The body found Monday morning during a search in the Southern California lake has been identified as “Glee” star Naya Rivera, who authorities say drowned last week.
The Ventura County, California, Sheriff's Department said the body was found during a search of Lake Piru. Authorities did not initially say if the person found was Rivera, but, according to CNN, the body found in the lake northwest of Los Angeles has been identified as the 33-year-old actress.
“We are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera,” said Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub, adding “there is no indication of foul play or that this was a suicide.”
The body is being taken to the Ventura County Coroner’s Office, where it will be identified through dental records.
On Wednesday, the actress and singer was reported missing about three hours after a man who rented Rivera and her son a pontoon boat found the boy alone on it wearing a life vest. The boy told investigators he and his mother had gone swimming, and he had gotten back on the boat but she hadn’t.
An adult life vest was found in the boat, along with Rivera’s identification, and her car was still in the parking lot.
On Thursday, authorities said they believed she had accidentally drowned, and the search had shifted from an effort to rescue Rivera to an attempt to find her body.
More details have emerged from her son about what happened before her drowning in the last day.
In a heartbreaking update, Rivera’s son Josey Dorsey, 4, told sheriff’s deputies that his mother placed him in the pontoon before he saw her sink into the water, according to AP writer Andrew Dalton.
Search crews found the body floating in the northeast area of the lake and the county medical examiner was notified, authorities said.
Search teams have been using sonar and robotic devices in a search for Rivera.
“We don’t know if she’s going to be found five minutes from now or five days from now,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Eric Buschow said at a news conference Friday, two days after Rivera’s 4-year-old son was found asleep and alone on a boat the two had rented a few hours earlier.
Search teams on Lake Piru towed sonar devices across the surface that scanned the bottom for shapes that might be a body. They then began employing small remote-controlled devices to explore the underwater spaces that showed promise. Two such shapes were found Friday, but neither led to Rivera at the time, Buschow said.
Surveillance video showed Rivera and her son parking and entering the boat dock in the recreation area at the lake 55 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
Authorities said Rivera had previous experience boating on the lake, according to The New York Times. The recreational area, which reopened July 1 with limited activities because of the coronavirus, features boat rentals, kayaking and paddle boarding. It was closed during the search.
Rivera made her acting debut as a 4-year-old on the 1991 CBS sitcom “The Royal Family.”
She also had guest appearances on other shows including “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Family Matters.” But Rivera is probably best known for her role as a sharp-tongued singing cheerleader, Santana Lopez, on “Glee,” which ran on Fox from 2009 to 2015. The campy show followed the friendships, relationships and everyday dramas of a high school glee club, and Rivera appeared in 116 episodes.
She married actor Ryan Dorsey in 2014 and gave birth to their son, Josey Hollis, in 2015. The couple split in 2018.
The day before her disappearance, she shared a photo with her son with the caption “just the two of us.”
Rivera is the third major cast member from “Glee” to die in their 30s. Cory Monteith, one of the show’s leads, died at 31 in 2013 from a toxic mix of alcohol and heroin. And co-star Mark Salling, whom Rivera dated at one point, killed himself in 2018 at age 35 after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.
Cast members and others paid tribute to Rivera Monday.
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