Autopsy Confirms Teen Kylie Rodney’s Death Was Accidental Drowning, Says Forensic Expert

By Law & Crime Staff Writer — October 2025

The case that captured national attention

When 16-year-old Kylie Rodney vanished after a late-summer party near Lake Tahoe, the story gripped America. Hundreds of volunteers joined search teams. Dozens of agencies scoured the Prosser Creek Reservoir area in California. The FBI became involved. Online sleuths speculated about foul play, abduction, and hidden evidence.

Fifteen days later, on August 21, 2022, Kylie’s Honda CR-V was found submerged upside down in 14 feet of water — less than half a mile from the party site. Inside, rescuers discovered her body in the rear cargo compartment.

The discovery brought shock, sorrow, and a swirl of questions. How could a healthy, spirited teenager end up underwater in her own car? Was it an accident — or something darker?

Now, after months of speculation, authorities have revealed the official autopsy results, confirming what investigators had long suspected: Kylie Rodney’s death was an accidental drowning.

The official findings

According to the Nevada County Sheriff-Coroner’s Division, the autopsy revealed no signs of trauma, assault, or foul play. The cause of death was listed as “drowning,” with the manner of death classified as “accident.”

The conclusion, while medically straightforward, comes after one of the most scrutinized missing-person investigations in recent memory. Many questions remain — particularly among those who followed the case online — but forensic experts say the findings align with the physical evidence.

To help explain the science behind the autopsy and dispel lingering rumors, forensic death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, a professor at Jacksonville State University and host of the Body Bags podcast, joined Law & Crime’s Sidebar host Jesse Weber to break down what the report means.

“Her lungs tell the story”

Morgan began by clarifying that while the full autopsy document had not yet been publicly released, the findings announced by authorities were consistent with classic indicators of drowning.

“One of the things we look for at autopsy, particularly when we find bodies that are submerged, is the weight of the lungs,” Morgan explained. “There’s a standard range based on a person’s age and size. When those lungs are heavily congested and waterlogged, it’s a clear indication of respiratory failure in an aquatic environment.”

For a 16-year-old of Kylie’s size, those findings — paired with other internal signs of fluid aspiration — strongly suggest drowning.
“There are very few ways a person ends up with lungs that heavy unless they drowned,” Morgan said. “That’s one of the key factors here.”

Every death treated as potential homicide

Despite the coroner’s ruling, Morgan emphasized that investigators never assume a death is accidental.

“In the medical-legal community, we go in with the working assumption that every death is a homicide until proven otherwise,” he said. “You can’t unring that bell. So they would have checked every possibility — injuries, toxicology, position of the body, scene reconstruction — before calling it accidental.”

That process can take weeks or even months, especially when the body has undergone decomposition underwater, as Kylie’s had.

Decomposition complicates the truth

By the time Adventures With Purpose (AWP), the volunteer dive team, located the vehicle, Kylie had been missing for over two weeks. Her body showed advanced decomposition, particularly around the face, making immediate visual identification impossible.

Some observers online argued that the condition of her body might have hidden injuries or other evidence of foul play.
Morgan agreed that decomposition can mask trauma — but added that trained forensic pathologists know how to look deeper.

“When decomposition sets in, it can absolutely obscure signs of injury,” he said. “That’s why autopsies on decomposed bodies require extra care. The examiner would have carefully checked for internal hemorrhages, fractures, or other tissue reactions that occur before death.”

In Kylie’s case, he said, no internal or external injuries were found that would suggest violence, restraint, or impact consistent with an assault.

Instead, the autopsy likely showed the typical effects of immersion and decomposition — skin slippage, discoloration, bloating — all consistent with postmortem changes in water.

A desperate attempt to escape?

Perhaps the most haunting detail from the case was where Kylie’s body was found — not in the driver’s seat, but in the rear cargo area of her SUV.

Two of the vehicle’s windows were found either open or broken, and the car was discovered inverted, resting on its roof.

Weber asked Morgan whether this positioning might suggest foul play or a panicked escape attempt.

“That gives you an indication of potential disorientation,” Morgan said. “The car was upside down in about 14 feet of cold, dark water. It was night. You can’t see your hand in front of your face in those conditions.”

He explained that when a car submerges, it typically fills unevenly with water. As air bubbles rise, trapped air collects toward the highest point — which, in an upside-down vehicle, would be the rear section.

“She may have instinctively moved toward that air pocket,” Morgan said. “It’s common for drowning victims in submerged vehicles to be found near the back because they’re trying to find breathable air or an escape route.”

The open windows could have been caused by impact, pressure changes, or attempts to escape.
“None of that necessarily indicates foul play,” he added. “It could just be the natural sequence of an accidental submersion.”

Toxicology results and impairment

The autopsy report also included toxicology findings showing traces of THC (the active compound in marijuana) and ethanol, the type of alcohol found in beverages.

Authorities noted Kylie’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.088%, slightly above California’s legal driving limit of 0.08%.
However, as Morgan pointed out, that number should be interpreted carefully.

