Meet the YouTuber divers claiming to have found Kiely Rodni

The deep-diving YouTubers who claim to have found missing California teen Kiely Rodni said Monday it took them just 35 minutes — even though authorities had spent nearly 20,000 man-hours failing to find her.

Adventures With Purpose started searching Prosser Creek Reservoir early Sunday — and almost immediately found what they believe is the 16-year-old’s 2013 Honda CRV with a body inside, they said Monday.

“We began our search for Kiely … at 10:40am,” lead investigator Doug Bishop, 38, said in an update Monday.

By 11:15 a.m., one of the volunteers, Nick Rinn, “detected an object underwater using cutting-edge sonar technology,” Bishop said.

They knew it was a car in “roughly 14 feet of water and only 55 feet offshore,” with divers soon confirming “it was indeed Kylie’s vehicle,” Bishop said.

“We immediately notified family [and] law enforcement, and [Rodni’s] dad and grandpa were on scene within minutes,” he said.

The group had announced the find on Sunday, stating firmly that “WE JUST FOUND KIELY RODNI.”

However, local authorities have yet to confirm that the remains are those of the teen who went missing after a nearby graduation party on Aug. 6. An update in the case is scheduled for later Monday.

If confirmed, it would be at least the 24th missing person case Adventures With Purpose’s team of 10 has solved in less than three years.

And as with many other such cases, they quickly found success in the Rodni dive despite local law enforcement insisting they had already carried out exhaustive searches in the very areas the body was found.

Hours before the crew’s breakthrough Sunday, the sheriff’s offices for both Placer and Nevada counties bragged about devoting 19,951 cumulative man-hours to the search, using seven aircraft and with help from the California High Patrol, local police and fire and even the FBI.

“Additionally, seven civilian air patrol resources were utilized to search an 80-mile radius from where Kiely was last seen,” the forces said.

However, while they put out a wide net, the car and body were found close to where Rodni was last seen — and where police told Adventures With Purpose “they did a rigorous search,” according to one of the volunteer divers, Josh Cantu, 31.

“They gave us a grid map and made us confident we didn’t need to search here,” Cantu insisted.

Still, Bishop insisted in his update Monday that the local authorities had “been incredible to work with,” without detailing what assistance they provided.

“We understand that the resource we provide with our unique skillset is rare,” Bishop said in Monday’s update.

“It is an honor to help agencies and families all across the nation,” he said, promising to “share this knowledge over the next couple of days” with the official search crews who failed to find her.

“It is always our mission to promote and share the techniques we utilize so that our purpose can help as many people as possible,” Bishop said proudly.

The deep-diving sleuths make high-production YouTube videos of their missions that are shared by nearly 2.5 million subscribers.

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Some high-profile successes have ended years of unknowing for families — including James Amabile, a Pennsylvania man the group found in March after he’d been missing for nearly 20 years. Last year, they also found the body of Arkansas mom Samantha Hopper, 19, and her daughter an incredible 23 years after they went missing.

Crucially, they have expertise in using the type of sonar equipment that appears to have quickly spotted a car underwater in Rodni’s case — skills that most law enforcement does not have.

“There’s no school, really that exists, that teaches sonar,” Bishop told Fox 2 in May, saying his crew has had to learn as they go along.

 “I’ve had a lot of agencies reach out to me for help,” he added of law enforcement lacking the same skills. 

The group offers its services for free, funding missions through clicks on its YouTube channel, donations and merch sales.

That also allows its volunteers a freedom that cops do not enjoy, founder Jared Leisek told KCENTV earlier this year.

“We have zero red tape, and as long as it’s a public body of water or if it’s private and we get permission, we can get in anything we want on a moment’s notice,” he said.

Leisek told KCENTV in February that he started the group with less lofty ambitions of highlighting polluted waterways and showing things “that are out of sight, out of mind.”

In one early video, he found a wallet — and returned $150 cash inside to its owner.

While filming, he started stumbling on submerged cars — catching the eye of the family of Nate Ashby, 22, who had been missing for months in Warrenton, Missouri.

When they found his body in December 2019, they assumed it “was a one-off,” Leisek said — until May 2020, when they pulled a silver Mazda 6 out of the Willamette River in Milwaukie, Oregon, and found the body of Timothy Robinson, who had been missing for 12 years.

Bishop has previously estimated that thousands of bodies are likely still unaccounted for under US waters, with the group getting constant requests for help.

The pain that the families experience from the tragic discoveries gives the volunteers conflicting feelings about taking on the missions, Bishop told Fox 40 on Sunday as his team started searching for Rodni.

“It’s tough — I don’t want to find her, [but] if she’s here and something has happened to her, I do,” he said.

“I want to be able to find the family and this community answers so they can properly lay her to rest.”

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