Kiely Rodni has been found deceased

THIS BLOG IS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER – SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR UPDATES

Kiely Rodni is a 16 year old female who has been missing since just after midnight on August 6, 2022 – a Saturday.

She was last known to be at a party in Truckee, in Northern California. There were allegedly hundreds of people at this party. During the final contact with her family, she told her mother that she would be home soon. She never arrived and her vehicle is also missing.

Before we get into Kiely’s story, here is some background on her life.

Kiely was living in Truckee with her mother Lindsey Rodni-Nieman and her younger brother Shep (8). I think her father is Daniel Rodni and step-father is Tony Nieman.

Kiely was an early high-school graduate. She skipped a year of school and graduated in June from the Truckee public school Forest Charter. She planned to attend Sierra College this fall, her family said.

“She’s funny and she’s smart and she’s interested in so many different things. She loves playing music. She has since she was a little girl. She loves — of course, being a teenager — she loves being with her friends. She’s so interested in science and in medicine and in cooking,” her mother Lindsey said. “She taught herself how to make chocolate cakes from scratch when she was young, and they’re actually good.”

In terms of a timeline of this case, there is actually surprisingly little confirmed information for such a high profile disappearance.

What we do know, is that according to the Independent, Kiely had planned with her mother to goto a car show in Reno on Friday August 5.

“There was this classic car show in Reno – she’s so dynamic she loves everything from playing the violin to car shows – and so she was maybe going to see some drag races with us there,” she said.

Kiely texted Lindsey during that day to change the plans, and told her mother that she was planning to goto a party at the Prosser Family Campground instead.

Kiely was captured on CCTV on the night of August 5, at 6.08pm which is around 5 hours before she disappeared.

She is wearing the clothes she had on at the party: green Dickies pants, a black spaghetti-strap bodysuit and black Vans shoes.

After Kiely left the business, she at some point borrowed a hoodie from a friend, so she was wearing that at the party.

Interestingly, there is some printing on the hoodie that says :

“You don’t want to be forgotten. You just want to disappear.”

The quote is from a poem entitled “Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving” by Lana Del Rey.

It isn’t known if Kiely was actually wearing the hoodie when she disappeared but it was in her possession.

After Kiely was seen on CCTV, the timeline is a bit murky. There were apparently hundreds of teens at the party she attended – some reports say up to 300.

A lot of the info in this case comes from a teen named Sami Smith- allegedly Kiely’s best friend. They were both at the party together.

Sami told the media that “a lot of sketchy, older guys that were seen there.” – about the party.

Kiely was said to be intoxicated when she was last seen.

Some random guy called Ronnie Jones has been speaking to the media – so maybe take this with a grain of salt, but interesting if true.

“I have two cousins, they go to Sierra College, and they were going up to that party.”

He said his cousins saw Kiely there chatting with different groups of people, appearing to be having fun as she socialized. “I asked, ‘Well how drunk was she?’ And they said, ‘Well, she was stumbling around,'” claiming there was no way she could have driven.

“The dudes who come out there, the older guys, they have the shrooms and the cocaine. And then the kids go hang out with that group,” Ronnie said. “I can’t say for sure she participated [in substances] but that’s what was there for a fact.”

“I asked them, I said did you see anything weird going on, was anyone looking at her funny? But they were like ‘No, everyone was just chill, but everyone was kind of messed up, and so was she.’

“There was no way she could have drove.

“That was basically all I knew from that, and then they told me there was some other stuff but they can’t really talk about that, that’s basically all that they knew. She was really drunk and there was tons of drugs, not just drinking. They were doing blow [cocaine] openly.

“And it wasn’t just a teen party, there were a lot of adults there, mid 20s, dudes who were way older there than 16.”

“The dudes who come out there, the older guys, they have the shrooms and the cocaine. And then the kids go hang out with that group, the older dudes, because they’re giving them the blow, and hooking them up with stuff they can’t really afford because they don’t really have the money of it, cocaine is pretty expensive.

“Most of the guys, they always wanna give it to the girls, they give them free lines, but then they want you to kick it with them, like, ‘Hey, come do a line with me, come do a line with me’. That’s how it goes, that’s how those parties are.

“There’s no telling what could have happened. But I do know she was messed up, that’s a fact. So if they tried to word it nicely … no, she was sh**faced.

Sami has told the media that Kiely was intoxicated, so much so that she didn’t think Kiely would have been able to drive.

“I know that she wasn’t in the right mindset or state to drive. And if she were to have driven, she wouldn’t have made it far. “

Sami said that she and Kiely were drinking from the same containers, doing shots, and went back to her car together to charge Kiely’s phone at one point, right before Kiely vanished.

