Adventures with Purpose dive team will join search for missing SLO County woman
The search and recovery dive team credited with finding the body of missing Truckee teen Kiely Rodni is joining the search for a missing San Luis Obispo County woman.
Annette Adams, 75, disappeared last year while driving up the coast of California.
More than a year after Adams vanished, the San Luis Obispo Police Department has recruited some help in the form of Adventures with Purpose, a volunteer team known for cracking cold cases.
“We’re happy to have the help,” police Capt. Brian Amoroso said. “We’re always looking for ways to try to find missing people and reunite them with loved ones.”
On Aug, 21, Adventures with Purpose recovered the body of 16-year-old Rodni in a Honda submerged in Prosser Lake, the dive team announced to its 2.65 million YouTube subscribers in a livestream video the following day.
The team is currently searching for Jolissa Fuentes, who was last seen in Selma in August.
When the volunteer divers complete their search for Fuentes, they’ll look for Adams, they said in the Aug. 22 livestream.
What happened to Annette Adams?
Adams was last seen driving a 2020 black Buick Enclave rental car on April 25, 2021, according to the California Department of Justice.
The San Luis Obispo resident’s cell phone was last detected on Highway 1 near the ocean in Northern California, Amoroso said.
“I don’t want to give exact locations because I don’t want other people out there trying to do their own thing,” Amoroso said.
Adams’ rental car was reported stolen on May 10, 2021, and Adams was reported missing the next day.
Friends and family members told police Adams was struggling with her mental health at the time of her disappearance, according to Amoroso, though they reportedly didn’t know why she was driving up the coast.
Adams drove to Northern California and Southern Oregon multiple times during the year before she went missing, her family told police.
“I believe she was a spiritual person, and that area of the state has more centers and places you can go to engage in those activities,” Amoroso said. “I think that’s what drew her to the area.”
Based on the location that Adams’ phone was last detected, police think she either threw her phone out the window, her phone died and she never charged it again or she drove into the ocean.
“The thought is maybe the vehicle was driven off the road — whether it was an accident or purposeful,” Amoroso said. “Many areas of Highway 1 are kind of right bordering the ocean where it would be possible for a car to just drive straight into the ocean.”
Adams hasn’t contacted friends or family or used social media since her disappearance, which is unusual for her, Amoroso said.
Since May 2021, the San Luis Obispo Police Department has collaborated with Northern California law enforcement agencies to search for Adams, and even contacted the U.S. Coast Guard for assistance.
Still, police haven’t found Adams or her vehicle.
“In this particular area, there’s really not much there other than Highway 1 and the ocean and the rugged terrain,” Amoroso said. “It can be a challenging search.”
Where does Adventures with Purpose come in?
In August, the Adventures with Purpose team agreed to partner with San Luis Obispo police to find Adams.
As part of the partnership, the agency will share information about Adams and the investigation with the dive team, Amoroso explained. Then the team will execute the search independently.
“They kind of go out and do their thing,” Amoroso said. “If they find something of interest, then they would report that back to us, but it’s not like we would send a team of detectives to go be side by side with them on the boat while they’re doing their search.”
The dive team performed an initial search for Adams in late August or early September near where her cell phone was last detected, Amoroso said, but the divers needed different equipment to search in that location.
Adventures with Purpose will complete its investigation on an undisclosed date, he said.
The dive team likely won’t stop in SLO County, according to Amoroso.
Instead, it will stay in Northern California where Adams’ phone was last detected.
This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 11:12 AM.
