Body found at California lake where former Glee actress Naya Rivera went missing

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Naya Rivera
Former Glee actress Naya Rivera went missing last week. Credit: PA

A body has been found at the California lake where former Glee actress Naya Rivera went missing, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office has said.The 33-year-old actress disappeared while on a boating trip with her four-year-old son at Lake Piru on Wednesday.The alarm was raised after Ms Rivera failed to return the boat, which was found drifting with her son, Josey Hollis, sleeping alone on board.

Lake Piru in California Credit: Keiran Southern/PA

The search for the actress resumed at daybreak on Thursday with helicopters, boats, divers and sonar teams scouring the lake.

But less than 24 hours later police said Ms Rivera, best known for playing a high school cheerleader on the musical-comedy series, was presumed dead.

Josey son told police he watched his mother disappear beneath the water at the lake.

Speaking last Saturday, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office sergeant Kevin Donoghue said: "Our first day was a rescue effort, it was a life saving effort. We searched with people on the ground, on the shoreline. We were looking not just for her physically, we were looking for any clues, any evidence that suggested she made it to shore.

The search was resumed for missing Glee actress Naya Rivera. Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

“We didn’t find any clues, any evidence that suggested she made it to shore. The most conclusive piece of evidence we’re really holding on to right now is the statements from her son, the only witness.

“He observed his mother disappear beneath the water so we are very confident she is in the water and that at some point in time we will recover her from the lake.”

An online petition which has attracted almost 25,000 signatures, demanding the search be extended beyond the lake.

The search was later switched to a recovery operation.

"That doesn’t change anything in the efforts that we’re putting forth to locate her but it changes the title, in a sense," Officer Chris Dyer said at the time.

“We’re presuming that an accident happened, we’re presuming that she drowned in the lake.

"There are no signs of foul play, no signs that anything went wrong besides a tragic accident.”