with Purpose said it would assist in Rodni’s case. 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.
An investigation into Rodni’s disappearance and death is ongoing, the Placer County Sheriff’s office said Tuesday.
