Naya Rivera ‘jumped in the water and didn't come back up’, missing Glee star's 4-year-old son tells detectives
The four-year-old son of Naya Rivera, who is missing and feared dead, has told detectives that her mother “jumped in the water and didn't come back up”. The 33-year-old actress went missing on Wednesday, July 8, after going for a swim in Lake Piru in South California.
According to reports, on Wednesday afternoon, the ‘Glee’ star along with her son Josey went for boating after renting it on the lake, 60 miles from Rivera's Los Angeles home, and about 20 miles from Valencia, where she grew up. The mother-son duo was only present at the scene moments before the star disappeared.
Three hours after they sail out the boat, another boater raised the alarm after finding Josey alone on board, asleep. When the detectives responded to a report of the child found alone on a boat around 4:48 pm on Wednesday, they found an adult life-vest life jacket there, suggesting Rivera was not wearing one. The star’s child said that he and his mother were swimming in the water, though he climbed back in the boat, his mother did not. However, reports stated that the circumstances are still not clear and it is “challenging” to interrogate a child.
Captain Eric Buschow, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, said: “Approximately three hours after they left the dock another boater out on the lake discovered the boat drifting with the [son] on board asleep. So they contacted the rangers and began an investigation and we've been actively searching for the mother since that time. We have both aerial search going on and our dive team as well. Indications are that we believe she did go in the lake. At this point, it's still a search and that's what we know up to this point.
“The [son] said that he had been swimming with his mother and that she got back in the boat and her mum didn't. 'We know that the [boy] had a life vest on, there was another adult life vest found on the boat. You can imagine it's somewhat challenging interviewing a three-year-old and getting those kinds of details. We're going on the belief that she did go in the water, and we've not been able to locate her. This may well be a case of drowning,” he said, later clarifying that the child is 4 years old.
Buschow also mentioned that the spot where Rivera went for swimming, it’s not known how deep the water was. Also, it was not clear what conditions she faced at the time. “This is a big reservoir, it's deep, these kinds of things happen. We don't know all the circumstances. Investigators are working on that, getting as much information as possible,” he added.
Hours before Rivera, who started her career as a child actress and model, went missing, she shared a very sweet snap of her with her son on her Instagram account. The picture showed the 33-year-old actress kissing Josey’s face. The close-up picture that she last shared on Instagram with her two million followers showed her spending a good time with Josey. “Just the two of us,” she wrote in the caption of the post that garnered more than 300,000 likes and lots of positive comments.