Kiely Rodni After graduating highschool early, Kiely Rodni headed off to a celebration with friends in the Tahoe National Forest. In the early morning hours of August 6th, 2022, investigators say she left a campground party… and was never seen again. Kiely was smart and talented with a loving family and lots of friends.
She was looking forward to starting college in the next few weeks and was happy to spend some time with friends before saying her goodbyes. No one knew that some simple fun at a campground, so close to home, could end so badly. Locals and law enforcement alike showed up in strong numbers to locate Kiely, but no one could be prepared for what they found.
[INTRO] Friday, August 5th, 2022, was a beautiful day in the Tahoe National Forest, hosting clear views of Mount Shasta in the distance. Wildflowers were blooming, following the wildfires of summers past, dotting the landscape with purple and yellow hues. Summertime was ending, and people were squeezing in the last few days of seasonal fun before heading back to school.
Kiely Rodni had just graduated high school early, and with honors – that’s no easy feat! She was due to attend Sierra College in the coming weeks and her family couldn’t be more proud. On Friday, August 5th, she spent time with her friends making Crème Brulé; later, she had plans to take part in a summer send-off party at Prosser campground, which is about a forty-minute drive from Reno, not far from the state line, but it was only about 15 minutes from Kiely’s home.
Prosser campground is located on a large reservoir and is commonly known to locals as The Sanctuary. This was the perfect place for friends to have one last hurrah before going off to college for new adventures. The following morning, around 9 am on August 6th, Kiely had made plans to meet her closest friends… but she never showed.
It would turn out that Friday, August 5th, is the last day anyone saw Kiely. Kiely was born and raised in Truckee, California. Her parents, Lindsey and Daniel were loving and dedicated parents. She also had an eight-year-old brother who thought she was the best person on earth.
Kiely and her family lived in a more rural area of Truckee, and some would describe it as more “off-grid” although many locals in the mountain towns of California live this way. For Kiely, this was just her ordinary way of life, she was known for being a very happy person, so it was clear that her more ‘off-grid’ lifestyle was panning out great for her. As the weekend finally rolled around, Kiely couldn’t have been more excited to attend the canpground party with her friends.
At around 6pm on the 5th of August, Kiely set out towards the party, with her parents never realizing… they’d never see their daughter again. [The Party] Shortly after 6 pm on the 5th, Kiely goes into a gas station in Truckee, about halfway between her home and the party’s location, where surveillance cameras captured footage of her browsing the store.
A couple of hours later, close to 10 PM, Kiely arrives at the campground with her friend Magdeline, and she then links up with another friend, Sami Smith. Sami and Kiely spent most of their time at the party together, sharing drinks and breaking off briefly to chat with others. While this was supposed to be a tight-knit gathering of local teens, word about this campground party traveled fast, and soon, people from all over northern California were making their way to Prosser to attend.
Reports state that anywhere from 200-300 people were in attendance that night. Due to the tendency for wildfires in this area, the partygoers could not light a bonfire, meaning that unless there were other sources of light, the area was pitch black. It has been said that many people used glow sticks, electric lanterns, and their headlights to illuminate the area.
Kiely and her group of friends had, of course, attended parties like this before. Kiely’s mom trusted her daughter and had told news outlets that she never, ever drank and drove. Kiely was both smarter than that and incredibly responsible. Kiely’s friends have backed up this statement saying they never saw Kiely drink at a party and then drive afterward. Thus, Lindsey had no qualms about letting Kiely attend.
At around 11 pm, the girls walked to Kiely’s silver Honda CRV to charge Kiely’s phone. They sat there and talked for some time, sharing a few drinks; part of the conversation included Sami asking for a ride home that evening. At around 11:30 pm Lindsey says she received a text from Kiely saying that she was about to leave the party and was headed straight home.
