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‘Glee’ actress Naya Rivera missing at California lake

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A search-and-rescue operation swallows a lake in Ventura County, and the missing person is Santana Lopez herself.

Naya Rivera, the 33-year-old actress and singer who spent six seasons playing Santana Lopez on Fox’s “Glee,” vanished during a boat outing at Lake Piru on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 8, 2020. The reservoir sits roughly 55 to 56 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles in Ventura County, and by nightfall it had become the scene of a full-scale search involving helicopters, dive teams and multiple regional agencies.

• Rivera rented a pontoon boat around 1:00 p.m. with her 4-year-old son, Josey Hollis Dorsey, with the rental due back by 4:00 p.m.
• Boaters found the drifting pontoon in the Narrows around 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. with Josey alone, asleep and wearing a life vest — Rivera’s own adult life vest and ID were still on board.
• Josey told investigators he and his mother had gone swimming and she never climbed back into the boat, prompting Ventura County Sheriff’s officials to deploy helicopters, watercraft and the Underwater Search and Rescue Team.

The Timeline at Lake Piru

According to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Rivera and her son arrived at the lake in the early afternoon and set out on a rented pontoon boat, with the vessel expected back at the marina after a standard three-hour window. When the boat never returned, rental staff and search crews moved onto the water to locate it. It turned up drifting in the Narrows, a section of the lake’s northern reaches, with Josey alone but unharmed.

Investigators say the boy’s account — that he and his mother swam in the lake and she simply didn’t come back — became the basis for the operation that followed. Deputies pulled together air support, boats and divers within hours, working against fading daylight on a lake known for its depth and cold pockets.

Search Suspended, Then Resumed

Diving and aerial operations were called off Wednesday night as darkness made underwater visibility and helicopter searches impractical, then resumed early Thursday morning. Ventura County Sheriff’s Captain Eric Buschow addressed reporters as the search shifted in tone, framing it around the likelihood that Rivera never made it out of the water.

“We’re going on the belief that she did go in the water and we have not been able to locate her. So this may well be a case of drowning.”

By early Thursday, July 9, Lake Piru had been closed to the public entirely as crews from multiple agencies concentrated on the Narrows and the surrounding waters, with the operation described by officials as having moved from a rescue effort toward recovery.

Naya Rivera Biography and Career

Rivera broke through in 2009 as Santana Lopez on “Glee,” staying with the Fox musical comedy through its run to 2015 and earning a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series along the way. Her credits also include “The Bernie Mac Show,” “American Dad!,” “Devious Maids” and the horror-comedy “At the Devil’s Door.” She released the single “Sorry,” featuring then-boyfriend Big Sean, in 2013, and published a memoir, “Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up,” in 2016.

The disappearance came just days after Rivera posted a photo with her son captioned “just the two of us,” and news of the search spread quickly among fans and former “Glee” castmates once word broke Wednesday night. Coverage of the search drew comparisons in tone to other high-profile missing-person operations that have gripped local authorities, such as the search after Seoul’s mayor was reported missing before being found dead.

Divers went back into the water at first light Thursday, working the Narrows where the pontoon boat was found drifting, and Ventura County officials made clear the operation had become about locating Rivera rather than rescuing her. For the latest on how that search played out, follow the continuing coverage of the Lake Piru recovery effort.