An apparent breakthrough in the case of missing 16-year-old Kiely Rodni, though it confirms the worst fears, as an independent rescue team says they found the teenager in her missing car at the bottom of a lake near Truckee.
Update, 12:55 p.m.: Law enforcement authoriries said in a Monday press conference that they suspect the body found is Kiely Rodni. Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said, "We believe it is our missing person. We have not been able to positively identify, but it’s more than likely where we are today.” She added, “It’s still an active investigation.”
Original Story, 10:46 a.m.: It was 16 days into the sudden disappearance of 16-year-old Kiely Rodni, a Truckee teen who’d last been seen at a large party at Prosser Family Campgrounds, that an independent search team made a stunning Sunday announcement. The Chronicle reports that this independent search and discovery dive team says it found “what it believed to be Kiely’s body in an upside-down car in 14 feet of water in Prosser Reservoir, about 5 miles north of Truckee.”
“WE JUST FOUND KIELY RODNI,” the independent search group Adventures with a Purpose said in a Sunday afternoon Facebook announcement. “Car is upside down in only 14' of water. We have CONFIRMED Kiely is inside. Family Notified. Law Enforcement on their way.”
The Placer County Sheriff's Office is being a little more measured, but are promising an update and an 11 a.m. press conference Monday morning. “The identity of the decedent has not been confirmed,” that office said in a subsequent Sunday Facebook post. “This is a developing situation, and we will provide updates when we can.”
The independent search group Adventures with Purpose is an Oregon-based dive team that volunteers to help solve cold cases. They already held their own press conference Monday morning, seen above, where they say they “detected an object underwater using cutting edge Garmin sonar technology.” They add they detected a “vehicle in only 14 feet or water,” and say the details match Rodni and her vehicle’s description.
We’ll know more as of the Placer County Sheriff's Office’s 11 a.m. announcement, and will update this post with any new information.
Related: Search for Missing Truckee Teen Drawing National Attention Four Days After Her Disappearance [SFist]
Image: Placer County Sheriff’s Office via Facebook
