Found Deceased CA - Kiely Rodni Missing From Party Near Prosser Family Campground in Truckee since 8 Aug 2022 #5

[Cryptic]

Well, IME/IMO, being impaired doesn’t mean you forget basic survival skills, especially when you’re suddenly jolted into reality by something like, say, driving into a lake.

Going way back in history.....

The infamous Chappaquiddick incident also featured a car, probable impairment, and an unexpected / sudden immersion in water. One person (at the time, known for his athleticism- among other things) managed to swim clear of the submerged car. A female companion, however, could not.

It might also be worth noting that both the Chappaquiddick victim and Kiely could well have been alone- or essentially alone in the Chappaquiddick case (the driver abandoned the wreck after escaping). As a result, they would have needed to quickly orientate themselves and escape with out assistance from another person.

 

[Curiousobserver]

People always have such lofty ideas of what would be possible for a human to survive in accidents like this. Like why not just roll down the windows, swim out etc. But I have to imagine this all happened very fast, likely had some windows open or cracked to "sober up" if she was tired or inebriated, and was cruising along fast to get home in time.

Yesterday I slipped in water just passed my knees in the waves. While under for just moments, it is extremely disorienting not being able to tell up from down, or get your footing. And I've lived on the ocean my entire life. I can only imagine if you're underwater, getting jostled around and inside a car needing to escape all while panicking that you are about to die.

Feel sad for her and her family. Such a crap way to exit this earth. Teenagers make mistakes. I also think she didn't have super great friends who didn't insist on taking her home when they knew she couldn't drive, but that might be my anger talking.

You're exactly right. All you need do is google simulations of submerged cars (I posted a video from mythbusters upthread) to see how difficult it actually is. Cars tend to flip almost immediately making the disorientation even worse. Even in very shallow water, an overturned car can blend in quickly especially if the water is murkey. These guys have a special talent for reading the sonar and looking for the telltale features that not every LE across the country can duplicate.

 

[MsBetsy]

For sure if the car immediately went nose down, and she went to the back. But if she had all 4 windows down, why didn't she at least end up outside the car? I guess we'll know more after autopsy

It definitely still feels like something is very off.

She may have panicked. A vehicle can sink in seconds to a few minutes. The first thing experts tell you is how important it is to stay calm. Panicking decreases your chances of escaping. But it's probably much easier said than done. I'm pretty sure I would panic if my vehicle left the road and suddenly I found myself sinking quickly in the darkness.

 

[nimaathep]

True, but if the car is later found to be in NEUTRAL, that is a big clue that it could be homicide.

That, and if she was deceased before entering the water the ME should be able to tell.

 

[ACG2x]

I’m absolutely boggled to read that so many people still think this was foul play or suicide. It seems very straightforward to me - she was likely impaired, got disoriented, and ended up in the water. I see people saying if she was impaired she wouldn’t have had the capacity to know to roll down the windows and undo her seatbelt. Ok. Well, IME/IMO, being impaired doesn’t mean you forget basic survival skills, especially when you’re suddenly jolted into reality by something like, say, driving into a lake.

I’m so happy Kiely is found but I’m definitely taking a break from this thread until any new concrete evidence is found and shared. Which I’m sure even then will be doubted and debated. I feel like I’m on a conspiracy theorist forum. This is exactly what happened with Toni Andersons case, too.

It's part of the human condition I think - some just cannot accept the simplest possible explanation for an event/occurrence. Like there just has to be more. Sometimes it makes them better sleuths, but others it creates this unnecessary noise that makes cases out to be way more than they are.

It's fine to be skeptical and ask questions - but yeah until proven otherwise have to accept the reality here this is a painfully simple case. An inexperienced driver operated a motor vehicle while impaired, took a wrong turn or series or wrong turns, and drove into a nearby body of water. It's tragic and incredibly sad, but it's the near certain truth here.

Some unfortunately cannot accept a painfully simple truth.

 

[curiousLR]

She may have panicked. A vehicle can sink in seconds to a few minutes. The first thing experts tell you is how important it is to stay calm. Panicking decreases your chances of escaping. But it's probably much easier said than done. I'm pretty sure I would panic if my vehicle left the road and suddenly I found myself sinking quickly in the darkness.

I think that's something we all keep forgetting, the darkness. It would have been pitch black out there. Perhaps her headlights remained on for brief seconds but other than that as she sank, it's totally dark out there. Being upside down in the dark, her chances of escaping were basically nil.