Lindsey, who had witnessed Kiely’s hard work to graduate early with honors, trusted her daughter to be home when she said she would be there. She had no doubt in her mind that Kiely would be home shortly. Lindsey texted her back telling Kiely to be safe and that she loved her. Kiely’s response was “ok, I love you too.” Between 11:30 PM and 12:20 AM, Sami decides that Kiely is too intoxicated to drive her home and arranges another ride.
The two girls parted ways, Sami telling authorities that she said her goodbyes with Kiely at 12:25 AM. Minutes later, at 12:36, Sami explained that she received another call from Kiely inquiring about her ride. Sami says she could hear talking in the background, so she believed Kiely to still be at the party, but she couldn’t be sure. Unbeknownst to Sami, this would be the last time anyone spoke to Kiely.
[Missing person report] Lindsey woke up the next morning to discover that Kiely was not in her room and that her vehicle was not parked outside. After she’d been unable to get ahold of her after a few calls, she instantly phoned the police and reported that Kiely was missing.
But the police did not issue an Amber alert. They said that there was no evidence that Kiely had been abducted. They went to the area where the party was held to conduct a search and interviewed about one-third of the partygoers. Investigators urged more people who attended the party to come forward, but many of the attendees were skeptical about speaking with authorities.
Most of them were about to start college and were fearful that the repercussions from their activities at the party would ruin their future in some way. The police were vocal about the fact that no one would be in any trouble for things that happened at the party, they just wanted to find Kiely, but this wasn’t enough to sway the minds of the partygoers. Most of them remained tight-lipped.
Word traveled fast about Kiely’s disappearance but despite there being over 200 people in attendance, no one reported seeing anything. Yet both Kiely and her vehicle were missing. How was that possible? Surely someone would have seen something. Sami decided to host a meeting with everyone who attended the party that night – no detectives were allowed at this meeting, in hopes that speaking with peers and friends would put them more at ease, but still, nothing new came from it. Sami told authorities several times that
she was the last person to see Kiely. Sami and other girlfriends of Kiely were vocal about the pushy older guys at the party that were creeping them out, and this is when Sami and the other friends decided to leave. This caused many people to raise their eyebrows… Why would a group of girlfriends leave one friend behind if they knew she had been drinking and that there were older men in attendance who were making these young girls feel uneasy? Even though Sami reported that there were “hundreds” of photos and videos of that night, not
a single one gave any evidence to Kiely’s state of mind or whereabouts, police were simply at a loss. Finally, days after Kiely’s initial disappearance, investigators were able to confirm the last time her phone connected to cellular data was at 12:33 am – which would’ve been about the time she spoke with Sami on the phone.
So whatever happened just seconds after that phone call… Well, it couldn’t have been good. Police now had their first and only lead, and the search for Kiely was officially on. [The Investigation] Sami quickly became crucial to the investigation, having spent so much time with Kiely the night she disappeared, and went on to do several media interviews.
When asked during an interview about what she believed happened to her friend, Sami says she thinks that, quote, “somebody knew she was drunk, offered to give her a ride home, but didn’t give her a ride home.” Another initial theory is that she crashed somewhere on her way home. This area is mountainous, and the roads can be difficult to navigate, especially if you’re an inexperienced driver who has been drinking and it’s the middle of the night.
For any of you who may have never driven through the mountains, let me just say – some of these mountain roads can even be hard to navigate in broad daylight. Adding drinks into the mix, as well as the darkness of night, well it’s a recipe for disaster. Sami Smith cooperated with the investigation, as did Kiely’s reported ex-boyfriend, Jagger.
But media interviews with Sami and Jagger presented the public with discrepancies. Speculation circulated about the relationship between Kiely, Sami, and Jagger. Many reported that Sami and Kiely were not as close as Sami had led the police to believe. At the time of her disappearance, Kiely and Sami weren’t even friends on social media, but internet sleuths discovered that Sami and Jagger were.
With Sami and Jagger requesting via social media that all in-person leads be directed to them, instead of to the authorities, so that they could, quote, “filter information,” well, many started to get the feeling that something much more sinister had occurred. This, coupled with what many believe to be suspicious behavior, led to the belief that the girl claiming to be friends with Kiely… may have something to do with her disappearance.
