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

[Curiosa20]

Yes, @Gigi3. I have also considered that KR may have forgotten to put her headlights on fully (maybe only parking lights since people leaving the party may have only used parking lights to avoid blinding people with headlights)? And what if she was distracted somehow by making a phone call or texting as she left the party... then looked up when it was too late.

I have also wondered if she tried the old method of getting out of a sinking car - opening all the windows. That used to be the way to do it - widely educated to the public in the past. But AWP made it clear in their video - that is WRONG!

Also, low headlights in fog are best. But SS hasn’t said it was a gnarly fog when she left.

 

[wanderingalong]

I hate to say this, but the other reason that could have caused pause for the officer to answer the body question is if the body wasn’t intact anymore; which seems like a fair possibility if any window was open for the duration the car was submerged.

He may have been cycling through his mind as to whether he should note that they believe it’s one body but can’t be certain based on the amount of decomposition. But out of sensitivity to the family he decided to
sanitize the answer as much as possible.

MOO

 

[Sunny Day]

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.

Looking at the first photo, my opinion is she was planning to head home but turned right instead of left, was disoriented, and that road ultimately led her onto the boat launch. So very sad.

 

[tlcya]

At least three police dive teams had already searched the reservoir, but AWP said it used advanced sonar that detected the car upside down in about 14 feet of water.

“Police told us they did a rigorous search of this body of water,” said diver Josh Cantu, 31. “They gave us a grid map and made us confident we didn’t need to search here.”

After searching the rest of the remote town of Truckee, the private group of divers decided to look in the reservoir as a last-ditch effort. Within a few minutes of diving, team member Nick Rinn found a body in a car close to shore.

“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, 48, told The Post Sunday. “Then I came out, we called the family and authorities and let them take it from there.”

The water levels in the reservoir had been higher two weeks ago during previous police searches, Rinn added.
Police believe body of missing teen Kiely Rodni found in California reservoir

my thoughts: LE did the best they could in searching both land and water with the resources (human and equipment) at their disposal. AWP has more advanced equipment and this is literally what they do, frequently and all across the country, in all sorts of bodies of water under all sorts of conditions.

Whereas LE and local resources only have to try to perform a water search such as this one very occasionally. Add in the fact that the conditions (water level) had changed a great deal between searches and it is completely understandable that LE did not locate her in that area despite having searched.

 

[Sundog]

I noticed the hesitation in answering how many bodies were in the vehicle too. Perhaps they're unsure if someone else was diving and got out?

I, too, noticed the hesitation, but think that perhaps the question threw him for a loop and he had to think about it for a second to process it.

 

[Curiosa20]

Unless @katydid23, KR pulled over on that stretch of dirt road after starting to drive home... realizing she was in no shape to drive and possibly feeling unwell and disoriented. If by chance she did that, she could have put the car in Neutral instead of Park, fell asleep / passed out, and the car slowly rolled down the embankment to the beach and water. So if the car is found to be in Neutral, I am not sure that triggers an automatic foul play scenario. Could still be a tragic accident.

And could still be that the nature of the famous last call was different than what we have been led to believe, IMO.

 

[Sundog]

I hate to say this, but the other reason that could have caused pause for the officer to answer the body question is if the body wasn’t intact anymore; which seems like a fair possibility if any window was open for the duration the car was submerged.

He may have been cycling through his mind as to whether he should note that they believe it’s one body but can’t be certain based on the amount of decomposition. But out of sensitivity to the family he decided to
sanitize the answer as much as possible.

MOO

I thought of that possibility as well.

 

[Beekarina]

How do we "know" she was drinking? From the statement of a single friend? Her mother said she didn't drink and drive. Sure, she may be naive about her daughter, and I find it a very plausible scenario that KR was drinking to some degree, but we certainly don't "know" that IMO.

The scenario I hope didn't happen: KR being drugged and unconscious, then put in her car and the car driven/pushed into the reservoir. That may make it appear that she drove into the reservoir while she was conscious, and then drowned.

I'm very careful about assuming things.

Throughout this thread, I was vocal in questioning if Kiely was as "wasted" as was implied. I still think that is a valid consideration--i.e. someone stating they "can't wait to get effed up", or whatever the alleged specific statement was, does NOT mean a person actually DID that, especially when thinking about young people who may want to fit in, impress others, look and sound cool. It is subjective.