She said Kiely “was telling her mom she was going to be the designated driver because that’s how she was going out to the party, giving an alibi so that her mom didn’t freak out and say, ‘I want you home earlier.'”

“She planned on getting drunk and getting f***ed up. I asked her earlier on in the night if she could take me home, but she was in no fit state to drive.

“The last recording sighting of her was 12.40, I was the last person to speak to her at 12.36am when she asked me if I still needed a ride home.

Another friend, Magdalene Larson has also spoke to the media. She said the party was meant to be a Senior Farewell Party that turned out to be ‘way, way larger than ever expected.’ She said ‘Within the only 10 minutes I was there, I literally had a group of five guys, try to come get me to take as many bong rips as I could forcefully, without my boyfriend present. There was a lot of guys that did approach us. Definitely, I was getting a gut feeling that during that party, that something just didnt feel right with the number of people that were there and how old some of these people were.’

Kiely texted her mother Lindsey at around 11.30pm and told her that she would be home by 12.15am.

‘I extended her curfew. I had done it before and felt safe. She texted me at 11.30pm to say she would be leaving at 12.15am to come home.

‘She said: ”I love you, mom.” That was the last I heard from her.’

“I asked her to be safe,” Rodni’s mother, Lindsey told Fox News, ” … and that was the last time she texted me.”

Someone asked the Placer County Sheriff online for a confirmed timeline and this was their answer –

Her phone turns off around 12:33 a.m. that morning. It last pinged near the Prosser family Campground within Tahoe National Forest before it turns off, Placer County Officials said.

“The ping for the data points was near the water. It’s hard to tell an exact pinpoint,” Captain Brown said. “Just as much on land as it was on water.”

Kiely’s home was around 10 miles from the campground. You can view her home here.

Kiely was reported missing on August 6 when she did not return home.

She had been due to meet friends at a local Starbucks at 9am ahead of a camping trip but failed to show up – prompting her mother to report her missing.

An appeal was first shared by the Placer County Sheriff on that day.

This was their post:

On August 7, Sunday, police established a tip line for Kiely’s case and also began searching the area surrounding the campground.

The FBI got involved in this case within the first few days.

On August 8, the Placer County Sheriff provided the following update on the search:

On August 9, search crews started searching waterways in the area.

I am surprised it took them days to search the water – there is a big lake next to the campground. I would have thought this would have been the first place to look?

In terms of the waterway being searched, Captain Brown noted that the reservoir is 57 feet deep at its deepest point and that the visibility is a problem.

“A diving operation like that is almost like you’re going into the water blind, and you’re basically searching with hands,” he said. “Because once you start manoeuvering the ground, it’s like going through mud. These are tough operations.”

By this date, police had received over 100 tips and had 77 LE officials on the case.

There has been some discussion about this case being treated as an abduction from the start. I think the family said they were treating the case as an abduction because her car had not been found. I don’t think LE have ever confirmed they have treated it as an abduction?

Police held a press conference on Monday August 10 and they plead for attendees from the party to come forward.

In a joint statement, the Placer County and Nevada County Sheriff’s Office say they have assigned 265 personnel to the case. The number of tips received climbs to more than 300, tripling Tuesday’s total.

Police said on this day that they had not found any of Kiely’s belongings nor her vehicle.

By August 10, the search had grown to include several aircraft, including helicopters and airplanes flying in formation above, dive teams, and all-terrain vehicles, including four-wheelers, trikes and dirt bikes. There are search dogs present and at least 100 members of law enforcement visible, including members of the FBI, who initially focused their attention on Campsite 4 in the area.

The family have established a website – findkiely.com and they posted this, appealing for information

Police in California and Nevada are involved. Attendees at the party were from all over; Tahoe, Truckee, Reno, Sparks, Auburn…”

It says, “If you are a parent of a child that attended this party or attended yourself, please look at yours or your child’s photos/videos/social media for any images of Kiely potential persons of interest in the background. Someone out of place, someone no one really knows.”

I think this is a good point in the case to talk about the age of the party attendees and how it has hindered this case. It seems like a lot of the partygoers were teens who were partaking in illegal drinking and drugs and are now scared to come forward.

Sami Smith has said ‘I think a lot of them were scared to talk.’They were engaging in illegal activity in the woods, it’s like this Lord of the Flies space where they can just be.’

The family have included an upload portal on the Find Kiely website, where teens can upload any images or media from the night, totally anonymously:

TOP PRIORITY:

Law Enforcement teams implore anyone with ANY images from the party – whether Kiely is in them or not – to upload their media.

The upload portal is totally ANONYMOUS.

ANONYMOUS means ANONYMOUS.

If you are afraid to share information you can have someone else do it for you to the tip line or upload link.