Following Jagger’s public request that he be contacted with leads, the Placer County Sheriff’s Department released a statement via Twitter on August 11th, saying that they never instructed Jagger to collect witness reports or testimony. They emphasized that all information be relayed directly to them. This only increased public suspicion around Jagger and Sami.
As photo and video footage from the party started surfacing, it was sent over to be reviewed by the authorities. By August 12, 2022, the search for Kiely Rodni intensified. Authorities and volunteers extensively searched her last known location as well as her home, looking for anything that might lead them to finding Kiely.
In a town hall meeting the week after her disappearance, the Placer County Sheriff’s office outlined their extensive searches. Officials told new outlets that they had searched as far north as Sierraville and as far east as Verdi. To the south, they searched all around Truckee and extended beyond the Jackson Meadows Reservoir to the west – about a 25-mile radius from her last known location.
People from the area volunteering in the search explained they didn’t believe Kiely, or her car, was still in the Tahoe National Forest, which stretches over 800,000 miles. This is a vast and scenic area, with a diverse landscape ranging from rugged peaks and dense forests to immaculate lakes and rivers – Kiely could’ve been anywhere, but the search team felt confident that, if she was in the forest, they would’ve found her by now.
Due to conflicting information about Kiely’s relationships with Jagger, Sami, and other partygoers, many were left thinking the worst, but hoping for the best. All the while, authorities continued to piece things together bit by bit. At a press conference on August 12th, law enforcement informed the public that they had received reports from people inside the community that there was an adult dissuading people from coming forward, prompting officials to open a 100% anonymous online portal where people could submit photos, videos, and other information concerning
Kiely’s disappearance. By this point, this case was just getting downright bizarre. It seemed exceedingly clear that someone knew something, and they were going to every possible effort to make sure that this information didn’t get out. By August 13th, law enforcement held another press conference where Public Information Officer, Angela Musallam, explained that they had “ramped up their search for the weekend.
” She explained that on August 12th, there was a potential burial site that was located near the campground that had been found by a search and rescue ground team in the area. She continued, saying that Kiely’s family was notified, and the FBI had responded to the scene, accompanied by Placer and Nevada County Sheriff’s offices; where upon further examination, they uncovered the remains of a dog.
Angela went on to address the audience by saying, “Let me be clear, we have one team, one mission, and one goal, and that is to find Kiely Rodni.” As the ninth day of the missing person investigation came to an end, the Placer County Sheriff’s office continued to follow up on 720 leads, looking for a single tip to lead them in the right direction.
Meanwhile, people across the nation continued to speculate about what happened to Kiely, sitting on the edge of their seats and waiting for the next clue. Occam’s Razor says that it’s usually the simplest answer, but with an accident looking less likely with each passing day, what is the next simplest answer? What else could cause someone to vanish without a trace from a crowded party? For a little over two weeks Kiely’s family had to go to sleep each night not knowing where their precious daughter was, her friends faced accusations from strangers all over the nation, and police worked tirelessly to find
the young missing girl. But then… a breakthrough. [The recovery mission] On August 21st, 2022, search and rescue YouTubers, Adventures with Purpose, pulled Kiely Rodni’s silver CRV from the Prosser Reservoir. Adventures with Purpose is a YouTube channel that focuses primarily on cold cases. They specialize in underwater recoveries.
When Kiely initially went missing, many familiar with their recoveries requested they join the search for the missing girl, and the team were happy to oblige. AWP states that a law enforcement agency reached out to them and asked for their help. Yet, when they arrived, they were told that the lake had already been extensively searched with dive teams and that there was nothing in there.
The search began in the Prosser Reservoir at 10:40 AM on August 21st. They launched two sonar boats, one of which located an object at 11:15 AM 55 feet offshore and in only 14 feet of water, using a specialized Garmin Sonar device. Nick, one of their divers, entered the water and confirmed the vehicle was the one belonging to Kiely Rodni by matching the license plate.
