(NewsGlobal.com)- Divers from Oregon found the corpse of missing California teen Kiely Rodni and her car last month, and the head search team investigator now says he believes illegal activity was involved.
Doug Bishop said of the circumstances surrounding the death of 16-year-old Rodni, “It doesn’t match up.” It “smells like foul play.”
Kiely was last seen alive at a high school send-off celebration with more than 300 guests on August 6 at a campground in the Tahoe National Forest in Truckee, California.
Sonar equipment was used to find her body and car in a reservoir that had earlier been examined approximately a quarter mile from the gathering spot on August 21 by a civilian dive team with a well-known YouTube channel.
Rodni’s family received the bad news through Adventures with Purpose, and law enforcement received a dose of shame.
The for-profit company, which sells items imprinted with the corporate logo, such as fishing magnets, and T-shirts, is not without its detractors.
Tammy Watters, the co-founder with her husband Dennis of the organization Sonar Search and Recovery, which supports law enforcement, stated that she feels they’re monetizing and commercializing missing persons.
Rodni texted her mother that she would be home in 45 minutes at 11:30 p.m. on the day she vanished. Her phone rang at 12:33 in the morning, and she and her silver Honda CRV disappeared.
In an extensive search that involved 18 local, state, and federal agencies and more than 19,000 man-hours to find Rodni, authorities used divers, boats with sonar, and helicopters. However, after two weeks of looking, little was found.
Investigators started looking into Rodni’s disappearance as a possible kidnapping because the circumstances surrounding it were so mysterious.
Nick Rinn, a dive instructor, and Bishop, a former tow truck driver turned sonar expert, arrived with two filmmakers and a producer to document their search attempts.
After only 35 minutes of searching with sonar in Prosser Reservoir, they discovered Rodni and the automobile.
About 55 feet from the shore, a tiny SUV was upside down in 14 feet of water, with Rodni’s remains inside the back cargo area.
The dramatic scene was documented in a YouTube documentary that the group posted and received more than 2 million views.
“She is in the vehicle’s back. She is not operating the vehicle. I think it’s suspicious, “said Rinn.
Adventurers with Purpose has solved 24 cold cases in the past two years. The team uses sonar in their search. It works by projecting sound waves into the water, which bounce back when they hit an object and provide an image.
Her remains were discovered in the cargo hatch despite the car’s passenger-side window being blown out and the rear driver’s side window partially down.
