Found Deceased CA - Kiely Rodni missing from Party Near Prosser Family Campground in Truckee #9

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Thanks so much for confirming I'm not crazy. I do believe it took hours? for LE to recover her car. What did they do down there?!
Well, if I was a LE diver I'd be checking everything out as I found it before disturbing anything. I'd be looking around the outside of car for things that may have fallen out the windows, and checking out the inside closely as all the water will quickly rush out once its pulled out which may change how things were inside the car. Something may (or may not be) important to note. I'd want to take notes about things with the car undisturbed. Once I feel I've gotten my observations notated, only then would I OK it for removal. Plus, they had to flip the car onto its wheels. That might have taken several tries.

All MOO.
 
I enhanced and flipped the image. Sure looks like there's no wheel or tire to me.View attachment 366424
Could it be something as simple as it's the angle? If the diver was over a foot or so to the left perhaps it would look very different. Or, if the camera was held up higher to look more down at it. Dunno. It's hard to tell but wanted to toss that out. :)
 
Aside from being extremely difficult to replace a tire, underwater, If they had, when the car was pulled out, it most likely should have had a typical donut spare tire on it, not a tire and wheel (rim) that is a perfect match and size to the other three. I am pretty sure that, if the tire and wheel had been missing, they would have just drug it out with the three that were still okay, or used balloons to float it out.

And aside from everything else, that car is probably the most important piece of evidence in this case. I would presume that LE would not ruin a potential crime scene by performing vehicle maintenance underwater. They would pull it out, as close to "as is" as possible. JMO
I don't disagree, @SteveP.

Perhaps the wheel / tire (if not there - still hard to tell what exactly we're looking at) were underwater with the car - lying next to it or something weird like that? What if it had flipped into the water from some hard evasive maneuver to the left when the driver (KR?) saw the water? In that scenario, the car would likely roll to the right in the soft sand/gravel, and in so doing, somehow the wheel came off the hub (@RANCH?) and the passenger window was smashed?

In other words could, as some of us opined way up thread, there have been an accident on the beach such that it caused the wheel to come off and window to break as the car rolled violently into the water to the right.

And if the wheel / tire were underwater but separate, I'd think all LE would have to do is place it back on the studs. They wouldn't necessary have to put lug nuts on since they were just slowly pulling the car in a straight line out of the water??
 
That's sensible. It wouldn't take much for the hubcap cover to pop off.

Maybe that's all we're seeing here, with some silt, the odd perspective and the weight of the engine?

It really does look strange though!It looks like rusted metal to me when I enhanced it, and not enough space for an inflated tire?
 
What you're seeing is the wheel well.
RSBM
Don't disagree there. It is clearly a wheel well. The question is what is inside that passenger front wheel well? I have studied this for a while now (as I'm sure others have!). And consulted with my fellow car 'guy', Mr. RedHaus.

Please see the image below. Here are our observations.

1. You don't see the design of the wheel (the wide spokes) in the under water image - could just be distortion?
2. The front fender looks abnormally large so the entire image could just be distorted from being under water / angle.
3. Like another OP said, you do see the valve stem and not the bolts coming through the hub (unless sheared off the hub)
4. You see the rim of the wheel, which you usually only see if a tire is flat
5. The suspension is unweighted since it is upside down, and perhaps the tire is just hidden inside the wheel well.
6. But on the left side of the image, the tire - if its there - nearly completely disappears as if it may be flat.

So now I wonder if what we're looking at isn't a FLAT TIRE on a wheel that is still attached to the hub.

That would make more sense in my little scenario I just posted about a driver possibly making a sudden left turn to evade water... could that force in soft sand/gravel be enough to dislodge a tire from its wheel (and go flat) before rolling?

Or... maybe the tire was just a slow leaker that on Terra Firma was managed by KR, but after two weeks it deflated...
1663278022265.png
ET: replace text in ( ) of #3 and to add last sentence... perhaps a simpler explanation if it was flat tire.
 
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I don't disagree, @SteveP.

Perhaps the wheel / tire (if not there - still hard to tell what exactly we're looking at) were underwater with the car - lying next to it or something weird like that? What if it had flipped into the water from some hard evasive maneuver to the left when the driver (KR?) saw the water? In that scenario, the car would likely roll to the right in the soft sand/gravel, and in so doing, somehow the wheel came off the hub (@RANCH?) and the passenger window was smashed?

In other words could, as some of us opined way up thread, there have been an accident on the beach such that it caused the wheel to come off and window to break as the car rolled violently into the water to the right.

And if the wheel / tire were underwater but separate, I'd think all LE would have to do is place it back on the studs. They wouldn't necessary have to put lug nuts on since they were just slowly pulling the car in a straight line out of the water??
In my opinion if there was an accident/crash with enough force to tear the wheel off the wheel hub there would also be extensive damage to the body of the car. There is no such damage visible in the recovery video. JMO.
 
In my opinion if there was an accident/crash with enough force to tear the wheel off the wheel hub there would also be extensive damage to the body of the car. There is no such damage visible in the recovery video. JMO.
Great, thanks, @RANCH. Would you mind taking a peak at my newest post, #206 to provide a second opinion on that also?
 
RSBM
Don't disagree there. It is clearly a wheel well. The question is what is inside that passenger front wheel well? I have studied this for a while now (as I'm sure others have!). And consulted with my fellow car 'guy', Mr. RedHaus.

Please see the image below. Here are our observations.

