Two divers did what police couldn’t do….find the missing California teen Kiely Rodni.
The divers said they found a body and an overturned car in the reservoir near where she was last seen more than two weeks ago.
A dive crew found what they believe is the 2013 Honda CRV that Rodni, 16, drove to a graduation party near the lake out of Prosser Creek Reservoir Sunday afternoon.
The diver who discovered the vehicle under the water said, “The license plate matches the plate of the Honda Rodni was driving at the time of her disappearance.”
However, police are not immediately identify the body and releasing information at this time. A spokeswoman for Rodni’s family said they had not confirmed the body was the teen’s.
The Placer County Sherriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, and Truckee police were all at the site with a flatbed tow truck while two police divers suited up.
Rodni was last seen at the park in Truckee, California, on Aug. 6. Fellow partygoers had said that she had been drinking at the party.
Dive crew ‘Adventures With Purpose’ was recruited by law enforcement for the probe and began searching the reservoir Sunday.
The Oregon-based crew of six divers gave it another go in hopes of finding any sign of Rodni, after at least three police dive teams have already scouted the reservoir.
The divers searched nearly every body of water near Truckee before searching the water closest to where the party was held one final time.
The team had been told by law enforcement on the ground that the body of water had already been searched thoroughly, but they decided to check one more time just to be absolutely sure.
“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.”
Within a few minutes of diving under the murky water, one of the team members, Nick Rinn, 48, 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 said. “Then I came out, we called the family and authorities and let them take it from there.”
Rinn said, “I first spotted the car, which you couldn’t see from the surface by our sonar machines. Once I got in the water and dove under, I was about 14 feet deep and that’s when I saw it.”
“Our sonar showed an object bigger than a rock that shouldn’t have been there,” Cantu said, adding that sonar tech can miss large objects if operators aren’t properly trained. “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 added.
“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.”
The car and body were found about 20 to 40 feet from the water’s edge near a section of Prosser Family Campground where the party was held. The area is known to locals as “The Sanctuary” and overlooks the Prosser Creek Reservoir.
Earlier in the day, another member of the dive team said that locating a vehicle would make the search for Rodni easier.
“If there’s a car in here, it will be easy for us to find,” said diver Doug Bishop, 39. “To hide a body is one thing, to conceal a vehicle is entirely different.”
Bishop said his team on Saturday already cleared everything in Truckee, including all the little ponds, based on confidential information they received in regards to Rodni’s disappearance.
The six divers in the AWP crew first spent four hours imaging the surface of the reservoir in two inflatable boats kitted out with sonar to get a better sense of what they were up against.
The team also surveyed the reservoir from a hot air balloon.
“Obviously it’s a double-edged sword,” Rinn said about finally finding the car and body. “It’s something you don’t want to find in this type of scenario, but at the same time, it’s good to bring some answers for family and law enforcement.”
In the past two-and-a-half years, AWP said it has solved 23 cold cases and found around 500 vehicles underwater, 187 of which they have recovered.
“This is a completely different scale of resources applied to the case already,” Bishop said.
Private investigator Stephen Fischer, 52, who has been voluntarily searching for the missing teen, said that he broke the news that a car and body had been found to Rodni’s father and grandfather.
“I feel horrible for this family,” he said, choking back tears. “They’re heartbroken.”
A day earlier, the teen’s family asked for privacy and said they are not speaking with the media.
“It is in our hearts that you are out there and we will find you and bring you home,” the family said in a statement about Kiely on Saturday.
Investigators had feared Rodni might have been abducted and conducted a sweep of registered sex offenders in the Lake Tahoe region as part of the missing person case.
My prayers for her family & friends! May she Rest In Peace by the lords side now.