What is Adventures with Purpose? Behind the dive team who found Kiely Rodni in California
Adventures with Purpose announced Sunday that its group of search-and-rescue divers had located the body of Kiely Rodni, a 16-year-old who was missing from the Truckee, California, area for two weeks.
The volunteer group is an “underwater sonar search and recovery dive team helping families locate missing loved ones underwater.” The group said Kiely’s car was found “upside down in only 14 (feet) of water” at Prosser Creek Reservoir in a Facebook post just after 2:30 p.m. “We have CONFIRMED Kiely is inside.”
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office in a social media post shortly after 3:30 p.m. said it was “aware of this information” and that deputies were “en route to meet with Adventures With Purpose.”
Who is Adventures with Purpose?
The group began making videos for YouTube in 2018, the page has 2.42 million subscribers. Adventures with Purpose has 1.4 million followers of their Facebook page, 126,000 followers on Instagram.
The group’s Youtube playlists shows a variety of videos on missing persons and solved cases, underwater treasure hunting, finding missing boats, stolen cars and firearms.
The videos can range anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour.
Missing persons cases among their most popular videos
A typical video shows a team of divers explaining the case, photos of the missing person and news clips are edited in for context. The divers will narrate the research they’ve completed before heading to the site they want to search.
Videos include interviews with law enforcement to ensure the group has accurate information. Sometimes, the police agencies are presented with new information that AWP divers have found during their search.
How long have they been searching for Kiely?
On Aug. 16, host Doug Bishop said in a video that they would leave for California from their home base in Oregon to join the search. It came the same day law enforcement officials indicated they would be scaling back search resources.
In an Instagram post on the 19th, it was announced that they were in Truckee and would start looking for Rodni. The volunteer divers and their specialized equipment arrived and began searching the waters at Prosser Creek Reservoir on Saturday, Fox 40 reported.
The group had been searching for about two days in the area around the Prosser Family Campground, located within Tahoe National Forest. Kiely disappeared in the campground around 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 6 after attending a party of between 200 and 300 teens and young adults.
The campground on a peninsula at Prosser Creek Reservoir, which is where the AWP divers had been searching, according to social media posts.
Is the find confirmed by law enforcement?
No. The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office in a social media post shortly, about an hour after AWP’s post, said it was “aware of this information” and that deputies were “en route to meet with Adventures With Purpose.”
AWP said the family had been notified and that “Law Enforcement on their way.”
“We will provide additional information when it becomes available,” sheriff’s officials said.
What is AWP known for?
The group’s most-watched video chronicled their discovery of Ethan Kazmerzak, a 22-year-old who had been missing for seven years in Hampton, Iowa. It was considered AWP’s first high-profile find.
A month after the discovery, the dive team said it was owed the $100,000 reward in connection with the case and had threatened to sue, according to the Des Moines Register. It’s not known if a lawsuit was filed in the matter.
Who else has been looking for Kiely?
Placer sheriff’s officials on Aug. 7, the day after her disappearance, posted a video showing Kiely’s mother tearfully pleading for the community’s help, and for her daughter to come home.
Detectives investigated the possibility Kiely had been abducted. Placer County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Angela Musallam said this was part of the agency’s protocol because her vehicle was also missing,
From local sheriff’s offices to the FBI, authorities received more than 1,800 citizen tips regarding Kiely’s disappearance, according to a Sunday morning update from Placer authorities.