1. You don't see the design of the wheel (the wide spokes) in the under water image - could just be distortion?
2. The front fender looks abnormally large so the entire image could just be distorted from being under water / angle.
3. Like another OP said, you do see the valve stem and not the bolts coming through the hub (unless sheared off the hub)
4. You see the rim of the wheel, which you usually only see if a tire is flat
5. The suspension is unweighted since it is upside down, and perhaps the tire is just hidden inside the wheel well.
6. But on the left side of the image, the tire - if its there - nearly completely disappears as if it may be flat.

So now I wonder if what we're looking at isn't a FLAT TIRE on a wheel that is still attached to the hub.

That would make more sense in my little scenario I just posted about a driver possibly making a sudden left turn to evade water... could that force in soft sand/gravel be enough to dislodge a tire from its wheel (and go flat) before rolling? View attachment 366464
ET: replace text in ( ) of #3
I don't think the hubcap would even be in that frame, it would be off screen. Most of what you've circled is just the black trim that surrounds the wheel well. I'm guessing the image also captures the very top of the tire, but it's recessed and dark, so you can't really make it out.

Car-split-Rodni.jpg

And I think the white thing you've circled is just a bubble from the diver's breathing. He's turning into his own outbreath right before that image was captured:

2022-09-15 15_36_45-Window.jpg

I really doubt that AWP would have failed to mention that a tire was missing in their catalogue of suspicious facts. And I can't imagine that LE would put the tire back on underwater.
 
I enhanced and flipped the image. Sure looks like there's no wheel or tire to me.View attachment 366424
keep in mind that we are used to seeing cars with thousands of pound of weight on the axles/shocks/springs/etc. With the car upside down with no weight on the shocks, the wheels will move much farther away from the body than when the car is upright. Also, the tires are filled with air and would likely float, so the wheels are being pulled away from the vehicle.
 

I don't think the hubcap would even be in that frame, it would be off screen. Most of what you've circled is just the black trim that surrounds the wheel well. I'm guessing the image also captures the very top of the tire, but it's recessed and dark, so you can't really make it out.

View attachment 366469

And I think the white thing you've circled is just a bubble from the diver's breathing. He's turning into his own outbreath right before that image was captured:

View attachment 366470

I really doubt that AWP would have failed to mention that a tire was missing in their catalogue of suspicious facts. And I can't imagine that LE would put the tire back on underwater.

This is high resolution enough/stopped at the right spot, that it does appear to be silt in the gaps between the hubcap "spokes".(Not sure what else to call them, but that should be clear?)

I do still think the tire is a bit flat. It looks weird, but I also thought in some of the images of her car that her tires appeared to possibly be different sizes in the back and the front. I know sometimes people do that, even though it is generally not recco'd.
 
I don't disagree, @SteveP.

Perhaps the wheel / tire (if not there - still hard to tell what exactly we're looking at) were underwater with the car - lying next to it or something weird like that? What if it had flipped into the water from some hard evasive maneuver to the left when the driver (KR?) saw the water? In that scenario, the car would likely roll to the right in the soft sand/gravel, and in so doing, somehow the wheel came off the hub (@RANCH?) and the passenger window was smashed?

In other words could, as some of us opined way up thread, there have been an accident on the beach such that it caused the wheel to come off and window to break as the car rolled violently into the water to the right.

And if the wheel / tire were underwater but separate, I'd think all LE would have to do is place it back on the studs. They wouldn't necessary have to put lug nuts on since they were just slowly pulling the car in a straight line out of the water??
I agree with @RANCH.

It would take a tremendously violent something for a wheel to come off. Lug nuts would either have to pop off (all of them) or somehow due to twisting or something the lug bolts failed (all of them), in either case the hub is shot. Strains credulity that anything like that could have happened without a lot of other damage to the car.

To replace a hub on land with the correct parts and power tools is hard enough but I can't see any possible way it could be done by a diver underwater.

As far as the hubcap, I think based on VIN and pictures she had a base model which did have hubcaps (not alloy wheels) and they can pop off but I saw no indication that one was missing in the pics after the extraction or that the tire looked flat.

JMHO
 
keep in mind that we are used to seeing cars with thousands of pound of weight on the axles/shocks/springs/etc. With the car upside down with no weight on the shocks, the wheels will move much farther away from the body than when the car is upright. Also, the tires are filled with air and would likely float, so the wheels are being pulled away from the vehicle.
Also, in the video of the car being pulled from the water, notice the front wheels are turned to the left. Once it was completely out of water, LE reached in (it looked like to me without gloves)and straightened the wheel.
 
With the car upside down with no weight on the shocks, the wheels will move much farther away from the body than when the car is upright. Also, the tires are filled with air and would likely float, so the wheels are being pulled away from the vehicle.
I completely agree with you, @Wallendo... laws of physics really. But your post confuses me.

I believe the images we're looking at of KR's front passenger wheel well upside down under water, shows a tire that is close to the fender of the body... like it is weighted. That to me makes me question if the tire was inflated or is even there at all.

Perhaps we're just seeing two different things from the same image... that happens.

ETA: last sentence
 
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I really doubt that AWP would have failed to mention that a tire was missing in their catalogue of suspicious facts. And I can't imagine that LE would put the tire back on underwater.
RSBM

@O.Incandenza - While I can imagine, I never imagined until now that LE could put a tire back on a car to bring it out of water. I don't disagree that is a long shot. However, regarding AWP, I have two alternative thoughts:

1) in the Duty Don interview of Nick the AWP diver, posted numerous times here, Nick says very loud and clear he did not pay attention to details. He had a mission and it did not include taking note of everything; and

2) don't we know from Doug of AWP that they are holding back information for sake of LE's investigation, so could that not include something odd about KR's one tire?

ET: fix format
 
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