Missing ‘Glee’ actress found dead after search

The body of Naya Rivera, 33, was recovered in Lake Piru on Monday, five days after she went swimming there.

LOS ANGELES » The body of “Glee” star Naya Rivera was found Monday near the surface of a Southern California lake, authorities said.

Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said at a news conference that the body that search crews found floating in the northeast corner of Lake Piru earlier in the day was the 33-year-old Rivera.

Ayub said that while an autopsy and official identification are forthcoming, the circumstances from the location of the body to the fact that no one else has been reported missing in the lake makes the department “confident that the body we found is Naya Rivera.”

The discovery came five days after Rivera disappeared on Lake Piru, where her 4-year-old son was found July 8 asleep and alone on a rented pontoon boat, authorities said.

She and her son, Josey Hollis Dorsey, had climbed off the boat and gone swimming. The boy told investigators that his mother helped him get back aboard, then he looked back and saw her disappear into the water, Ayub said.

“She must have mustered enough energy to get her son back on the boat, but not enough to save herself,” Ayub said.

Authorities say they believe Rivera drowned.

The lake an hour’s drive from Los Angeles was searched by dozens of divers working in waters with little visibility, with help from sonar and robotic devices combing the bottom and helicopters and drones searching above.

The sheriff said the body was probably stuck in very heavy vegetation for several days before floating to the top. He said divers had searched that area thoroughly without finding her.

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

She is the third major cast member from the show to die in their 30s.

The announcement of her death comes seven years to the day after costar Cory Monteith died at 31 from a toxic mix of alcohol and heroin, with the series losing one of its leads while it was still on the air.

Another co-star, Mark Salling, who Rivera dated at one point, killed himself in 2018 at age 35 after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

Rivera