However, this was a senior send off, a party where others have stated drinking and other things were going on.

We have NO reason to believe SS would entirely fabricate Kiely drinking at the party or alcohol being kept in Kiely's car.

Do you really think Kiely stayed at the party for several hours, a party which her friend Mags was so uncomfortable with the general vibes hat she left early, and Kiely didn't drink at all? I find that very difficult to believe.

I think it is POSSIBLE someone could have spiked her drink, and/or encouraged her to consume far more than she had in the past. I'm not sure she was "wasted drunk" (or high, etc) at the time when she texted her mother. I do wonder about that still. It seems like her mom is pretty cool. I think she would have picked her up. I also feel like Kiely had other friends she probably could have contacted for a ride. So, yes, I think there probably are some things I would want to know about the last hour or so of that party if she was my loved one.

 

[Sundog]

I was surprised that AWP gave their press conference before LE gave their presser today.

Regardless, I thought that LE were very gracious about giving credit to AWP, and not being overly defensive about the criticisms they are receiving from the media and public.

I don't think they have any reason to be defensive, but it is just human nature that some defensive responses would occur in light of the media's questions. The LE representative who responded to most of the questions is a good communicator and was really not defensive but remained gracious about the assistance provided by AWP and yet firm about the quality and quantity of work that LE from various divisions dedicated to this case with genuine compassion toward the family and community.

 

[CuriousObserver1]

It just occurred to me that they have not identified keily as the person in the car, however they made a point to draw attention to her necklaces and jewelry earlier in the case...I'm wondering if her necklaces were on the body or in the vehicle when it was found....also I'm curious if her cell phone was in the vehicle?

Sadly I think the only reason they have not positively/officially identified her is only due to decomposition and how a body is sadly changed after being in water for 2 weeks, not that they have any doubt it is her. I assume procedure will mean in a situation like this they have to do tests (dental / dna) before officially announcing it is her, the family may have been even advised they should not try to identify her by sight as it might be too distressing

 

[carbuff]

It wasn't a fruitless search. They found her. They FOUND her. Thousands of families around the country wondering why their loved one never came home can tell you that just that is a kind of miracle.

 

[Beekarina]

It wasn't a fruitless search. They found her. They FOUND her. Thousands of families around the country wondering why their loved one never came home can tell you that just that is a kind of miracle.

So very true! Thinking of all the long cold cases from the 1970s I usually frequent here. Kiley's situation is not the outcome anyone wants, but how terrible it must be for months, years, decades to tick past and you never know if your loved one is gone or still out there? The families who live with that, just so horribly sad...and why I usually feel pulled to those threads.

 

[wary]

I, too, noticed the hesitation, but think that perhaps the question threw him for a loop and he had to think about it for a second to process it.

And I believe that they did not want to answer any questions that’d relate to the investigation of how this happened. (Note how they didn’t answer the question of what gear the car was in.)

So, it took him a moment to decide that this was actually a question he could answer.

MOO

 

[franker]

Sadly I think the only reason they have not positively/officially identified her is only due to decomposition and how a body is sadly changed after being in water for 2 weeks, not that they have any doubt it is her. I assume procedure will mean in a situation like this they have to do tests (dental / dna) before officially announcing it is her, the family may have been even advised they should not try to identify her by sight as it might be too distressing

Absolutely. ITA with that.

 

[glamourkitty1922]

Yes, and courts, jails, etc. But if you read the budget, more $ has been allocated to LE in recent years than in past years for marijuana enforcement vs any kind of budget cut. My point is that I don't think that Nevada County LE is underfunded by any means.

The vast majority of police depts don't have dive teams and sonar equipment. That has never been a big part of law enforcement. Even some Game and Fish depts don't have sonar equipment. Now, the FBI does have all that and most law enforcement agencies depend on them. Lack of sonar isn't a sign of underfunding but just that sonar work isn't something they do often enough to be experts. If you watch Adventures With Purpose you'll see that sonar takes a lot of time to become expert since cars can resemble boulders. I am very impressed with AWP. <modsnip - off topic> MOO

 

[Centaurus]

Maybe each state (or even region) should have a specialized team similar to AWP that can be dispatched when needed... rather than each department having to try to budget for that?

