Found Deceased CA - Kiely Rodni Missing From Party Near Prosser Family Campground in Truckee #6

[IDK]

It's certainly possible. It just seems like a strange, uncertain way to do so: Drive your car into a reservoir and hope you drown? I'm assuming that's your hypothesis.

I’m not the poster you’re replying to, and not sure about suicide either in this case. Just want to point out suicide can be an impulsive act. There is not always a plan.

 

[pizzaman12]

maybe and going 5 mph as is necessary on these roads, it would be obvious she's at the beach and it's time to turn around

I understand what you're saying but we also don't know how impaired she may have been (since we have no confirmation). I've personally witnessed numerous people running off highways, striking other vehicles, hitting road signs, catching on fire all while they continued to drive. One of those persons was still >0.40 BAC many hours after the ride finally came to an end

Not everything is "obvious" when you're inebriated

 

[Look4theHelpers]

Kiely was already running late to meet curfew. If there's a bunch of people leaving, the line of car's probably wasn't moving too fast. Car's stopped to chat, moving slow, showing off, etc. She could've taken the beach to speed around the cars and hopefully cut in front to make up time.

The logical spot of entry is down the slope into the water. Is it possible she could've swerved or veered off to the right while driving on the beach and went into the water right side of vehicle first and wasn't anywhere near that sloped area? I'm not sure if that's even possible. Could her vehicle make it to the same spot in the water if that was the case? It could maybe explain why the left side back window was half way down.

IMO

 

[SteveP]

I’m not really trying to sell anything, just offering a boring, sensible reason why a big party of high schoolers that the whole community knows about might break up around a certain time.

I agree, and also, it was reported, by SS, IIRC, that a group of older guys showed up later, with drugs they didn't usually see, and some of the younger ones apparently felt uncomfortable and decided to leave. This, along with the time of possible curfews, may very well have accounted for many leaving at roughly the same time. I do not believe a large group of people saw an abduction and victim being driven into water, and then decided to rush home and say nothing. JMO

 

[SteveP]

The beach is not the way home, and this is obvious when you are down there.

Respectfully, it may be obvious to a sober adult, viewing it in daylight, but none of us knows what was "obvious" to a very likely intoxicated and/or otherwise impaired 16-year-old driving in pitch black darkness. JMO

 

[Curiousobserver]

Does anyone know if it's possible that the last ping was after the car was already submerged? I know some phones now do have a high degree of waterproofing. I know some have said the pings don't go through water. Is that always true?

The weak signal from a cell phone won't penetrate more than a few inches of water. However, I am wondering if they had more signals intelligence after two weeks. Why the phone pinged for example, did it ping because a certain app was activated or someone tried to make a call, or a better probability map that put the phone much closer to that beach. Its academic at this point of course, AWP could have just been lucky by being contrarian- everyone thought if she was in the water it would be the boat ramp, but since she wasn't found there it had to be somewhere else... and where is the next best spot... They could also have a witness to something that they hasn't been made public like "I did see a car go off in a different direction than all the others, I didn't see where it went but it went off that way toward the beach road"

 

[SteveP]

Personally, I don't know about suicide in this case but I do know many people and kids do NOT fit what people believe is the stereotype. A friend of mine lost her 14 yo a few years ago to suicide and he fit this exact same description. Straight A student, athlete, great family, etc. His mom is in agony every single day wondering WHY. She used his death to support other teens in our area and families by creating a non profit organization and it's shockingly surprising at just how many "seemingly normal, happy" kids commit suicide. Sadly, it happens more often than any of us would think and leaves families in shreds

Not pointing this post at you, just using your post as a jumping off point to say, if Kiely was thinking suicide, which I am certain, in my mind at least, that she was not, she could have picked any number of ways that would have been a helluva lot easier and less frightening than making what has been painted as an almost impossible drive, to put herself in a lake, and drown. Even if drowning herself was her intent, it would have been a lot quicker and easier to have left the car behind and just walked out into the lake. And again, I have seen or heard absolutely nothing that leads me to think this young lady was contemplating suicide. JMO

 

[nimaathep]

Kiely was already running late to meet curfew. If there's a bunch of people leaving, the line of car's probably wasn't moving too fast. Car's stopped to chat, moving slow, showing off, etc. She could've taken the beach to speed around the cars and hopefully cut in front to make up time.

