THE BODY pulled from a lake has been identified as the 16-year-old who went missing weeks ago from an end-of-school campsite bash.
Kiely Rodni's body was found in her overturned SUV recovered from the Prosser Reservoir in Truckee, California, on Sunday by a team of private divers, Adventures With Purpose.
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The Placer County Sheriff's Office announced on Tuesday that an autopsy confirmed the remains found over the weekend were that of Kiely.
"Today, an autopsy was conducted on the deceased individual who was found in the Prosser Reservoir on Sunday, August 21st. The Nevada County Sheriff-Coroner has identified the decedent as 16-year-old Kiely Rodni, of Truckee," PCSO tweeted.
Footage from Sunday's search and rescue showed crews pulling a Honda SUV from the water while a tow truck was waiting by the shoreline.
The group said the car was found in 14 feet of water. The silver vehicle was then covered in a purple tarp once it was brought to shore.
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One diver claimed the car's registration plate matched Kiely's missing vehicle. The vehicle was found in a body of water near the late-night party where she was last seen.
The lake's surface had reportedly dropped about three feet since Kiely first disappeared.
After the discovery, the group claimed on social media: "We have CONFIRMED Kiely is inside.”
The team searched Donner Lake for more than two hours, trying to figure out where Kiely's car, which had also gone missing, could've entered the water.
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They searched several ponds in the Cold Stream area, but the water was too shallow, team leader Doug Bishop told Fox 40.
The divers searched for several more hours in the Boca Reservoir, putting two boats in the water to assist them.
Nick Rinn, a certified diver, said: "We’re taking our resources and the intel that we’ve been provided, and we’re trying to see different avenues." He said it was a "different place to look.”
Adventures With Purpose is an organization dedicated to finding family members that have gone missing.
'FOREVER INDEBTED TO YOU'
Following Sunday's grim find, Kiely's family expressed their gratitude to their friends and law enforcement officials who helped search for their missing daughter.
"We are eternally grateful for the love and support you have shown us in the last couple of weeks. We have weathered a storm of unfathomable force, and it is purely thanks to the army of warriors, matriarchs, healers and helpers holding us up that we continue to stand today, the family said.
"Mr. Rogers famously told a story of 'looking for the helpers' whenever he saw scary things in the news.
"We have not had to look for the helpers, as you have all come to our rescue in full force. We are forever indebted to you.
"While we accept this sadness cast under death’s shadow, the rising sun shines light upon us, reminding us not to mourn our loss, but to celebrate Kiely’s spirit and the gift that we all received in knowing her.
"Kiely will surely remain with us even though we will not get her back. There are certain occasions when words fail.
"Perhaps this is why our human nature has given us art, dance, and music, which all are often more effective ways to connect us to each other and our rawest emotions.
"Kindly excuse us as we retreat and dance privately to life’s song while we celebrate our daughter’s spirit and heal our souls," the Rodni-Nieman family concluded.
KIELY GOES MISSING
Over 100 volunteers and more than a dozen law enforcement agencies desperately searched for Kiely after she mysteriously vanished from the large "teen-drinking" event the night of August 6.
Detectives at the time revealed that Kiely attended a large party with more than 100 other teen and young adult guests.
Authorities and loved ones were unable to track Kiely's phone after it went "dead," becoming "virtually untraceable," PCSO said.
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When Rodni's mother, Lindsey, awoke the following morning to find her daughter still not home and her car missing from their driveway, panic began to set in.
"I called her and sent her texts, too, and she didn't answer," Lindsey told ABC News. "That's when I knew something was wrong."
'SKETCHY, OLDER GUYS'
Kiely's best friend, Sami Smith, 18, was one of the last people to speak to the teen on the night she went missing and exclusively told The U.S. Sun that there were "sketchy, older guys" at the event.
"The last recording sighting of her was 12.40am. I was the last person to speak to her at 12.36am when she asked me if I still needed a ride home," Smith said.
"Now we know there were a lot of college people. Teens are coming out [with information] in our teen-to-teen talks. There were a lot of sketchy, older guys that were seen there.
"This was right about when I left when we had the last contact."
'PARENT'S WORST NIGHTMARE'
Marika Beck, 42, who is best friends with Kiely's mom, said she heard that "a lot of older boys had crashed the party" and fears the 16-year-old may have been "trafficked".
"We have been told she [Kiely] may have been with one or more older boys," Beck previously told The U.S. Sun.
"Around 12.30am, these guys showed up and it got kind of weird. A lot of the younger teens chose to leave at this time.
"It was meant to be just teens in the woods, they party there all the time, it's unregulated and it's not a campground."
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Beck describes the teenage booze-filled bash as a "parent's worst nightmare".
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"There is drinking and stuff, it's really unfortunate. It is a parent's worst nightmare," she said.
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