The Search for Kylie Rodney”

It was a quiet, late-summer morning at Prosser Creek Reservoir, a scenic body of ater tucked into the pine-covered hills of Northern California. The air shimmered faintly in the heat, and the surface of the reservoir looked as calm as glass — serene, indifferent. But beneath that stillness lay a heartbreaking secret the small community of Truckee had been searching for nearly two weeks.

Her name was Kylie Rodney, a 16-year-old girl with a quick smile, big dreams, and plans that were supposed to outlast a single August night. She vanished after attending a party at the Prosser Family Campground on August 6, 2022. Her last text to her mother read, “I’ll be home in 45 minutes.” She never came home.

For two agonizing weeks, hundreds of volunteers, officers, divers, and search teams combed through forests, dirt roads, and lakes across Nevada and Placer Counties. Her photo — the bright, confident face of a girl on the verge of everything — was everywhere. But despite 19,000 man-hours and searches of the very reservoir where her phone had last pinged, there were no answers. No car. No trace.

Until two men — strangers to the community but veterans of a very particular calling — launched their small boats into Prosser Creek and began to scan the depths.

A Search Team Like No Other

They call themselves Adventures With Purpose (AWP) — a volunteer dive and recovery group that uses sonar technology to find missing people underwater. Founded in Oregon, AWP has solved dozens of cold cases across the United States, bringing closure to families long haunted by silence.

When the Kylie Rodney case exploded across national headlines, Doug Bishop, the group’s leader, says they were inundated with pleas for help.

“With 20 million viewers a month, we received tens of thousands of requests,” Bishop told Law & Crime Sidebar Podcast. “Different agents, detectives, even families reached out. We’re just a vessel for the community. And when the sheriff’s departments welcomed us in, we knew we had to go.”

The team arrived on a Sunday morning, carrying specialized sonar systems — the kind most local law enforcement agencies rarely use, or use only occasionally. Unlike traditional divers or surface searches, AWP relies on Garmin side-scan and live-scope sonar, technology so precise that it can render ghostly images of objects — even vehicles — hidden beneath dark, silty waters.

Scanning the Unknown

That Sunday morning, the sun hung low over the water. Two small AWP boats fanned out from the Prosser boat ramp. Bishop went one direction. His teammate Nick Rinn, another seasoned sonar operator and diver, went the other.

They’d only been searching for about 35 minutes when something unusual appeared on Rinn’s sonar screen — a shadow, broad and dense, surrounded by the telltale distortion that indicates a solid object. It didn’t move. It didn’t fit the natural contours of the lakebed.

“It stood out immediately,” Rinn said. “It looked like a man-made object — a huge shadow, very distinct.”

Rinn made several passes from different angles. Each sweep confirmed his suspicion. He radioed for Bishop. When Bishop arrived, they double-checked the readings on both sonar units. The images lined up perfectly.

A long, rectangular shape. Sharp edges. Steel density.

It looked like a car.

“Once we confirmed it, we dropped a magnet,” Bishop explained. “When it connected with metal, we knew. We were almost 100 percent certain.”

But knowing and confirming were two different things. The hardest part was still ahead.

The Dive

While Bishop remained on the boat, Rinn donned his dive gear. The lake was calm, but murky — only 14 feet deep, yet choked with silt. As Rinn descended, visibility dropped to almost nothing. Through his underwater camera, the outline of a vehicle slowly emerged from the shadows.

Upside down. Partially buried.

“It was clearly a car,” Rinn said. “I could make out the structure, the license plate — and then I confirmed there were remains inside.”

He surfaced minutes later, his expression solemn. Bishop and the team already knew what that meant.

“At that point,” Bishop recalled quietly, “I got on the phone. First, we called the family.”

There were no press releases. No sirens. They didn’t want to raise false hope — or amplify heartbreak — before confirming every detail. After notifying Kylie’s loved ones, Bishop called law enforcement. The area was sealed off.

Within hours, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office confirmed what no one wanted to believe: the body inside the vehicle matched the description of Kylie Rodney.

The Sheriff’s Statement

At a press conference the next day, Sheriff Shannan Moon thanked the AWP team.

“We were very fortunate to have the assistance of Adventures With Purpose,” Moon said. “They brought very specific expertise that helped locate the vehicle we had been searching for for several weeks.”

Officials later revealed that law enforcement had searched that same area before but found nothing. Heavy silt, low visibility, and steep underwater terrain had made detection difficult.

