Scuba-diving sleuths who cracked Kiely Rodni case reveal most traumatic part of job & why they can go where police can't

A CRACK team of scuba-diving sleuths who claim to have found the remains of missing teen Kiely Rodni has helped to solve more than two dozen cold cases since 2019 - but say the work is emotionally draining.

Adventures With Purpose (AWP), an Oregon-based volunteer diving search team, released a statement on Sunday afternoon claiming to have found Rodni's car in a reservoir north of Truckee, California.

In their statement, AWP also said remains were found inside the sunken vehicle which they "confirmed" belonged to the missing 16-year-old.

Local police, however, said during a press conference on Monday that while the remains were "most likely" Rodni's, they're still yet to be formally identified.

👉 For more insights, check out this resource.

Rodni has been missing since the early morning hours of August 6 having last been seen at a high school graduation party at the Prosser Family Campground, where around 200-300 revelers had gathered.

AWP joined the search over the weekend shortly after authorities announced plans to scale back their efforts.

👉 Discover more in this in-depth guide.

They found Rodni's 2013 Honda CRV within just hours of arriving, despite police having already spent 10 days and around 20,000 cumulative man-hours fruitlessly digging into the mysterious case.

AWP, founded by Jared Leisek and Doug Bishop, specializes in underwater sonar search and recovery and has been credited with solving at least 23 cold cases since it formed in 2019.

In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Leisek called the unusual line of work an "addiction", but one that comes with a considerable emotional burden.

"We have to be careful about having mental breakdowns because we are dealing with things that are so sensitive," Leisek said, speaking over Zoom a few months before Rodni vanished.

"I personally ended up coming home a week early from another search, because I was missing my family and a few things were just bothering me.

"And as addicting as it is to want to get out there, and what goes through your mind when you're at home is all the families you could be helping, but you have to take care of yourself.

"You've got to take care of your health and balance your life first so you remain healthy and stay in the best shape possible to help somebody else in need."

COLD CASE SLEUTHS

AWP began as a YouTube page run by Leisek who filmed himself clearing up trash and recovering lost items from the bottoms of lakes and rivers.

He later partnered up with Bishop, who ran a tow truck company at the time, to help him recover a vehicle he happened upon during a dive in Portland, Oregon, in February 2019.

"We ended up pulling out another 20-plus cars that summer before a family reached out to me from Warrington, Missouri, and asked for our help to find their son, who had been missing for three months," said Leisek.

The missing individual was 22-year-old Nathaniel “Nate” Ashby, who had last been seen driving his 1994 Chevy Silverado to work around 6.45am on July 31, 2019, but never showed up.

His phone last pinged near a private boat ramp along the Missouri River.

A search of the area by police found multiple vehicles submerged in the water, though rough conditions in the river meant it wasn't possible to send in a dive team to investigate further.

At the behest of Ashby's family, AWP offered to step in and offer their services free of charge.

And less than nine hours after they arrived in Warrington, Ashby's car and remains were pulled from the Missouri River.

Leisek didn't envision cold case diving becoming a full-time venture, and thought the Ashby search would be a "one-time deal", so he returned to recovering trash and vehicles from rivers and lakes.

But during one trip along the Willamette River in May 2020, he and Bishop found human remains inside a submerged car they were recovering by chance, bringing an end to a 12-year mystery.

"We were really shocked," said Leisek. "We were doing a live stream at the time and we just had to shut the cameras off and call the police.

"We had a crime scene on our hands."

The body inside, it would soon be discovered, belonged to 56-year-old Timothy Robinson, who disappeared in November 2008 after leaving behind a suicide note.

Leisek and Bishop then decided to embark on a 45-day road trip across the country, helping to solve two more cases.

In the years since, AWP has managed to help solve at least 23 cases, with Rodni's disappearance potentially soon to become their 24th.

GOING FURTHER THAN COPS CAN

The sonar technology used by the group is expensive and takes a great deal of training to learn to use effectively, and many police departments around the country simply do not funds nor the time to invest in the tech.

AWP, which has amassed an audience of millions, offers its services free of charge and funds its missions through views on its YouTube and donations from fans.

