Naya Rivera Visited Lake Piru ‘for Years’ Before Disappearance: It May Have Been a ‘Sanctuary for Her’
Glee alum Naya Rivera had been going to Lake Piru “for years” before she disappeared during a boating trip with her son, Josey Dorsey, on Wednesday, July 8.
“I’ve been told Rivera is familiar with the lake,” Ventura County Deputy Sheriff Chris Dyer said during a press conference on Thursday, July 9. “This might be a little sanctuary for her, especially on a Wednesday — no one’s here on a Wednesday so it’s a good day to come. She rented the boat.”
“There was no collision or signs of struggle,” Dyer shared in an update about their recovery effort. “We are using our helicopters, we are using our dive teams, we are using sonar equipment and our unmanned aerial drone team.”
Dyer pointed out “it’s extremely difficult to search this lake” because it goes from depths of “40 feet to five feet” and “visibility in the daytime is 8 to 10 inches.”
Rivera’s purse and ID were found in the pontoon boat, he confirmed, while her car was left in the parking lot. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department previously told In Touch other boaters discovered her son around 4 p.m., after their boat had been adrift for three hours.
He was sleeping and wearing a life vest at the time. Josey told investigators he and his mother went swimming, but his mother never got back on board.
“There was another vest on board the boat for an adult, so it looks like she was not wearing a vest,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Captain Eric Buschow told In Touch. “There is a high likelihood the singer drowned,” but, “it’s still a search and rescue operation based on the circumstances.”
Earlier this afternoon, the 911 call regarding Rivera’s disappearance was released and the person said they discovered a child in a boat, but the mother was “nowhere to be found.”
Meanwhile, the star’s ex-husband, Ryan Dorsey, was spotted for the first time with their son while exiting the home of her sister, Nickayla Rivera.
The actress last posted a photo on July 7 where she can be seen kissing her son, Josey, captioned, “Just the two of us.”
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