“Ethanol can actually be produced during decomposition,” he explained. “When a body has been submerged for that long, the reading may not accurately reflect her condition at the time of death.”

Still, the presence of THC and possible alcohol could indicate some level of impairment that night.

“She was 16,” Morgan said. “She may have been tired, disoriented, or under the influence. If she drove into that reservoir by accident, it might have been a combination of factors — darkness, confusion, and impaired judgment.”

Reconstructing the final moments

Kylie Rodney was last seen on August 6, 2022, at a large party near the Prosser Family Campground in the Tahoe National Forest. Hundreds of teens and young adults reportedly attended the gathering.

Friends said Kylie planned to drive herself home to Truckee, just 12 miles away. She texted her mother around 12:30 a.m., saying she was leaving the party soon. She was never seen again.

Investigators believe that sometime after leaving the campsite, she drove her SUV down a dirt road, possibly became disoriented, and accidentally entered the reservoir.

Underwater footage later showed the car’s front end facing slightly downward, consistent with a slow, sliding entry rather than a high-speed crash.

“It doesn’t look like a violent plunge,” Morgan said. “More like a vehicle slowly drifting in and tipping forward — the kind of thing that can happen if someone’s lost and doesn’t realize where the road ends and the water begins.”

The SUV’s lights likely went out immediately upon impact, leaving the teen trapped in freezing blackness.

“Imagine that moment,” Morgan said quietly. “It’s night, pitch-dark, 40-degree water. The car flips. The pressure builds. Your brain is panicking, trying to find up from down. It’s pure disorientation.”

When the river keeps its secrets

For two weeks, search teams combed the area without success.
Helicopters, sonar boats, and divers covered miles of water, including the very reservoir where Kylie’s car would later be found. Yet somehow, the SUV went undetected — until the Oregon-based Adventures With Purpose team arrived.

Using advanced sonar equipment, AWP located the vehicle within hours.
Their discovery — and the subsequent recovery of Kylie’s body — made national headlines and reignited debates over how local authorities conduct underwater searches.

Still, Morgan defended the difficulty of such operations.

“People underestimate how hard it is to find a submerged vehicle,” he said. “Fourteen feet of dark, silty water, uneven terrain — it’s like looking for a shadow in a cave.”

The family’s heartbreak

For Kylie’s family, the autopsy’s conclusion brings clarity but not comfort.

In a public statement after the report, they thanked law enforcement, search volunteers, and the community for their support, while asking for privacy.

“Though the outcome is not what we hoped for, we are grateful to finally have answers,” they said. “Kylie will forever live in our hearts.”

A cautionary tale

Morgan emphasized that Kylie’s story serves as a sobering reminder of the dangers of mixing youth, driving, and water — especially at night in remote areas.

“I tell my students all the time: most drownings don’t happen in oceans or swimming pools,” he said. “They happen in cars, in creeks, in reservoirs — often within a mile of home.”

The combination of fatigue, darkness, and even minimal intoxication can prove fatal.
“People think they can see the road,” he said. “But all it takes is one wrong turn.”

Can a ruling ever change?

Host Jesse Weber asked whether such cases ever get reclassified — if, for example, new evidence emerges contradicting the initial autopsy.

“Yes, it can happen,” Morgan said. “Sometimes a case initially ruled an accident is later changed to ‘undetermined’ or even homicide if new facts come to light.”

However, he added, such reversals are rare — and unlikely here.
“The totality of the circumstances, the lack of injuries, the position of the vehicle, and the toxicology — all point toward accidental drowning,” he said. “I think the coroner got it right.”

A tragic end, not a mystery

Kylie Rodney’s death, Morgan said, may not be a mystery after all — just a heartbreaking accident that reflects how fragile life can be.

“She was young, vibrant, and had her whole life ahead of her,” he said. “Sometimes tragedy doesn’t come with a villain. Sometimes it’s just a moment of confusion and bad luck in the wrong place.”

As the Tahoe hills turn cold again each autumn, locals still leave flowers near Prosser Creek. Some notes read “Fly high, Kylie.” Others simply say “Home now.”

The questions may fade, but the sorrow remains — and so does the reminder that even the calmest waters can hide a terrible silence beneath.

Timeline of Key Events: The Kylie Rodney Case

Date
Event

August 6, 2022
Kylie attends a party near Prosser Family Campground, Tahoe National Forest.

August 7, 2022
Her phone last pings near Prosser Creek Reservoir around 12:30 a.m.

August 21, 2022
Adventures With Purpose locates Kylie’s submerged Honda CR-V with her body inside.

October 2022
Autopsy results confirm cause of death as accidental drowning.

2023–2024
Officials close the investigation; family releases public statement of gratitude.

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Final reflections

In the end, forensic evidence prevailed over rumor.
The autopsy of Kylie Rodney confirmed what science — not speculation — revealed: that a night of youthful celebration ended in an unforeseen, fatal accident.

For Joseph Scott Morgan, the lesson is clear.

“Every case teaches us something,” he said. “In Kylie’s, it teaches compassion — and the responsibility we all share to protect young lives before the water gets too deep.”