It was supposed to be one last summer celebration before everyone headed off to college.
Under the dark canopy of pine trees in the Tahoe National Forest, music pulsed through the night, bottles clinked, and laughter spilled over the glow of car headlights.

By morning, the laughter had stopped.
Kiely Rodni — 16 years old, bright, musical, newly graduated — was gone.

Her silver Honda CR-V had vanished. Her phone went dark at 12:33 a.m. Her friends said she left the party, but no one saw her drive away. And in the quiet mountain town of Truckee, California, panic began to spread like smoke.

“She just disappeared,” her mother, Lindsey Rodni-Nieman, told reporters through tears. “She said she’d be home soon. She texted, ‘I love you, Mom.’ That was the last thing I ever got from her.”

Police launched one of the largest searches in county history — helicopters, sonar teams, and hundreds of volunteers combing every trail and lake. But as days turned into weeks, hope began to sink.

And then came a call — from a group that specialized in finding the lost where no one else could.

A Community on Edge

By mid-August 2022, the case had become national news. More than 10,000 man-hours had been poured into the search.
Authorities searched Prosser Creek Reservoir, where Kiely’s phone had last pinged. Dive teams entered the icy water. Nothing.

The partygoers — 200 to 300 teenagers — offered little. Few wanted to talk. Rumors swirled about drinking, drugs, and a fight before the party broke up.
Online forums exploded with speculation. Was it a runaway? A kidnapping?

Police insisted it was still a missing-person case. But to Kiely’s family, silence was the loudest answer of all.

“Someone knows something,” Lindsey pleaded. “Please. We just need her home.”

The Roadside Encounter

Then, an unexpected witness stepped forward.

Nick, a roadside assistance worker in Truckee, told a dive team called Adventures With Purpose that he’d helped a stranded teen at Boca Lake — just miles from Prosser — around the time Kiely vanished.

“She was asking me weird questions,” he recalled later. “Like, ‘How do you put on your seatbelt properly?’ She seemed… nervous.”

She wasn’t alone.
A young man was with her — thin, brown hair, a black San Francisco cap pulled low.

“They kept avoiding each other,” Nick said. “Like they didn’t want to be near one another.”

The girl’s SUV had trouble starting. Nick realized it was in neutral. She thanked him and stayed behind.
A week later, when he saw her face on a missing poster, his heart sank.

The Divers Step In

Adventures With Purpose (AWP) — an Oregon-based volunteer team — had solved more than 20 cold cases across the U.S. by locating cars underwater using sonar.

Doug Bishop, AWP’s lead diver, decided to take the case.

“Law enforcement had done an incredible job,” Doug said. “But sometimes, you need a different set of eyes — and sonar.”

They drew a 10-mile search radius around Prosser Creek Reservoir, including Boca and Stampede Lakes.
The plan was simple: rule out every body of water, one by one.

The deeper they searched, the more questions surfaced.
If she’d crashed accidentally, why hadn’t they found the car sooner? If foul play was involved, why hide it so close to the campsite?

It was Sunday morning, August 21. Two weeks since Kiely’s disappearance.
The sun burned through smoky air as AWP’s boat drifted across Prosser Creek Reservoir — the very spot where officials had said they’d already searched.

Doug’s sonar screen flickered.
A shadow appeared. Long. Box-shaped.

“It looks like a car,” he whispered.

The team circled back. The image sharpened — wheels, windows, roofline. No doubt.
A vehicle lay upside down, just 14 feet beneath the surface — 300 yards from the campsite where Kiely was last seen.

“Everyone’s phones off,” Doug ordered quietly. “No one can know until we’re sure.”

Diver Nick went down.
Visibility was near zero. The water was cold, silent, still. His flashlight beam cut through the darkness — and there it was: a silver Honda CR-V.

One window halfway down. One completely open.
Inside, in the back seat, was a shape no one ever wants to find.

“She’s in the vehicle,” Nick said softly into the radio.
“It’s her.”

When Doug Bishop surfaced, his face said everything.

“We found her,” he told the officers waiting on shore. “It’s Kiely.”

The scene was sealed as a potential crime scene. A tow crew lifted the SUV from the water. The license plate confirmed it — 8YUR127.

The vehicle was nearly intact, suggesting it had entered the reservoir slowly. Yet the details left room for questions:
Why was the car upside down? Why was Kiely in the back seat?

Police would later classify it as a “probable accident.” But to many watching the case, the mystery still lingered.

For Kiely’s family, closure came with heartbreak.

Her mother released a simple statement:

“We are eternally grateful for the love and support. Though we’ll miss her forever, she will live on in everyone’s hearts.”

In Truckee, candles flickered along the lakeshore. Teenagers who had danced under the stars two weeks before now stood in silence, holding hands.

“She was light,” one friend said. “She was the person who made everyone feel seen.”

For Doug Bishop and his team, the mission was over — but not forgotten.

“It’s different when you find someone who’s been missing for decades,” he said quietly. “Kiely was just a kid. Same age as my daughter.”

The divers packed their gear in silence. The water, now still again, rippled where the car had been.

They had brought Kiely home — but not the answers everyone wanted.

Was it a tragic accident?
Or did someone at that party know more than they ever said?

In the end, all that remains is a mother’s voice, trembling through the static of a last text:

“Okay, Mom. I love you too.”

🕯️ “The water kept her secret. But love — and truth — brought her home.”