In addition to being equipped with state-of-the-art technology that many departments cannot afford, Leisek said AWP's divers also have a lot more freedom to take risks where police cannot.

"I'll break it down like this," he said. "It's like there's a large high-rise structural fire in your city, but the city only has a one pump fire truck that can only get to the second story.

"It comes down to manpower, it comes down to equipment, and it comes down to training.

"And you have to remember, we're coming into these cases without any red tape, without any bureaucracy.

"I can go make the decision as donations come in, such as 'what's the next piece of equipment that I need?' - I don't have to go to some board to make these decisions for me.

"We can also dive in waters that police may not be able to go into because of dangerous or rough conditions.

"I'm a diver that's in command, and if I feel comfortable doing it, I'm going to do it.

"And so it comes down to understanding what my safety limits are. And that's where I have come into some of the situations where a local state dive team or local fire department will not touch it under certain conditions."

THE SEARCH FOR KIELY RODNI

Prior to AWP's arrival in Truckee, at least 18 police agencies searched across two states and thousands of acres in their hunt for Rodni without any success.

The Placer County Sheriff's Office said in a release that it had spent 19,951 cumulative man hours searching for Rodni and sifted through as many as 1,871 tips.

“Additionally, seven civilian air patrol resources were utilized to search an 80-mile radius from where Kiely was last seen,” the department said.

After police announced plans to scale back their efforts, AWP arrived in Truckee on Saturday and started searching the Prosser Creek Reservoir the following day, a few miles from where Rodni was last spotted.

Authorities initially discouraged AWP from searching the reservoir again, having already conducted at least three unsuccessful dives there.

So the volunteer group searched every body of water in the surrounding area before deciding to dive in the reservoir one last time.

Within just a few minutes, diver Nick Rinn, 48, found a body in a car around 14 feet down and 55 meters from the shore.

The license plate and make and model of the car matched Rodni's.

While the remains are yet to be officially identified, during a Facebook Live on Monday morning, Bishop said AWP immediately informed the police and Rodni's family of the discovery.

The missing teen's father and grandfather were on the scene within minutes, he said.

In a statement to The U.S. Sun, a spokesperson for the Rodni family said: "At this time, I have no word from Kiely’s family as to the validity of yesterday’s social media posts indicating that Kiely and her car have been found.

"This has not been confirmed to me by the family or by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office."

REMAINS 'LIKELY' KIELY'S

An investigation into the discovery remains ongoing.

Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon held a press conference on Monday afternoon, telling reporters that while the body has not been identified yet but "we believe it is our missing person."

Moon confirmed the car found was Rodni's and said it was found in an area that police had been searching since the beginning of their investigation.

Authorities added that the lake where Rodni's car was found was looked at extensively and that they will have to "debrief" as to why it was not found earlier.

"We recovered the vehicle last night. We have located a decedent inside the vehicle," Moon said.

"We believe it is our missing person. We have not been able to positively identify, but it's more than likely where we are today."

An autopsy has been scheduled for Tuesday. A toxicology report will also be conducted, which typically takes between four to six weeks to complete.

'BITTERSWEET FEELINGS'

Leisek described the feeling of solving missing person cases such as Rodni's as "bittersweet", insisting that while it's rewarding to provide these families with answers to the questions they were desperately seeking, it's also difficult news to deliver.

"[When you make these discoveries] I wouldn't describe it as an adrenaline rush, but more of a rush of emotions for empathy for the family.

"It's never closure for them, even though we've helped to answer their questions about what happened to their loved one.

"A few families have told me you're never closing and forgetting about them.

"You're simply finding those answers as to what had happened and that you have to find your way through the healing process to move forward to the next stage of your life."

Still, Leisek says he's immensely proud of the help AWP has been able to provide to more than two dozen families across the country in less than three years.

The popularity of the group on social media has inspired other diving groups to undertake similar volunteer work, something Leisek calls the "AWP Boom."

"We're able to do this work because of everyone that watches our videos and subscribes to our social media pages," he said.

"Those views and donations help to put oxygen in our tanks and gas in our vehicles.

"We're nothing more than boots on the ground, and our supporters have put us in this position and we thank each and every one of them."