MUM JUMPED IN AND SHE DIDN’T COME BACK UP
GLEE FAVOURITE NAYA PRESUMED DEAD AFTER BOAT TRIP WITH HER SON, FOUR
MISSING Glee star Naya Rivera was presumed dead last night.
Police had been searching for the actress after her four-year-old son, Josey Hollis, was found alone on a rented boat at Lake Piru in southern California on Wednesday.
He told rescuers his mum had ‘jumped into the water but didn’t come back up’, according to TMZ.
Josey, who police said was in good health and being cared for by family members, was spotted alone and asleep in the vessel by a passing boat. His 33-year-old mother’s life jacket was still on board.
A search involving helicopters, drones and dive teams was launched immediately, and resumed at first light yesterday.
However, last night Chris Dyer, of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, said: ‘We’re switching efforts into a search and recovery operation.
‘There are no signs of foul play, no signs that anything went wrong besides a tragic accident. The goal is still to bring Ms Rivera home to her family so they can have closure.’
The day before their boat trip, Rivera, who played cheerleader Santana Lopez in Glee, tweeted a picture of her and Josey captioned: ‘Just the two of us.’ This is the latest tragedy to hit stars of the musical comedy show. Cory Monteith, who played Finn Hudson, died from a heroin overdose in 2013. In 2018 Mark Salling, who played Puck, killed himself after pleading guilty to charges of having child pornography. Rivera became engaged to rapper Big Sean in October 2013, but they broke up the following April. She married Ray Donovan actor Ryan Dorsey in 2014 and Josey was born a year later. They divorced in 2018.
Rivera made her feature film debut in 2014’s At The Devil’s Door. She later had a role in the TV series Devious Maids.