 

[getthefax]

Hi all, here with some facts: Attached are my maps (my annotated version of a google map screenshot and national forest map screenshot) of where things actually happened and a photo I took while watching the extrication today. Again, AWP got out of the way shortly after discovering the car and marking it with a bouy. Law enforcement directed the actual extrication. Nothing was removed from the car before it was extricated. Two divers attached a single line from a tow truck to the car and it was dragged out backwards. There was little to no apparent manuvering of the car underwater; ie they just pulled it in a straight line and it came right out, rear end first. LE was very quick to cover the rear windows. All visible windows appeared rolled down. No body could be seen inside the front or rear seats (using binoculars). The rest of the car was covered with a tarp as it was brought out of the water.

I watched the extrication online and thought I saw them first turn the car over. After that point the light colored car in the water was much more easily visible. During the extrication is when i believe the front window(s) could have broken.

That would also explain why it had been somewhat harder for earlier search efforts to see—the undercarriage was facing the sky, so it had appeared darker from above.

EBM for typos and clarity

 

[Curiousobserver]

She may have panicked. A vehicle can sink in seconds to a few minutes. The first thing experts tell you is how important it is to stay calm. Panicking decreases your chances of escaping. But it's probably much easier said than done. I'm pretty sure I would panic if my vehicle left the road and suddenly I found myself sinking quickly in the darkness.

I would panic- it might take a few seconds to even realize what happened: it was dark, I was driving, then suddenly the car is floating, then filling with cold water, then it suddenly flips and I'm inebriated. I can't even think about it for very long because it must have been just terrifying to her.

 

[Look4theHelpers]

I thought AWP said the windows were all up when they initially found the vehicle? It would make sense that the windows busted out when the vehicle was flipped over for extraction, along with the busted mirror. The back window being down 2/3d's? - Kiely may have been driving with it down already which would explain why it sunk so fast, leaving less time for someone to see something.

LE heavily searched Prosser with a grid map and even tried to convince AWP that there was no need to search Prosser. The thing that made the difference was that AWP could differentiate the appearance of a rock vs a vehicle. The skillset that they have really made the difference here and maybe they can help law enforcement, somehow, with future training.

The more I think about why no one saw anything, the more I think about my drinking days, which are behind me (thank goodness.) I made a lot of stupid decisions and even question how I'm still here.
But if I was at a huge outdoor party (I've attended some) and saw a vehicle drive off in another direction, I wouldn't question it. Maybe a bunch of people wanted to hang out somewhere else? A different route home? It wouldn't have been a blip on my screen. Especially if I wasn't from the area, was drunk myself and didn't know the roads well. Plus, it was pitch black outside. That many people leaving at once is usually chaos and loud to begin with.

IMO, this was nothing but an unfortunate situation of impaired driving and an accident, nothing more. Occam's razor from the beginning. Kiely had her whole life before her. She had plans and was about to attend school. The suicide theory just doesn't make sense to me. The OD theory? Plausible, but it's highly unlikely a bunch of teenagers staged this. Inexperienced driver, confusion, impaired, etc. It just all added up to a very unfortunate situation.

NY Post- Diver's find body

IMO

 

[Jealoushe]

She also could have been injured or hit her head in the crash into the water.

 

[heartandsoul]

This is a very sad case, but it looks fairly straight forward IMO. It being dark is a major part of this situation, a shock of cold water is another. I can only imagine how I would react if my car was suddenly submerged and rapidly sinking - upside down. It happens very, very quickly. I'm so glad she has been found and I'm sure we will find out the more precise circumstances in time.

 

[SteveP]

It's part of the human condition I think - some just cannot accept the simplest possible explanation for an event/occurrence. Like there just has to be more. Sometimes it makes them better sleuths, but others it creates this unnecessary noise that makes cases out to be way more than they are.

It's fine to be skeptical and ask questions - but yeah until proven otherwise have to accept the reality here this is a painfully simple case. An inexperienced driver operated a motor vehicle while impaired, took a wrong turn or series or wrong turns, and drove into a nearby body of water. It's tragic and incredibly sad, but it's the near certain truth here.

Some unfortunately cannot accept a painfully simple truth.

<rsbm> Some unfortunately cannot accept a painfully simple truth. <rsbm>

Respectfully, at this point, the only painfully simple truth that we have is that Kiely and her car somehow entered the water and sank, some distance from shore, and she was found inside it, two weeks later. I am not one who necessarily thinks that she was placed there by nefarious means, actually, I was one of the first, way back on thread one, to suggest she was impaired and had an accident and ended up in water, and I still believe that is most likely, but I am also not going to blindly accept what some other person with no connection to the case tries to tell me is a painfully simple truth. Regardless of how often the term gets thrown around, Ockham's Razor does not always apply. Until LE or the ME rule Kiely's death an accident, I will keep an open mind to all of the possibilities of this sad tragedy.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

Early on in the case one of the locals mentioned a truck being seen stuck in the mud early the next morning (if I have the timing right?)