A diver was then sent down, and unfortunately, he found a body inside the cargo area of the vehicle. According to Adventures with Purpose, The Garmin ECHOMAP Ultra that they used to locate dthe vehicle costs around $2,500 – a small investment for a police force of this size. It appears to be a solid investment for search and rescue teams.
So if this technology is crucial for underwater searches, and a simple YouTube channel managed to purchase one, why are search and rescue teams in the area not using it? The FBI must have the latest technology, so why were they unable to find the vehicle in the two weeks they helped local agencies in the search? After making the discovery, AWP made a Facebook post about the recovery mission.
The team maintains that they reached out to law enforcement first, as they were working with them to locate Kiely, but at the press conference the following day, the spokesperson for the Sheriff’s department stated that AWP never reached out to them and that the police had to go out of their way to contact the team.
Due to the amazing reputation of AWP, people have been skeptical about this information, with some believing that local law enforcement were embarrassed by their oversight. The discovery of Kiely’s vehicle was devastating to her family and the community, but even worse was when police made the haunting announcement… the body found in the back of the car was, unfortunately, Kiely.
Most would assume that this would be the end of it, case closed. But things continued to get weirder from here, as people began to question local law enforcement and their efforts in finding Kiely. Doug and Nick of Adventures with Purpose stress that they have a unique and “rare” skill set, and that aiding police agencies in this way is an honor. They acknowledge their support for law enforcement across the US, including the FBI.
But as the news of the discovery surfaced, many people following the case began to wonder: how could the men from Adventures with Purpose do in less than two hours what several agencies, large and small, could not accomplish in two weeks? Adventures with Purpose discovered Kiely’s vehicle upside down in an area that had been “extensively searched” by authorities.
This led many to question the competence of local law enforcement – and rightfully so! Especially since a trail camera in the area shows that at 12:32 am on August 6th, a vehicle drove straight into the water where Kiely was found, and at the exact location of her last cell phone ping. The local police department said that they spent over 15,000 man-hours searching for Kiely, only for another team to come in and find her in less than 2 hours hour, in the same spot where her phone last pinged. Aerial views of the location clearly show something in
the water where they recovered her vehicle and body, so if there were air searches conducted, how was this missed? If she drove her vehicle into the water, it would have driven through the sand. How were those tracks missed when her mom reported her missing the very next morning – less than 12 hours after she’d vanished.
Doug Bishop from AWP went on to state in an interview that he found the circumstances “extremely suspicious.” He cites many of the things already discussed, that she was highly intelligent, on her way to college, and disappears from a large party only to be found a few hundred yards away. He explains that it isn’t possible that Kiely went the wrong way down the road.
He explains that this road was one way in and one way out, not to mention a road that she was very familiar with. Yet the road her vehicle ended up on had on a very hard, sharp left turn onto a rough dirt road that requires four-wheel drive.
Essentially, whether she was drunk or not, Kiely would have known immediately that she wasn’t going the right way, making her crash even more suspicious. Doug Bishop explains that where she was found within the vehicle – in the cargo compartment – was also suspicious, and that “the whole thing just doesn’t add up.” The fact that no one is willing to talk is a huge red flag and adds to the suspicion.
While this very well could be an accident, there are many inconsistencies in this story. Her friends stated that she seemed too drunk to drive and reported strange men at the party, but had no problem leaving her there alone? She clearly and coherently texted her mother, yet thirty minutes later was too inebriated to know she was going the wrong way down a road she had traveled many times before? Law enforcement searched extensively but couldn’t locate a vehicle that was clearly seen from aerial cameras? It just doesn’t add up.
Bishop also says that it’s suspicious that Kiely was located in the cargo area of the vehicle. He explains that, had the windows been up, Kiely probably would have had time to crawl back there, but why she would do that… Well, we don’t know. But the thing is, when the vehicle was recovered, multiple windows were rolled down.
