Hollywood star Naya Rivera, who is best known for starring on the hit show “Glee,” is missing and presumed dead after her 4 year-old son was found in a boat alive and alone in a California lake.
Daily Mail reported that Rivera and her son Josey rented a pontoon boat on Lake Piru, located 60 miles from their home in Los Angeles.
Three hours later, another boater called the police after seeing a vessel adrift in the water.
As they approached the boat, they found Josey sleeping, and Rivera was not there.
While Josey was wearing a life vest, Rivera was not, as a second adult life vest was found on the boat. Police have said that while it is “challenging” to interrogate a toddler, the little boy told them that his mother “jumped in the water and didn’t come back up.”
Just one day before she went missing, Rivera had shared a touching photo of herself and Josey to social media, captioning it, “Just the two of us.”
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department confirmed last night that a search was underway for Rivera, with divers and helicopters scouring the lake until darkness fell. Unfortunately, no trace of the actress was found, and the search was eventually called off until morning.
There have been eight drownings in this lake since 1994, including a particularly tragic one in 2008 in which a father drowned while saving his daughter’s life after she fell in.
He managed to get the girl back on the boat, but he could not get back on himself before it drifted away, and he was later found dead.
Calls for prayers for Rivera have been pouring in from her fellow “Glee” stars, including from actress Heather Morris.
“We need all the prayers we can get to bring our Naya back to us… we need your love and light,” Morris said.
Singer Demi Lovato took to Instagram to ask her 87 million followers to “pray for Naya Rivera to be found safe and sound.”
Zack Teperman, a publicist who said Rivera was “one of the first people I had the honor of working with” in the industry, said that he was “in complete disbelief and shock right now.”
“Was just messaging Naya a few weeks back. This can’t be true,” he said. “Prayers for her little boy.”
Captain Eric Buschow, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, said that Rivera is “presumed drowned.”
No foul play is suspected, as her disappearance is instead “considered to be a horrible accident.”
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