missing persons – Michmutters
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Kiely Rodni surveillance photo shows Truckee teen hours before disappearance

anew photo of Kiely Rodni shows the missing 16-year-old hours before she vanished on August 6 in Truckee.

The missing teen was last seen at a party at a campground, but the security camera image shows her earlier in the night at a Truckee business.

The picture shows Kiely in a black bodysuit, green pants and black Vans shoes as she stood among racks of apparel and other merchandise. That photo was taken hours before she attended a party with hundreds of other young people at the Prosser Family Campground, according to the Placer County sheriff’s office.

Kiely Rodni, 16, is seen on surveillance video hours before she vanished after attending a party at a Truckee campground on Aug. 6, 2022. Photo: Placer County Sheriff (KTVU FOX 2)

The search for Kiely has widened in recent days with 265 officers from local, state, and federal agencies combing the campground and other nearby areas. Dive teams have started searching the Prosser Reservoir for signs of her de ella or her Honda CRV de ella, which has also not been found.

Kiely texted her mother to say she was going home from the party. Her cellphone pinged shortly after that, but she has been inactive for days, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office has reportedly said they were looking to see if Kiely had been abducted, although officials said Tuesday that this was still a missing person case.

Her mother had made a heartfelt plea for her return in a video released earlier this week.

“We just want her home. We’re so scared. We miss her so much and we love her,” her mother Lindsey Rodni-Nieman said as she choked back tears in a video shared by the sheriff’s office. “Kiely, we love you, and if you see this, please just come home. I want nothing more than to hug you.”

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More human remains discovered as drought dries Lake Mead

LAS VEGAS — More human remains have been found at drought-stricken Lake Mead National Recreation Area east of Las Vegas, authorities said Sunday.

It’s the fourth time since May that remains have been uncovered as Western drought forces the shoreline to retreat at the shrinking Colorado River reservoir behind the Hoover Dam.

National Park Service officials said rangers were called to the reservoir between Nevada and Arizona around 11 am Saturday after skeletal remains were discovered at Swim Beach.

Rangers and a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police dive team went to retrieve the remains.

Park Service officials said the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office will try to determine when and how the person died as investigators review records of missing people.

On May 1, a barrel containing human remains was found near Hemenway Harbor. Police believe the remains were that of a man who died from a gunshot wound and the body was likely dumped in the mid-1970s to early 1980s.

Less than a week later, authorities say human skeletal remains were found at Calville Bay.

More recently, partial human remains were found in the Boulder Beach area on July 25.

Police have speculated that more remains may be discovered as the water level at Lake Mead continues to recede.

The discoveries have prompted about long-unsolved missing person and murder cases dating back decades speculation — to organized crime and the early days of Las Vegas, which is just a 30-minute drive from the lake.

The lake surface has dropped more than 170 feet (52 meters) since the reservoir was full in 1983.

The drop in the lake level comes while a vast majority of peer-reviewed science says the world is warming, mainly because of rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Scientists say the US West, including the Colorado River basin, has become warmer and drier in the past 30 years.

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Sandy Hook dad says Alex Jones made his life a ‘living hell’

AUSTIN, Texas– The father of a 6-year-old killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting testified Tuesday that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones made his life a “living hell” by pushing claims that the murders were a hoax.

In more than an hour of emotional testimony during which he often fought back tears, Neil Heslin said he has endured online abuse, anonymous phone calls and harassment on the street.

“What was said about me and Sandy Hook itself resonates around the world,” Heslin said. “As time went on, I truly realized how dangerous it was. … My life has been threatened. I fear for my life, I fear for my safety.”

Heslin said his home and car have been shot at, and his attorneys said Monday that the family had an “encounter” in Austin since the trial started and have been in isolation under security.

Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, have sued Jones and his media company Free Speech Systems over the harassment and threats they and other parents say they have endured for years because of Jones and his Infowars website. Jones claimed the 2012 attack that killed 20 first-graders and six staffers at the Connecticut school was a hoax or faked.

Heslin and Lewis are seeking at least $150 million in the case.

“Today is very important to me and it’s been a long time coming… to face Alex Jones for what he said and did to me. To restore the honor and legacy of my son,” Heslin said.

Heslin also said that while he doesn’t know if the Sandy Hook hoax theory originated with Jones, it was Jones who “lit the match and started the fire” with an online platform and broadcast that reached millions worldwide.

Heslin told the jury about holding his son with a bullet hole through his head, even describing the extent of the damage to his son’s body. A key segment of the case is a 2017 Infowars broadcast that said Heslin holding his son didn’t happen.

An apology from Jones wouldn’t be good enough at this point, he said.

“Alex started this fight,” Heslin said, “and I’ll finish this fight.”

Jones wasn’t in court during Heslin’s testimony, to move the father called “cowardly.” Jones has skipped much of the testimony during the two-week trial and had a cadre of bodyguards in the courtroom when he did attend. Tuesday was the last scheduled day for testimony and Jones was expected to take the stand as the only witness in his defense of him.

Scarlett Lewis was also called to the stand Tuesday.

Heslin and Lewis suffer from a form of post-traumatic stress disorder that comes from constant trauma, similar to that endured by soldiers in war zones or child abuse victims, a forensic psychologist who studied their cases and met with them testified Monday.

Jones has portrayed the lawsuit against him as an attack on his First Amendment rights.

At stake in the trial is how much Jones will pay. The parents have asked the jury to award $150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The jury will then consider whether Jones and his company will pay punitive damages.

The trial is just one of several Jones faces.

Courts in Texas and Connecticut have already found Jones liable for defamation for his portrayal of the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax involving actors aimed at increasing gun control. In both states, judges issued default judgments against Jones without trials because he failed to respond to court orders and turn over documents.

Jones has already tried to protect Free Speech Systems financially. The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection last week. Sandy Hook families have separately sued Jones over his financial claims from him, arguing that the company is trying to protect millions owned by Jones and his family from him through shell entities.

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