Search for Naya Rivera, Missing ‘Glee’ Actress, Resumes at California Lake
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The search for Naya Rivera, 33, who starred in six seasons of the Fox series “Glee” as the sharp-witted cheerleader Santana Lopez, resumed Thursday morning after she was reported missing on Wednesday at Lake Piru in California, the authorities said.
Video from a dock shows that Ms. Rivera and her 4-year-old son were the only people on a boat she had rented when it went out on the water, Sgt. Kevin Donoghue of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office told reporters on Thursday.
“We’ve had no indication, after talking to her son, that Ms. Rivera made it to shore,” he said. “So the focus of our search efforts are in the water at this time.”
After the boat was not returned on time Wednesday afternoon, workers from the dock went out on the lake looking for it, he said.
The boat was found in the northern part of the lake in an area where the water is about 30 feet deep, according to Sergeant Donoghue, which is making the search and recovery efforts more difficult.
“In this particular lake, in that area, there’s a lot of trees and plants and such that are under the water that can cause entanglements,” he said. “It makes it unsafe for the divers, and it makes a more complicated search.”
Later, he added, “If the body is entangled beneath the water, it may never come back up.”
Sergeant Donoghue said that one life jacket had been found on the boat and that Ms. Rivera’s son had been wearing a second one.
About 100 people from several agencies throughout the state are involved in the search, he said.
Ms. Rivera had previous experience boating on the lake, Sergeant Donoghue said, though he did not specify when.
The Sheriff’s Office had said Wednesday night that it was searching for a “possible drowning victim” in the lake. The search was suspended late Wednesday and resumed Thursday morning.
A Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Capt. Eric Buschow, said that the boat Ms. Rivera had rented was a 20-foot aluminum hull pontoon. Another boater found the son alone on the boat at 4 p.m., he said.
The boy was safe and with family members on Thursday, Deputy Chris Dyer of the Sheriff’s Office said. The lake was closed to the public on Thursday for the search.
Helicopters, boats, drones and an underwater sonar system are all being used to study the lake, Deputy Dyer said.
He also said that search dogs would be brought to the lake, which is about two miles long and 40 to 50 feet deep but can vary.
The Lake Piru Recreation Area is a reservoir and campground in Los Padres National Forest and is about 55 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The recreational area, which reopened on July 1 with limited activities because of the coronavirus, features boat rentals and kayak and paddle boarding.
Ms. Rivera began acting as a 4-year-old on the CBS sitcom “The Royal Family” and made guest appearances on a number of shows, including “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Family Matters” and “Baywatch.”
She broke through to wider stardom on “Glee,” with her role growing throughout the first season before she was made a series regular in the second season. In 2015, she was also featured in “Devious Maids,” a comedy drama series on Lifetime.
Ms. Rivera married the actor Ryan Dorsey in 2014 and gave birth to their son, Josey Hollis, in 2015. The couple split in 2018.
Her most recent post on Twitter was a photo of herself and her son.
The cast of “Glee” has dealt with its share of tragedy. Cory Monteith, who played Finn Hudson, was found dead in a hotel room in 2013 from a drug overdose when he was 31. Mark Salling, who played Noah Puckerman, was 35 when he died in what appeared to be a suicide in 2018, weeks after he had pleaded guilty to federal charges of being in possession of child pornography.
Alex Marshall and Azi Paybarah contributed reporting.