Kiely Rodni’s ex-boyfriend has paid tribute to the 16-year-old after a body and car were pulled from the lake close to where she vanished two weeks ago.
Jagger Westfall, 18, posted a heartbreaking video on his Instagram on Sunday night showing the young couple joking around together.
“You were my entire world and you always will be. I will never love someone the way I loved you,” he wrote.
“I missed you even when I was holding you in my arms. I could never get enough of you. I promised I would be with you until the end and I was serious. #LLK🕊.”
On Sunday, a dive crew announced that it had found a body and an overturned car in Prosser Creek Reservoir in Truckee, California – appearing to bring a tragic end to a huge two-week search for the missing teen.
Adventures With Purpose (AWP), a volunteer search organisationn which helps find missing people, said that the silver 2013 Honda CRV was upside down 14 feet underwater in the lake and that a body was inside.
The organisation said that the vehicle – which matches the make and model of Kiely’s – has the teen’s Californian license plate number 8YUR127 and that the remains are believed to be those of the missing 16-year-old.
Law enforcement officials are yet to make an official identification of the body.
Placer County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Sunday that it had been notified by AWP about the discovery of a car and body in the reservoir.
“The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office, Placer County Sheriff’s Office, FBI and allied agencies are at the scene to investigate the findings. The identity of the decedent has not been confirmed. This is a developing situation, and we will provide updates when we can,” the agency said.
Kiely’s family said in a statement that they were waiting for clarification before addressing the “rumours” about the tragic discovery.
The body of water had previously been searched extensively by law enforcement who had spent more than 20,000 hours trying to find the missing teen.
The 16-year-old vanished without a trace in the early hours of 6 August after going to the Prosser Family Campground in Truckee for a party of 200 to 300 teenagers and young adults.
She was last seen at around 12.30am at the site – a hotspot for local teen gatherings – and her cellphone last pinged at 12.33am close to Prosser Creek Reservoir. Her car had also not been seen since.
The teenager’s mother Lindsey Rodni-Nieman previously told The Independent that her daughter sent her a final text message at 11.30pm saying that she would be leaving the party in around 45 minutes. The drive home takes around 25 to 30 minutes.
Kiely’s friend Samantha Smith told The Independent that she last spoke to Kiely on the phone at around 12.30am.
She had been planning to get a ride home from the party with Kiely but there was a change in plans because she said Kiely had been drinking and so was not in a position to drive. Instead, the two friends told each other “love you, good night, get home safe,” she said.
Mr Westfall, who had remained close to Kiely and her family after they stopped dating, said that he texted her telling her to “be safe” and “don’t do anything stupid” on the night of the party.
“And so I was just like, OK. Be safe. Don’t like, do anything stupid,” he told KTXL.
Mr Westfall also confided in Kiely about his day, receiving a final message from her at around 10.30pm where she empathised with what he had gone through.
“Then at 10.30, she responded to what I was saying, and just said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry that you’re going through that’,” he said. “And that was the last time I heard from her.”
A missing persons report was filed later on the morning of 6 August when Kiely failed to return home.
Hundreds of law enforcement personnel from multiple agencies were drafted in to find the missing teen, carrying out searches on the ground, in the air and dive teams in the reservoir.
But, their search failed to turn up anything.
Officials admitted that the search of the lake was challenging because it has a depth of up to 57 feet and poor visibility, meaning dive teams were “going into the water blind”.
Last week, law enforcement officials announced that they were scaling back the search for the missing teen and just seven personnel were assigned to the case on Sunday.
AWP travelled to join the search on Friday, before launching its own search in the lake on Sunday.
Diver Josh Cantu told the New York Post that law enforcement had reassured the team that the body of water had already been searched thoroughly.
“Police told us they did a rigorous search of this body of water. They gave us a grid map and made us confident we didn’t need to search here,” he said.
But, after just a few minutes of searching, the volunteer search team found the body inside the car – first using sonar and then to the human eye after crews dived down.
Harrowing footage captured by KRCA3 showed the vehicle containing a body believed to be that of missing teenager being dragged from the reservoir on Sunday night.
The car was covered in a sheet and taken away by law enforcement.
A press conference is scheduled for 11am local time (2pm ET) on Monday. AWP will also be hosting a live stream at 9am local time (12pm ET).