Does anyone recall specifically where along the shore that truck was located relative to where her car was found and where it likely entered the water?

Seems like this might now be a key bit of their investigation, IMO.

 

[Curiousobserver]

It's part of the human condition I think - some just cannot accept the simplest possible explanation for an event/occurrence. Like there just has to be more. Sometimes it makes them better sleuths, but others it creates this unnecessary noise that makes cases out to be way more than they are.

It's fine to be skeptical and ask questions - but yeah until proven otherwise have to accept the reality here this is a painfully simple case. An inexperienced driver operated a motor vehicle while impaired, took a wrong turn or series or wrong turns, and drove into a nearby body of water. It's tragic and incredibly sad, but it's the near certain truth here.

Some unfortunately cannot accept a painfully simple truth.

In so many other cases this same equation has played out- a car missing with people in a vulnerable situation in terrain or near water, it almost always ends the same way. People wildly, vastly, utterly underestimate the impact of tiny, seemingly insignificant decisions; what some would call "luck". Turn right or turn left. Check my phone or not. When you're vulnerable (alone and drunk for example) you choose less wisely and your ability to recover is lessened.

 

[SteveP]

It is my hope that if we learn nothing else from the news conferences with AWP and LE today, we at least see an accurate map of the area, with location of party, boat ramp and car all highlighted, as so many people here have offered up so many conflicting maps, I do not believe any of us knows the exact layout. JMO

 

[elmomom]

Early on in the case one of the locals mentioned a truck being seen stuck in the mud early the next morning (if I have the timing right?)

Does anyone recall specifically where along the shore that truck was located relative to where her car was found and where it likely entered the water?

Seems like this might now be a key bit of their investigation, IMO.

It was adjacent to the boat ramp so likely ruled out since where she was located indicated she did not go off the boat ramp

 

[Lore Listener]

In so many other cases this same equation has played out- a car missing with people in a vulnerable situation in terrain or near water, it almost always ends the same way. People wildly, vastly, utterly underestimate the impact of tiny, seemingly insignificant decisions; what some would call "luck". Turn right or turn left. Check my phone or not. When you're vulnerable (alone and drunk for example) you choose less wisely and your ability to recover is lessened.

That's true... but! I always keep it in the back of my head that extraordinarily weird things do happen in this world. Count me among those who was pretty sure the couple kidnapped by Todd Kohlhepp had simply crashed, run off the road, and been concealed by vegetation. Yet that was not the case at all!

That's why, for me, I like to give priority to the most likely scenarios (which we are most likely seeing, tragically, play out here) but also keep an open mind until we're sure. Just really grateful to AWP for their services in this case so Kiely's family can have answers now, rather than months or years from now.

 

[tlcya]

I am so glad AWP got involved. This case was resolved, as I expected, with Kiely submerged in the water nearby. I am so sorry for her loved ones, but also glad they won't spend years with the unknowning that haunts so many families of the missing.

 

[Hope32]

I thought AWP said the windows were all up when they initially found the vehicle? It would make sense that the windows busted out when the vehicle was flipped over for extraction, along with the busted mirror. The back window being down 2/3d's? - Kiely may have been driving with it down already which would explain why it sunk so fast, leaving less time for someone to see something.

LE heavily searched Prosser with a grid map and even tried to convince AWP that there was no need to search Prosser. The thing that made the difference was that AWP could differentiate the appearance of a rock vs a vehicle. The skillset that they have really made the difference here and maybe they can help law enforcement, somehow, with future training.

The more I think about why no one saw anything, the more I think about my drinking days, which are behind me (thank goodness.) I made a lot of stupid decisions and even question how I'm still here.
But if I was at a huge outdoor party (I've attended some) and saw a vehicle drive off in another direction, I wouldn't question it. Maybe a bunch of people wanted to hang out somewhere else? A different route home? It wouldn't have been a blip on my screen. Especially if I wasn't from the area, was drunk myself and didn't know the roads well. Plus, it was pitch black outside. That many people leaving at once is usually chaos and loud to begin with.

IMO, this was nothing but an unfortunate situation of impaired driving and an accident, nothing more. Occam's razor from the beginning. Kiely had her whole life before her. She had plans and was about to attend school. The suicide theory just doesn't make sense to me. The OD theory? Plausible, but it's highly unlikely a bunch of teenagers staged this. Inexperienced driver, confusion, impaired, etc. It just all added up to a very unfortunate situation.

NY Post- Diver's find body

IMO

Reading the article they also stated that the water level two weeks ago was possibly lower than this search which makes a difference in how far the car could travel when it entered the water.

 

[Elley Mae]

My only question is why no one saw vehicle tracks heading into the water, seems they would have been there in the morning.

Jmo