The tragedy is now official. Over the weekend a search party found what was believed to be the submerged vehicle of missing California teen Kiely Rodni. Sadly that has been confirmed by an autopsy.
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office released a statement on Tuesday with the sad news:
“Today, an autopsy was conducted on the deceased individual who was found in the Prosser Reservoir on Sunday, August 21st. The Nevada County Sheriff-Coroner has identified the decedent as 16-year-old Kiely Rodni, of Truckee.”
They added compassionately:
“The Placer County Sheriff’s Office and the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office are in communication with Kiely’s family and offer our deepest condolences to them during this extremely difficult time.”
The 16-year-old went missing on August 6 after attending a high school party in the woods near the Prosser Family campground, not far from Lake Tahoe.
Related: Kiely’s Family Breaks Silence After Teen’s Body Apparently Found
Police departments from all the surrounding areas pitched in to help find the teen, but ultimately, after two weeks, it was the volunteer dive team from the YouTube channel Adventures with Purpose who were able to locate Kiely’s vehicle submerged in the reservoir.
While Kiely and her car have been found, it’s still unclear what happened. The full autopsy results have not been released, so we still don’t know if this was just a horrible car accident… or if something happened, and the vehicle and body were dumped in the reservoir.
The sheriff’s office added only:
“This is an ongoing investigation, and no other information is available at this time.”
We’ll be keeping our ears to the ground for more. Kiely may have been found, but this case is not over.
[Image via FindKiely.com.]