The Usual Suspects Are Rarely the Perpetrators
It ended in tragedy. A 16 year old girl was found dead. But it didn’t happen the way most people think,
Kiely Rodni went missing shortly after midnight on August 6th. She was last seen at a campground party attended by many others her age.
It didn’t take long before authorities in Northern California announced they’re conducting sex offender compliance sweeps. The news reported that, “The Truckee Police Department, in partnership with the Placer County Probation Department and the Auburn Police Department, conducted sweeps throughout the Truckee/North Tahoe area on Thursday and found several [sex] offenders in violation of their terms with one arrest being made and charges to be filed against another, the department said.”
I’d imagine that reader’s thoughts immediately jumped to conclusions. A teenager had gone missing PLUS registrants found in violation with an arrest being made. What other conclusions can be deduced? It’s the situation laws are created in response to.
A few hours ago, Kiely’s car and body were found submerged in a lake. According to one news report, Her friend, Sami Smith, was at the party with her and said Rodni had been planning to spend the night at the campground. “I know that she wasn’t in the right mindset or state to drive. And if she were to have driven, she wouldn’t have made it far,” Smith told KOVR-TV.
It ended in tragedy regardless. But the conclusion to another “missing girl” story didn’t end the way many people were led to believe. She was not abducted, no registrant was involved. A teenager was drinking at a party, made the unfortunate choice to drive home when she wasn’t in the right state to drive, and likely accidentally killed herself driving drunk. It happens to too many children.
In fact, the overwhelming majority of “missing children” cases turn out to be runaways or when there is an actual abduction, it’s a familiar abduction by a non-custodial parent. The usual suspects (people on the registry) are rarely the perpetrators. They are hardly ever. Yet when a kid goes missing it’s the first place people turn. Sometimes at the expense of looking into the more probable circumstances of the disappearance.
Without anyone to fault for Kiely’s death, other than Keily’s mistake in judgment on August 6th, the family will be left with not only a void in their lives but a void in the assignment of blame. We hope if the family seeks to enact a law in their daughter’s memory, “Kiely’s Law” will target the actual cause of this tragedy (drinking and driving) and not shift the blame elsewhere.
Our hearts go out to the family.
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The minds of the parents of the missing girl immediately went to kidnapping/sex crimes and the local cops jumped on it.
I’m still looking for even a single case of sweeps leading to a missing child saved.
I’m still looking for a single case where the registry protected the public or prevented a future sex crime by someone listed on it.
🤣😂🤣 I’m really getting a kick out you guys sarcasm.
Disgusted
What it IS doing a good job of, is creating offshoot registries like “Nextdoor”. It is worse than the registry because people who have not bothered me since the registry was created, now know everything about me and try every day to force me off the street.
People who use to stop by and give us food, now wish me to get hit by a car. I have never done anything to these people and many were not even alive, 32 years ago when my offense occurred. Even though I was released from all paperwork 20 years ago, I am still being treated like I am on probation.
I keep saying “I”, I know we are all being treated this way but I can only speak for what is happening to me and my family. The registry is 1000% punishment and does nothing to stop an offense from us but does a ton to cause an offense against us.
I hear you bro. I had a neighbor who thought I was the nicest, greatest guy in the world because whenever it snowed, I would shovel the sidewalks of my neighbors or plow their driveways at no charge after doing mine because I’m up early every day. I would also do little things to help my neighbors without asking for anything in return. It’s how I am. I would be outside hanging out and they would come over and hang out with me, hand me a beer and just chat. Once they found out I was on the registry, I they suddenly changed their minds about me and I was seen as someone worse than Hitler. I even had neighbors move because they deemed me as someone to be feared.
My response? I don’t care. As far as I’m concerned everyone on my street can move out and I’ll have the entire neighborhood to myself. I’d find a way to buy every piece of property here then turn the street into a private driveway and gate up the entrance because it’s a dead end street anyway. I’m at the point in my life where I don’t give a crap what others think or say about me. If you don’t like me, stay away from me. It’s that simple. I have more than enough friends who don’t care about my past and I’m not looking to add more friends.
I had one neighbor tell me if I didn’t move, he would tell my landlady about me. I said go ahead because she already knows and doesn’t care because she calls me her best and favorite tenant. Hell, she even invited me in for lunch when I go pay my rent and she makes a point of bringing over birthday and Christmas presents for my family every year.
Checkmate.
Disgusted
What is snow? LOL
I was born up North, I last saw snow in the U.S in 1978. The next year my Dad retired from the military and we moved to Florida. I use to travel once a year and would see snow in Europe but with all the travel stops for registrants and me not having any income, all that went away. Now I get my photo albums out once a year and dream of what was and what could be.
BTW, I do not miss shoveling snow, or getting frost bite haha
I guess I counter that now with heat stroke here in Florida. *)~
@ Derek:
I didn’t see anything about the parents beyond pleading for her return. Check the timeline in the link in my other post below. The Placer County SO jumped to the registrant conclusion almost immediately after the missing person report was filed because they couldn’t find the vehicle. (Seems backwards to me – finding the car and not the girl is a much clearer indication of abduction, I would think.)
1900 man hours and God-knows how many dollars spent harassing local registrants netting 2 or 3 arrests and none of them had anything to do with the missing girl. Ironic that she was found by civilian volunteers within hours of their arrival, looking where deputies told them not to bother because they had supposedly searched it already.
I think the Placer County Sheriff’s Department should be nominated for a Shiitake, if you’re still doing that. They have GOT to be the most incompetent law enforcement agency in the US. If not, I’d really like to see who is.
According to the timeline – https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article264749964.html – LE presumed abduction 2 days after the girl disappeared. Pretty sad that that’s what they consider obvious when a bunch of teenagers are getting loaded at a lake.
Do you think they counted the registrant sweeps as part of 19k man hours spent trying to find this girl and if so, how much (betting around 12k)? Do you think they see the irony that a handful of private citizens found her the day after arriving acting from the same clues (the party at the campground)?
I sincerely hope the family remembers this incompetence when this sheriff is running for reelection.
The article’s point about diverting law enforcement resources is spot on. Depending on the situation, using officers in a very low probability task could mean the difference between someone’s life or death. In this tragic case it did not, but I’m sure the police crowed about protecting the public by catching a few registrants in some technical violation. The police did not want to admit they were clueless, so they rounded up the usual suspects.
I’m reading a lot of comments about this on the ASCOL site and about the cops doing their sweeps. Now I don’t know what the geography around that lake looks like, but one would think maybe their would have been tired tracks leading into the lake that should have been checked out.
Maybe this girl would still be alive today if her so-called friend Sami would have taken her car keys away if she was so concerned about Kelli not being in a good state of mind to drive.
I’m not trying to cast blame, but young people seem to lack common sense.