Body found in search for missing ‘Glee’ actress Naya Rivera

On Monday, police made the sad announcement that a body has been found in Lake Piru while searching for former “Glee” actress Naya Rivera.

The New York Daily News reported that the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the body has not yet been identified and that “the recovery is in progress” at this time.

Rivera, 33, had gone boating on the California lake with her four-year-old son Josey last Wednesday. Hours later, Josey was found sleeping alone on the lake, with his mother nowhere to be found. Since then, police have been scouring the lake for Rivera’s body, as it has been believed from the start that she drowned.

“We’re presuming that an accident happened and we’re presuming that she drowned in the lake,” Deputy Chris Dyer of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said last Thursday.

This comes after Robert Inglis of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Team gave some insight over what may have happened to Rivera.

“The best thing that we can say that contributes to a lot of the drownings is when people go swimming and they are not wearing their life vests. And they jumped off the boat,” Inglis told US Weekly. “It doesn’t take much to get exhausted if you’re not in shape. Winds do kick up at that lake, and the boats start to get away and you are trying to go after that boat…you could get a leg cramp. If you are wearing a life vest, you could rest and someone can go back and pick you up, or call for help or something like that.”

He went on to explain that “people who are muscular” do not float as easily.

“So in scuba instruction, we have to teach a 10-minute tread water float, and I’ve had divers who are super muscular,” Inglis said. “They struggle because they are sinking. They can’t float. So depending on the body tone of a person, you could get that feeling that you are being sucked down because you really just can’t float.“

He also warned that even in a body of water that is as calm as a lake, it’s easy to get tired while swimming.

“If you’re not familiar with the boat and getting on and off the boat, you can get tired just climbing onto the boat. You can fall back in, people hit their heads, things like that,” he said. “There are some cases in lakes where one person is in the water, starts to drown, then someone else jumps in to try to save the other person. The person drowning is saved and gets back on the boat, but the other person who jumped in to save them didn’t make it back into the boat.”

In Rivera’s case, Inglis thinks wind played a factor in whatever happened to her.

“What I suspect is that the winds kicked up. Those pontoon boats are very light, and when you push them, it can get away from you. She might’ve tried to swim after the boat,” Inglis said. “But that’s all speculation. Once we do locate her, that’ll answer a lot more questions.”

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