It is a sad day for Glee fans with the announcement of the news that Naya ‘Santana’ Rivera’s body was retrieved from Lake Piru. An initial examination found no evidence of foul play or suicide, said Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub during a press conference.
“We are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera,” he said, pointing to the location, appearance, clothing and condition of the body. “Her body was being taken to a medical examiner’s office for a full autopsy and confirmation of her identity from dental records, though no other missing persons have been reported at Lake Piru,” he added.
Rivera, 33, is believed to have accidentally drowned after renting the boat with her young son at the camping and recreational hotspot around an hour’s drive northwest of Los Angeles. She vanished on last week on the afternoon of 8 July, and a massive search involving divers, patrol boats and helicopters was launched after her sleeping son was spotted drifting alone in a boat on the lake. Her son later told investigators that Rivera had helped him into the boat before “he looked back and saw her disappear under the surface of the water,” said the sheriff.
The lake’s strong currents are a possible cause of a fatal accident. “The idea perhaps being that the boat started drifting – it was unanchored -and that she mustered enough energy to get her son back onto the boat, but not enough to save herself.”
The lake has been closed to the public since she had been missing, with around 100 personnel, including the US Coast Guard and rescuers from neighbouring counties, joining the search. Search teams used footage from video messaging calls Rivera made from the boat before her disappearance, as well as interviews with her son, to scour portions of the lake bed for her remains over six days, with no success.
“We believe she was concealed within some of the shrubbery on the floor bed of the lake” before eventually floating to the surface due to natural decomposition. With less than one foot (30 centimetres) of visibility underwater in daylight, the recovery operation was a “complex search effort” even with use of sonar equipment, he said.
Tributes have begun pouring in for the actress.
The cast of Glee and her family at the waters edge, a moment in silence for #nayariviera, Rest easy Naya. 💔 pic.twitter.com/xgushqRRRL
— Jimi (@Psycojimi) July 13, 2020
To some glee might have been “just a show” for people like me it meant being represented, it meant knowing we were not alone no matter how “weird” we were.
Naya helped a lot of us to accept who we were for better or worse and i will forever be thankful to her. #nayariviera pic.twitter.com/np58zqowBr— carter baizen (@imdeancchapman) July 13, 2020
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