This means the vehicle would have filled with water so quickly that she wouldn’t have had time to maneuver back there, and why would she? She could so easily have maneuvered out of the window to safety. The fact that she became stuck in the back of the car just makes no logical sense whatsoever. News reports claim that over 400 people pass away each year due to their cars being trapped in water.
Your best chance of survival is to get out of the car before it is fully submerged. Most cars, when driven into the water, are fully submerged in less than a minute, so every second counts. Experts explain that your best bet is to get the windows down as soon as possible and escape through the front windows – not the rear. But in Kiley’s case, this raises more questions.
Kiely’s driver window, along with other windows, appear to have been down when the vehicle was pulled from the water, yet it has been reported that she was located in the back-most portion of her vehicle. Furthermore, the driver’s side mirror was broken off and there is a dent in the driver’s side door – neither of these were here when she left her home that evening, so where did this damage come from? Footage of several other vehicles that were recovered from water show no damage to mirrors or doors. So, what happened to Kiely’s vehicle? If there were over 200 people in attendance,
how did no one hear the vehicle go into the water? While there is so much that is still unknown, Kiely’s autopsy report soon revealed the truth of this case, and it’s a truth that many of us… are unlikely to accept. [The Autopsy] The autopsy report was released Thursday October 13th, 2022, in which the cause of Kiely’s passing was declared an accident. The official report claims she drowned.
Locals find this conclusion… surprising, to put it mildly. They cite suspicions due to the chief of police and the coroner being one in the same. They say that many crimes in the area are covered up or declared an accident because this is a tourist location, and having a reputation for crime would be bad for the local economy. I second this notion.
In fact, this is one of the main reasons my wife and I left our hometown. In the few months before we packed up and moved, we personally spotted – firsthand – three crime scenes where people had lost their lives. One beside an apartment complex, one in a ditch on the side of a major highway, and another where the location escapes me at the moment.
But not one of these crimes was ever officially documented – they were all covered up because the town was a tourist destination. The money from tourism is what kept the city afloat, and they couldn’t risk losing all that money. The autopsy report says that Kiley was fully dressed and that there was no evidence of any assault.
The toxicology report showed that caffeine, nicotine, and minuscule amounts of THC were in Kiely’s system. Liver tissue samples taken showed that there was alcohol in her system with a BAC of .08, right at the legal limit to drive. But many experts claim that the ethanol levels in her system were likely a result of the decomposition process.
This leaves people questioning if Kiely was drunk at all. Roads in this area are not lit with street lamps, they are winding dirt paths that aren’t well-marked. Is it possible that, despite Kiely having been to this area many times, she took a wrong turn and drove herself directly into the water? If so, what prevented her from climbing out of her already open window? The most interesting element of the autopsy report is that there was no water in her lungs.
A medical examiner explained that the lung weights were “surprisingly low for a case of water inhalation.” One would expect that if a person passed away from drowning, there would be water in the lungs – but there wasn’t nearly enough to conclude such a thing. Detective Sonnier reported that, because there was no evidence of foul play, the manner of her passing had to be listed as accidental.
I don’t know about you, but to me, this just means that the team didn’t dig deep enough to find the evidence they needed – I mean, heck, they clearly have a track record for this. Her vehicle was found in a spot that they claim to have searched multiple times. In the end, there is a hole in the lives of Kiely’s friends and family… that will never be filled.
Worse yet, they’eve never even been able to find out for certain what happened to Kiely, and I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be able to let a situation like this rest until I had some proven answers. But despite this incredibly heavy loss, I just hope this serves as a remarkably valuable lesson, to never leave a friend behind. This tragedy could have been avoided — but from it, there are lessons to be learned – for law enforcement, for party-goers, and for the true crime community.
Kiely didn’t have to lose her life that night, but I sincerely hope that the story of her loss may, in some way, help prevent others from meeting the same fate. – Thank you guys for tuning into another episode of True Crime Stories. If you enjoyed this video, check out this other interesting case I covered – don’t forget to like and subscribe.
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