Police were also vocal by this point and said that any teen who had information was free to come forward without fear of punishment – if they had been involved in anything illegal.

Sami spoke to the media about this part of the case –

“We’ve said over and over again, we’re not investigating any of you, we’re partnering with you in an investigation for a missing person, this isn’t about things you shouldn’t have done.

“But it’s also hard because there are so many teenagers, what are their relationships like with their parents? That can define a lot of what they’re going to say. Are they used to hiding everything?

“They’re afraid of the consequences or how they’re going to be viewed, how their parents are going to react. But at this point, it’s like, who cares? We need to find her.”

On August 10, Kiely’s mother spoke about how she believed an Amber Alert should have been issued in her daughter’s case.

“The Amber Alert should have already been issued immediately,” Lindsey said while speaking to members of the community and a group of law enforcement officers at a town meeting on this date.

Police have said that Kiely’s case did not meet all the criteria for an Amber Alert, which is why one was not issued.

Confirmation that an abduction had occurred

The victim is 17 or younger OR has a proven mental or physical disability

The victim is in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury

Information is available that, if given to the public, could help the recovery

Kiely’s father spoke at the same town meeting and said:

“She is no longer just our daughter. This is your kids. These are the parties that your kids are going to,’ he said. “We need answers, and you need answers because when your kids turn 16, where are they going to go?… Kiely is your child, too.”

On August 11, the FBI issued a missing person poster for Kiely.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office announced on August 11 that it has activated the CodeRed Emergency Alert System.

“We have about an 80% enrollment for Nevada County, so out of our 100,000 residents, that message should hit about 80,000 residents,” Nevada County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Sam Brown says of the CodeRed alert during a Thursday afternoon press conference.

Police also released another recent photo of Kiely, taken just a few weeks before she disappeared. This photo showed gold jewelery that she was likely wearing when she disappeared.

More than 220 law enforcement personnel have been assigned to the search, and officials have received more than 500 tips from across the country related to the case. Other countries have also offered assistance in finding Kiely.

On August 11, investigators collected and bagged evidence found near the Prosser Family Campground.

On August 12, police announced that they had now received over 900 tips – almost double the previous day.

Search dogs, aircraft and multiple law enforcement vehicles kept the search for Kiely going. Officials closed off an area of the campground where evidence is being collected for processing in hopes of locating Kiely and her vehicle.

On Saturday August 13, The public information officer at the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, Angela Musallam, told the media that “yesterday, there was a potential burial site that was located near the campground”.

“It was located by a search-and-rescue ground team. Kiely’s family was notified of the potential development,” she added, according to SFGate. “The FBI responded to secure the scene yesterday and was accompanied by the Placer and Nevada county sheriff’s offices. The FBI agents investigated the site through early this morning and recovered the remains of a dog.”

As the searches for Kiely went on, the Placer County Sheriff started releasing a daily graphic, detailing the search for Kiely.

There are some unusual things going on in this case that I just wanted to briefly mention. I think these things may be happening due to the age of the people involved – teenagers?

Kiely had a boyfriend or ex-boyfriend, depending on the source you read. His name is Jagger.

He has been inserting himself and speaking out about the case.

He said he texted Kiely about her attending the party (he didn’t attend). He told her to ‘’be safe’ and ‘don’t do anything stupid’.

He also spoke about the last time he spoke with her:

‘At 10.30 she responded to what I was saying, [she] said: “Oh, I’m sorry you’re going through that.” And that’s the last I heard from her,’ Jagger told Fox 40.

He also told Fox that he and Kiely’s father taught her how to ‘get out of sticky situations’ and said she would not ‘put her life at risk.’

‘I really need her back. I really just need to know that she’s safe, that’s all I need at this point, I really want to hug her again,’ he told Fox 40. ‘I fully believe that she’s alive and well.’

Jagger has made some comments online, suggesting that people send tips to him so that he can vet them before sending to the Sheriff. The Sheriff has categorically denied that Jagger is working with their agency.

A media agency asked Lindsey if she had any regrets in this case –

“There’s a Willie Nelson song that ‘I’ve got a long list of real good reasons, for all the things I’ve done… And regret is just a memory written on my brow. And there’s nothing I can do about it now’,” she said.

She also spoke about the possibility that Kiely had run away.

‘My daughter is not the runaway type – not to stigmatize kids who are – but my daughter is not. She had the resources to run away and would have done if she wanted to.’

“Oh, Kiely, please help us find you,” Lindsey told RadarOnline.com. “We just miss you so much and just want you to come home.”

On August 21, 2022, Adventures with Purpose announced that they had found Kiely, deceased in her vehicle in Prosser Lake.