A private group of divers announced that they found what appeared to be the body of missing California teenager Kiely Rodni in a reservoir that had been searched earlier by police.
“WE JUST FOUND KIELY RODNI,” the group Adventures With Purpose announced on its Facebook page Sunday. “Car is upside down in only 14′ of water. We have CONFIRMED Kiely is inside.”
Although official confirmation has not yet been released, Placer County Sheriff Shannan Moon told KCRA-TV in Sacramento that the lone body in the 2013 Honda CR-V recovered from Prosser Creek Reservoir was likely that of Rodni, who was 16.
“We believe it is our missing person,” Moon told the station. “We have not been able to positively identify, but it’s more than likely.”
Rodni’s family posted a statement Monday on Twitter.
#NEW: Statement from the family of Kiely Rodni. @kcranews pic.twitter.com/TOhkvvYEhw
— Orko Manna (@orko_manna) August 22, 2022
Adventures With Purpose shared underwater images of the car on its YouTube channel.
“We have found Kiely Rodni’s vehicle and have confirmed that there were remains inside,” Doug Bishop, the group’s lead diver, said in the video.
“We began our search for Kiely at Prosser Creek Reservoir on August 21 at 10:40 a.m.,” he said.
“We placed two sonar boats in the water,” he said. “By 11:15 a.m., Nick detected an object underwater using cutting-edge Garmin sonar technology,” he added, referring to diver Nick Rinn.
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He said the vehicle was found “in roughly 14 feet of water, and only 55 feet offshore.”
“I went down and did my inspection. I saw the vehicle upside down, verified the license plate and that there were remains in the vehicle,” Rinn said, according to the New York Post.
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“Then I came out, we called the family and authorities and let them take it from there.”
The group decided to check the area even though it had already been searched.
“Police told us they did a rigorous search of this body of water,” diver Josh Cantu said. “They gave us a grid map and made us confident we didn’t need to search here.”
Kiely Rodni’s family breaks silence after recovery of missing teen’s likely remains https://t.co/UlmlbUX6vJ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 22, 2022
“Our sonar showed an object bigger than a rock that shouldn’t have been there,” Cantu said. “One of our divers went underwater and was able to identify a vehicle.”
The water levels in the reservoir had been higher two weeks ago during previous police searches, Rinn noted.
“We pretty much knew right there that there was a good chance this was her vehicle,” Nick Rinn and Doug Bishop, lead team divers for Adventures with Purpose, tell @LlamasNBC about finding the car and body that is “more than likely” Kiely Rodni.
“There’s a lot of emotions.” pic.twitter.com/9u2Ur9Les6
— Top Story with Tom Llamas (@TopStoryNBC) August 22, 2022
“Now the water has receded and we’re seeing the vehicle went farther into the water than maybe [police] thought,” he said. “When a vehicle goes in the water, it has air trapped in it for a while so it will float for a little ways before it fills with water and sinks.”
Rodni was last seen alive on Aug. 6.
So sorry for Kiely Rodni’s family.
Glad to see Adventures with Purpose getting attention for the work they have been doing for so long.
They have sonar and technology law enforcement does not have. We did this story back in February. https://t.co/pu0tYDxLiX— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) August 22, 2022
Adventures With Purpose has helped with solving “23 missing person cold cases” since 2019, according to its website. The group meets its costs through fund-raising, donations, rewards and revenue from its YouTube channel.
