HEARTBREAK ON THE LAKE
The world’s worst fears are realized after Naya Rivera, who went missing on July 8, is finally found Naya Rivera
It was a rare glimpse at a purely private moment in the life of a Hollywood actress: Naya Rivera getting her 4-year-old son, Josey, out of the car on July 8, then walking with him toward Lake Piru in Ventura, Calif., where she went to rent a pontoon boat for a sweet day of fun for just the two of them. The CCTV footage from that day takes on eerie, awful meaning now that we know what happened next: Although Josey was found safe and sound on the boat, Rivera went missing that day, and after massive rescue and recovery efforts, the Ventura County Sheriff’s department confirmed on July 13 that her body had been found. She was just 33 years old.
HOLLYWOOD TRAGEDY
In the days between Rivera’s disappearance and recovery, fans, friends and costars, including Demi Lovato, Ne-Yo and Ashley Greene, overwhelmed social media with positive thoughts for the safe return of the beloved Glee star, who
played cheerleader Santana Lopez on the hit show from 2009 to 2015. Instead, their worst nightmare came true.
According to Sheriff Bill Ayub, Rivera and her son went for a swim, and Josey described “being helped into the boat by Naya, who boosted him onto the deck from behind. He looked back and saw her disappear from the surface of the water.” Josey was wearing a life jacket, and an adult’s life jacket was found in the boat, leading authorities to believe Rivera wasn’t wearing one. Ayub added that neither foul play nor suicide is suspected, and that an autopsy will be done on the body.
As it turns out, the lake in which Rivera perished has a history of drownings due to strong winds, low visibility and other hazards. Robert Inglis, a diver with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Team, who searched for Rivera, tells Us exclusively: “If you have a watch and you hold it in front of your mask, you can’t even read the numbers. That’s how low the visibility is.” In the end, Inglis says, it’s Rivera herself who helped the dive team locate her: She’d taken a photo of Josey and sent it to a family member. “It showed the boy on the boat by a cove,” Inglis says. “We found that cove.”
DESTINED TO BE A STAR
California native Rivera made her acting debut at 4, opposite Eddie Murphy on The Royal Family, and got her big break with Glee.
“Her mother, Yolanda, drove her to countless auditions and gigs and was always her biggest supporter,” the source tells Us. “She knew all Naya’s friends growing up and was still in touch with some of them.” After Glee ended, Rivera appeared on
Devious Maids and most recently the television series Step Up.
(Season 3 premieres in 2021.)
Despite her professional success, Rivera’s favorite role was being a mom. She and her ex-husband, Ryan Dorsey, welcomed Josey in 2015, and from then on he was her loyal sidekick. “Every stage is something new and different, and I love it,” Rivera told Us in 2019. It’s that love that saved him. Though Sheriff Ayub stated that it would be speculation to say what led to Rivera’s demise in the lake, he hypothesized that currents were likely at play, and “that she mustered enough energy to get her son back into the boat but not enough to save herself.”