 

[tlcya]

I, too, noticed the hesitation, but think that perhaps the question threw him for a loop and he had to think about it for a second to process it.

Agree, I believe he was thrown, as in, "there are no other missing or unaccounted for individuals so why would they be asking about other bodies or more than one body?" sort of thinking before then answering.

 

[steeltowngirl]

I think LE was in a bad spot with this case and did the best they could.

Several local agencies were having to coordinate, it was an extremely high profile case and they had a rabid public eye staring them down, they had inexperienced civilians close to the case basically holding their own press conferences, witnesses were drinking and may have made errors/conflicts in their statements (and IMO kind of fomenting the hype that partygoers wouldn’t talk to LE, in a way - MOO). And, yes, there were egos involved. At times it felt more like a a race than a search. This was a whole *clusterfork.*

Water searches are *really* hard. The water levels may have changed. There were three bodies of water to consider in the vicinity of the party. And if LE had searched the water for days and neglected to follow up on abduction theories, had she actually turned out to have been abducted, folks would have been coming for their heads then too, so they had to broaden their search.

The goal was to bring Kiely home alive. If you weren’t sure whether she went into the water the night of the party, it would be more urgent to allocate resources at that point to ensure that you also followed up on leads that could do that. I believe LE did what they could to run down those leads in proper order, and they welcomed assistance from individual volunteers and volunteer search organizations when appropriate. Finding her sooner would have brought sooner closure, but it still would not have brought Kiely back.

It seems a little tacky to me that people are saying that LE discouraged them from searching Prosser—if they wanted to discourage them, they could have simply prevented it, saying it was an active investigation. LE did not do that. LE has to preserve chain of custody for evidence, and ensure evidence is preserved in the event of a criminal case. Not trivial when you have a body, and a vehicle, missing in a body of water—they can’t just have folks willy-nilly dragging the lake. IMHO, it is extraordinary that they allowed a non-LE search group in this soon (AWP normally only does cases that have long gone cold). It speaks to the evolving nature of these searches, and the democratization, in a way, of search processes; they can’t keep amateurs out, so they’re going to have to adapt and learn to utilize the best ones as resources. Thank goodness AWP are the best at what they do.

I have a feeling that state and federal agencies are going to be stepping up their games with training on side sonar/search technologies, and possibly evolve contractors/consultant bases for swifter search response going forward. If one group of folks can train themselves to perform these searches successfully, others can too, especially with help from folks who are specialized already.

The upshot: A child died at a popular local recreation spot after attending an annual graduation celebration, after she was drinking with friends and was left there to drive herself home… and it took two weeks longer to find her than folks would have preferred. I feel sorry for everyone close to this thing—every last one of the people close to this thing are all hurting.

This is an outcome no one wanted, least of all Kiely’s family and loved ones, but I feel LE tried hard to find her under very trying circumstances. They are surely broken up about what happened and questioning their actions etc., including not knowing about or not policing the party. Bad things sometimes happen to good people. I believe everyone in that community is going to be reeling from the fallout over this tragedy for a long time to come.

ETA: sorry, screed over, just feel everyone did the best they could.

Excellent post!

 

[RedHaus]

Does it look like there was a side impact to the car below that window? I guess we don't know where the car went in and it could have hit on that side rolling in somewhere. There are still a lot of things that don't add up. I don't see any damage to the front of the vehicle.

Yes, @Truckeeite. Your comment spurred an idea that could be possible I guess.

What if KR realized at the last minute that she was about to go into water. She might have instinctively tried to make a hard turn to the right to avoid the water. In doing so, on a soft surface like sand (or grass) you have a very high probability of flipping a car. To that point, I wonder if the broken driver window, broken driver's side view mirror and dent on the driver's side indicate a roll on ground and then into the water? Such an event could have knocked her unconscious.

And to take that idea further, I wonder if what is cordoned off on the beach is an indentation of say, a side mirror?

That said, I'd think we'd see more damage on the left side of the car if it had rolled first. Just trying to think this through.

 

[ArmChairDet]

Maybe each state (or even region) should have a specialized team similar to AWP that can be dispatched when needed... rather than each department having to try to budget for that?

Private sector will always outperform public sector.