Naya Rivera: Authorities are ‘confident’ body found at Lake Piru is former ‘Glee’ actress

Authorities said on Monday that they are “confident” a body found in California’s Lake Piru earlier in the morning is former “Glee” actress Naya Rivera.

An official ID will be made by the Ventura County Medical Examiner, authorities said. Rivera’s family has been notified of the discovery. Authorities said that there was “no indication of foul play and no indication this was a suicide.”

The body was found at the northeast corner of the lake near the surface of the water, five days after the 33-year-old Rivera disappeared. Her 4-year-old son, Josey, was found on July 8 asleep and alone on a rented pontoon boat, authorities said.

Authorities said the following day that they believed Rivera had drowned, and they had shifted to working to find her body rather than find her alive.

“Each day, we’ve utilized dozens of personal watercraft and helicopters with unmanned aerial systems and on the shore conducting a methodical and comprehensive search,” Bill Ayub, the Sherriff of Ventura County, said in a news conference on Monday. “Today, our search teams have recovered a body in the lake. Based on the location where the body was found, physical characteristics of the body, clothing found on the body and the physical condition of the body, as well as the absence of any other persons reported missing in the area — we are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera.”

According to Ayub, the “depth of the water” in the area the body was found “is between 35 and 60 feet deep and there’s heavy brush and trees on the lake bed there.”

“As you can imagine, it’s been an extremely difficult time for her family throughout this ordeal,” he said. “As fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, our hearts are with them and we share in their grief for Naya’s loss. We’ve been in direct contact with the family throughout this entire time and we’ve kept them updated on the progress of our search efforts throughout. Our hearts also go out to Naya’s many friends and fans who have been holding out hope for the best over the past few days.”

Rivera played singing cheerleader Santana Lopez for six seasons on the Fox musical-comedy “Glee.”

This is a breaking news story. Please check back here for updates. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Leave a Reply

Your compare list

Compare
REMOVE ALL
COMPARE
0

Main Menu