“We had 18 agencies and 19,000 man-hours dedicated,” Sheriff Moon said. “This group’s technology and specialized focus gave us the breakthrough.”

A Case Closed — and a Family Broken

The news spread fast. For two weeks, Kylie’s disappearance had captivated and terrified a nation. Now, there was an answer — but not the one anyone had prayed for.

For her family, the discovery brought both devastation and a fragile kind of peace.

“I’m sure this is not the outcome they wanted,” podcast host Angenette Levy said, “but I’m sure they were grateful to at least have an answer.”

That sentiment echoed across Truckee. At candlelight vigils, classmates remembered her laughter and her music. Strangers left flowers by the water’s edge. Across social media, people thanked the AWP divers for bringing Kylie home.

Technology, Training, and the Difference It Made

What made the difference, experts say, wasn’t luck — it was training. Law enforcement agencies often use sonar, but few specialize in underwater vehicle recovery. According to Bishop, even the best sonar can fail if the operator doesn’t know how to interpret what they see.

“Sonar isn’t standardized,” Bishop said. “There’s no national school for it. No federal guidelines. You can have the right equipment but still miss what’s right in front of you.”

AWP divers, by contrast, spend thousands of hours analyzing sonar patterns, studying water dynamics, and interpreting anomalies that most screens display as static noise.

“When a new car first sinks, it’s harder to detect,” Bishop explained. “A clean metal surface reflects sonar differently than one covered in sediment. You need to know what you’re looking for.”

That knowledge — combined with technology and intuition — was what found Kylie’s Honda CR-V less than half an hour after they launched.

The Emotional Toll

Despite their professionalism, the divers are not immune to emotion. Every case is a story of loss. Every discovery is a family’s worst day.

“You have to mentally prepare yourself,” Rinn admitted. “You’re looking for someone’s child, someone’s parent. When you find them, there’s a split second of heartbreak — because this isn’t the ending anyone wanted. But it’s also relief. Finally, answers.”

The weight of those moments follows them long after the cameras stop rolling.

“We don’t take it lightly,” Bishop said. “It’s an honor — a tragic one — to bring closure.”

The Purpose Behind the Mission

Adventures With Purpose began as a YouTube channel, documenting environmental dives and underwater cleanups. But as the videos grew in popularity, families of missing persons began reaching out, desperate for help. The team shifted their mission from retrieving debris to retrieving truth.

Today, AWP operates on what Bishop calls a “shoestring budget” — supported entirely by viewers and donations.

“We’re doing things that others with multi-million-dollar budgets can’t,” Bishop said. “We’re community-driven. Every subscriber, every share, every dollar helps us help another family.”

Their work doesn’t end with Kylie’s case. In the same week, they were already planning to search for two other missing women in California — 22-year-old Jolissa Fuentes and Annette Adams — in partnership with local law enforcement.

“We focus on the positive,” Bishop added. “As tragic as it is, we provide answers. That’s our purpose.”

The Questions That Remain

Even with the vehicle recovered, investigators still had to answer how Kylie’s SUV ended up in the lake. Autopsy results would later show no signs of foul play; her death was ruled accidental, likely the result of a wrong turn and disorientation in the dark.

Still, many in the public — fueled by speculation online — questioned whether something more sinister had occurred. Officials urged restraint and respect for the grieving family.

“This is about Kylie,” Sheriff Moon emphasized. “About bringing her home, and supporting those she left behind.”

For Bishop and Rinn, the noise of online theories fades against the clarity of one simple truth: they found her, and her family no longer has to wonder.

A Ripple That Keeps Going

In the weeks following the discovery, the AWP video documenting their search drew millions of views. For many, it was a raw and riveting look at how hope, heartbreak, and human skill intersect beneath the water’s surface. For others, it was a painful reminder of how easily tragedy can strike — how quickly an ordinary night can become a lifetime of loss.

At Prosser Creek, the reservoir looks unchanged. The pine trees still whisper in the breeze. The water still mirrors the sky. But for the people who searched, prayed, and grieved there, it will never be just another lake.

Legacy of a Mission

In the end, Adventures With Purpose is not just a name — it’s a creed.

It’s the belief that every missing person deserves to be found, no matter how much time has passed or how deep the water lies. It’s the faith that technology, compassion, and persistence can bring light to places where darkness has reigned too long.

For Kylie Rodney’s family, those divers gave them the one thing no one else could: an ending. For the rest of us, they offered a reminder — that even in the coldest depths, there are still people willing to dive in and bring truth to the surface.