California authorities said they believe that the remains of Kiely Rodni, a missing 16-year-old early high school graduate, have been recovered from a reservoir near where she was last seen more than two weeks ago.
“We recovered the vehicle; we recovered the vehicle last night” Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said in a news conference. “We have located a decedent inside the vehicle. We believe it is our missing person. We have not been able to positively identify, but it’s more than likely.”
The investigation is still active, she added.
The sheriff’s department announcement comes a day after a volunteer dive team said it found her missing 2013 Honda CRV in 14 feet of water with a body inside.
Adventures with Purpose, a group with a popular YouTube channel that assists in missing persons cases, announced on Facebook that they found Rodni’s vehicle upside down in 14 feet of water with a body inside. Law enforcement previously searched the area by plane, helicopter, boat and with divers.
The vehicle was found in the reservoir upside down, Capt. Troy Sander said at the briefing, in an area that had already been “extensively searched” and was very close to where Rodni had last been seen. He said that investigators would look into the initial miss during debriefing.
Police arrived at the reservoir later and pulled the light-colored SUV out of the water, but authorities held off on official confirmation throughout the evening. Images of the vehicle show it has front-end features that resemble those of Rodni’s missing Honda.
She was last seen late on Aug. 5 or early Aug. 6 at the party – which involved between 200 and 300 juveniles and young adults, according to authorities.
There were drugs and alcohol present.
Extensive searches of the surrounding area by land, air and boat turned up nothing until AWP arrived over the weekend to assist.
Authorities said the reservoir’s water level dropped more than three feet since Aug. 6 when Rodni went missing
Authorities last week said they had interviewed “most” of the out-of-town visitors who attended the party, which was a high school graduation sendoff for students from different high schools around the area north of Lake Tahoe. Some guests were visiting the vacation community from as far as the Bay Area.
An autopsy was scheduled, authorities said. Toxicology results could take four to six weeks to come bac