The logical spot of entry is down the slope into the water. Is it possible she could've swerved or veered off to the right while driving on the beach and went into the water right side of vehicle first and wasn't anywhere near that sloped area? I'm not sure if that's even possible. Could her vehicle make it to the same spot in the water if that was the case? It could maybe explain why the left side back window was half way down.

IMO

I wondered similarly - or, MOO, the image showing the steeper ledge where the car was found made me wonder if she may have been playing around a bit driving into the shallow water on her way around to the road. I feel like as a teenager I would have loved using AWD or "off-roading" and would have taken the opportunity to splash in the very shallow water with my car. Obviously, I don't know how deep the water is up to the ledge, and this is all nonsense if it's deeper than a foot, but if she wasn't thinking clearly and was adventurous could she have just been having fun? But then again, how did no one see/why didn't she get out if that was what happened? Honestly, I think this was all a tragic accident, but trying to think of how or why she would have ended up there, even if it seems as ridiculous as splashing around for a second before heading home. MOO.

 

[getthefax]

She could have cut across down to the beach and intended to follow the beach (brush on the left side, beach & water on the right side—green line) down to where the spur road would go left and missed the turn, not realizing how high the water was/ how close (pink line). MOO, but it is one plausible possibility out of a great many.

Google Earth images show a whole lot of tire tracks all over those beaches, so it would not have been wildly out of the ordinary to off-road it a little. Add in a few seconds of distraction (phone charging, GPSing, etc and it is one of many plausible possibilities)

@OldCop, this is what you meant right? It’s what I’ve been thinking as I’ve studied Google Earth and the water lines.

 

[pandamonium]

I remember seeing KR was 16 but almost 17 in a month on one of the original missing fliers.

Adding insult to injury her family will still be mourning/grieving and her bday is coming up soon So horribly sad and tragic

 

[getthefax]

Researching the Prosser Family Campground site for both single-family camp reservations or a Large Group Facility, the check-in/out rules vary on whether or not the guests are there under "FF" (first come) or registered for specific dates or extended dates.

However, what seems clear is that the "Prosser Large Group" location is ready to accommodate up to 50 people and 10 vehicles -- nowhere near the 300 persons as estimated. (I'm not aware of a "venue" in the Park applicable or whether or not the teens held a one-day reservation).

SBBM for focus.

The gathering wasn’t in the actual campground, and I don’t think they reserved either of the group camp areas, so there was 0 official parking.
The rules of the forestry service allow you to park off to the side of the dirt roads “where it is safe to do so.”

Link to US Forest Service map here.

Edited to add SBBM etc

 

[seasideForest]

Its academic at this point of course, AWP could have just been lucky by being contrarian- everyone thought if she was in the water it would be the boat ramp, but since she wasn't found there it had to be somewhere else... and where is the next best spot... They could also have a witness to something that they hasn't been made public like "I did see a car go off in a different direction than all the others, I didn't see where it went but it went off that way toward the beach road"

Two of the guys from AWP were interviewed at length about the search for KR. IIRC their MO was to divide up into 2 boats with one going this way close to the shore and the other boat going the other way close until something was sighted that might be the car, and was in fact. So maybe not so much lucky as methodical. iirc staying fairly close to the shore was based on their experience of this type of search.

The interview was linked somewhere back on this thread, but I don't have the mental capacity to look for it atm.

MOO

 

[mrjitty]

I wondered similarly - or, MOO, the image showing the steeper ledge where the car was found made me wonder if she may have been playing around a bit driving into the shallow water on her way around to the road. I feel like as a teenager I would have loved using AWD or "off-roading" and would have taken the opportunity to splash in the very shallow water with my car. Obviously, I don't know how deep the water is up to the ledge, and this is all nonsense if it's deeper than a foot, but if she wasn't thinking clearly and was adventurous could she have just been having fun? But then again, how did no one see/why didn't she get out if that was what happened? Honestly, I think this was all a tragic accident, but trying to think of how or why she would have ended up there, even if it seems as ridiculous as splashing around for a second before heading home. MOO.

