Photo: Placer County Sheriff's Office / Instagram
He is being targeted with cruel comments online.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Aug 16, 2022
The boyfriend of missing teen Kiely Rodni has become the victim of trolling by websleuths that are becoming increasingly invested in the case.
Kiely Rodni, a 16-year-old girl from Truckee, California, disappeared from the Prosser Family Campground after an end-of-the-schoolyear party on August 6th, 2022, and has been missing for 10 days — neither her nor her silver Honda CR-V has been found.
While the Placer County Sheriff’s Office and Nevada County Sheriff's Office have been working tirelessly to pursue leads, listen to tips, and spread awareness for Rodni’s disappearance, Jagger Westfall has been publicly appealing for information about his girlfriend's disappearance.
Who is Kiely Rodni's boyfriend, Jagger Westfall?
18-year-old Westfall Truckee local who is reportedly aiding in the search effort to bring Rodni home.
However, his public appeals have opened him up to criticism from people following the case who have begun leaving cruel comments on his Instagram falsely suggesting that Westfall is a suspect in Rodni's disappearance.
On August 10, 2022, FOX40 News interviewed both Westfall and another close friend of Rodni’s, Kate Cuno, to get their stories about the last time they saw or were in contact with her.
Westfall says he and Rodni last spoke shortly before the party at the Prosser Family Campground before she was last seen early Saturday morning.
“I was just like, OK. Be safe. Don’t like, do anything stupid,” Westfall said.
He revealed that he was having a rough day, and complained to Rodni about it while she just listened.
“Then at 10:30, she responded to what I was saying, and just said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry that you’re going through that,” Westfall said, “And that was the last time I heard from her.”
Both Cuno and Westfall expressed their hope that Rodni is not in any danger.
"I fully believe that the two of us, three of us, or other people are gonna bring her home safe.” Cuno also stated
Those following the case accused Westfall of urging the public to relay their tips to him, rather than law enforcement in a now-deleted TikTok.
“If anyone has seen Kiely Rodni or her 2013 silver crv in the reno-Tahoe area call me [phone number] she has been a missing person for over 24 hours,” read the caption in his video.
Photo credit: TikTok
One of the comments under his video said to call the Placer County Sheriff’s Office and not his number, which led to Westfall responding by saying “Me or the sheriff. We are all working in the same thing and the sheriff would like me to filter through any info I can before it gets to them.”
Naturally, people were skeptical about Westfall’s supposed involvement, so one person decided to ask the Placer County Sheriff’s Office on Facebook if Westfall’s claims were true — they were not.
“That is FALSE,” they wrote in response to someone who asked if they were filtering tips through him, reiterating their tip lines. “The only tip line is: Email tips: sheriff_tahoeinvesttips@placer.ca.gov. Call in tips: (530) 581-6320 Option 7.”
Since then, the Placer County Sheriff's office has set up a completely anonymous online portal where people can submit tips as well.
People online claim that Westfall isn’t Rodni's boyfriend but an ex-boyfriend of the teen, but these claims are unconfirmed.
Regardless of his personal relationship with Rodni and the suspicions around his behavior which led to him deleting some posts, he told FOX40 that he did want to see her home safely, believing that they would find her.
“I definitely feel like that in this current situation that she’s safe,” Westfall said. “I don’t know where she is. We don’t have anything to go off of at this point. But, I fully believe that she’s alive and well. And I fully believe that the two of us, three of us or other people are gonna bring her home safe.”
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Since graduating from Rutgers University, he spends most of his free time gaming or playing Quadball. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.