That is what is puzzling to me - like if you drive in accidentally and get stuck, its not so obvious how you get in so deep you drown before you can do figure out how to exit the vehicle unless windows and doors were jammed?

Or maybe she was going at some speed?

 

[OldCop]

maybe and going 5 mph as is necessary on these roads, it would be obvious she's at the beach and it's time to turn around

I meant that she may have been driving along the washboard part of the beach intentionally to get to the spur road from the parking area. The video from the car recovery clearly shows that people regularly drive along the shoreline there. And that route along the shoreline would have been much closer to the water that night. Accidents happen at all speeds. She might have nodded off and drove right in. Going slower would have had much less of an impact to jolt her awake.

LiveCopter 3 video shows car being pulled from lake near where Kiely Rodni disappeared

A body and car were found on Sunday submerged in a Truckee lake where authorities and dive teams have been searching for 16-year-old missing teen Kiely Rodni for the past two weeks.

www.kcra.com

ETA I see that @getthefax beat me to the punch here.

 

[seasideForest]

That is what is puzzling to me - like if you drive in accidentally and get stuck, its not so obvious how you get in so deep you drown before you can do figure out how to exit the vehicle unless windows and doors were jammed?

Or maybe she was going at some speed?

Maybe in daylight you can figure out how to exit faster.

But at night in the darkness and add fear and possibly panic, it's pretty obvious to me that a person might well drown before they can get out of their seatbelt and then open the door and get out. JMO
There are Internet videos you can find showing how fast a car goes down when it enters a lake or a river. It's very fast.

I'm a (commuter) cyclist, not a car-driver or owner, so I don't even know if there would be any light on in the car when it enters the water, but I rather think not apart from the little bit lighting up the dashboard display? But then that might go out too? Dark outside. Maybe pitch black in vehicle. Person possibly a little inebriated. Not looking good for getting out of that situation alive. MOO

 

[getthefax]

Respectfully, it may be obvious to a sober adult, viewing it in daylight, but none of us knows what was "obvious" to a very likely intoxicated and/or otherwise impaired 16-year-old driving in pitch black darkness. JMO

Yeah—also when taking into account the lateral limitations on headlights. Driving out in those mountains at night it’s tough to see to the right or the left, and it was a moonless night.

 

[getthefax]

I remember seeing KR was 16 but almost 17 in a month on one of the original missing fliers.

Adding insult to injury her family will still be mourning/grieving and her bday is coming up soon So horribly sad and tragic

So sad. Her birthday is September 5th, 2005.

 

[OldCop]

Water levels were higher at the time of the party.

View attachment 361582

Water levels at the time of the party.

View attachment 361583

Yes, but still more than enough room for vehicles to drive along the shoreline, I think.

 

[Bhodie]

Kiely was already running late to meet curfew. If there's a bunch of people leaving, the line of car's probably wasn't moving too fast. Car's stopped to chat, moving slow, showing off, etc. She could've taken the beach to speed around the cars and hopefully cut in front to make up time.

The logical spot of entry is down the slope into the water. Is it possible she could've swerved or veered off to the right while driving on the beach and went into the water right side of vehicle first and wasn't anywhere near that sloped area? I'm not sure if that's even possible. Could her vehicle make it to the same spot in the water if that was the case? It could maybe explain why the left side back window was half way down.

IMO

I think if she cut outside a line of cars leaving some of those individuals would have said something to the effect of "Oh yeah we saw a vehicle like that." There in no guilt on anyone to say they saw a car cut out of line to take a different route. I'm not saying there is guilt on anyone I'm only saying that there would be no reason for anyone not to come forward with that type of information.

 

[annpats]

That is what is puzzling to me - like if you drive in accidentally and get stuck, its not so obvious how you get in so deep you drown before you can do figure out how to exit the vehicle unless windows and doors were jammed?

Or maybe she was going at some speed?

But the roads are so bad and rough and holed, you can't go at speed according to @Truckeeite