Naya Rivera’s heartbroken family visit lake where she went missing

Emotional family members of missing Glee star Naya Rivera entered the lake where she is believed to have drowned last week.

The family of Glee star Naya Rivera were united in grief on Saturday as they tried to connect with the missing actress.

Naya’s mum, Yolanda Rivera, was pictured kneeling in front of Lake Piru in Ventura, California, where her daughter is believed to have drowned last week.

Naya Rivera's mother Yolanda Rivera at Lae Piru. Picture: ABC7

Naya’s ex-husband, Ryan Dorsey, joined the emotional scenes, wading through the water in tears.

He was reunited with Naya’s dad, George Rivera and her brother Mychal, who entered the water fully clothed in attempt to reach the missing star.

Ryan Dorsey (right) and George Rivera enter the water of Lake Piru. Picture: BACKGRID

Together, the family took a boat out onto the water, joining the desperate search for Naya.

Ex Ryan was seen crying on the lakeside as other members walked at the beauty spot with heavy hearts.

It comes after footage of the underwater hunt for Rivera was released as investigators revealed it could take up to five days to find her body.

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Naya’s ex Ryan Dorsey on the water’s edge. Picture: BACKGRID

Ventura County Sheriff’s Office sergeant Kevin Donoghue told People that after speaking with Naya’s four-year-old son Josey, who was with the actress when she went missing, they have no reason to believe she took her own life.

He said: “We interviewed her son and there was nothing that we learned from her son that would have suggested that this was suicide.

“Everything that we’ve learned so far leads to this being some sort of water recreational accident.

“To say definitively what actually happened, we really can’t say. We just don’t know, it’s a mystery.”

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Ryan Dorsey and another family member comfort each other. Picture: BACKGRID

The search for 33-year-old Rivera entered its fourth day on Saturday following her disappearance while she was out boating on Lake Piru in Ventura, California, with her son.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Department shared footage of the “difficult” search for the missing actress on Twitter over the weekend.

“Here’s an example of the underwater visibility at a 30-foot depth in Lake Piru,” the Sheriff’s Department tweeted.

Mychal and George Rivera join the search for Naya. Picture: BACKGRID

As there is almost zero visibility in the lake, divers are resorting to search by feel, which means it could be several days before crews locate her body, Eric Buschow, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said at a press conference Friday evening.

“We don’t know if she’s going to be found five minutes from now or five days from now, so we’re still going to be continuing this effort,” he said.

“The visibility in the water is one to two feet,” Buschow added.

Officials are using a solar system to hunt for her body.

“It’s very effective,” he said of the sonar system.

The family head out on a boat to join the search. Picture: JACK / BACKGRID

“They get a really detailed image and they can go down and focus on specific things rather than putting divers in the water where they’re literally feeling around because they can’t see.”

The search has been severely hampered by the poor visibility of the lake’s murky waters.

Rivera is presumed to have drowned at the southern California lake on Wednesday and a search and recovery operation has been underway for the past few days.

Naya’s son, who was found alone on a rented boat, told investigators his mum “jumped into the water but didn’t come back up”.

Josey is now safe with family members. The boy’s father is Ryan Dorsey – who Naya divorced in 2018 and stars in the hit crime drama Ray Donovan.

Naya and her mother Yolanda Nivera. Picture: Instagram

Distraught fans tweeted for the sheriff’s department to keep looking for Naya.

“Please don’t stop looking for her I beg you,” pleaded one user while another said: “Y’all need to be out on boats with flashlights!”

A man who identified himself as Josey’s grandfather, believed to be Ryan’s dad, 65-year-old Arnold Dorsey, was at her mother Yolanda’s home in Valencia with the family on Friday.

Visibly upset, he told The Sun: “We are sad, we just wish they could find her so we can have some closure.”

Naya’s young son Josey was found on a boat in Lake Piru. Picture: Chris Delmas/AFP

Asked how her young son is coping, he replied: “We still have good days (with him), I can’t make any other comment at this time.”

Another member of the household was heard shouting, “We are sad,” as little Josey heartbreakingly asked for his grandfather, telling him: “Come on papa.”

Search and rescue diver Robert Inglis told DailyMailTV Naya could have dived into the water from her boat and hit her head on one of the branches, shrubs and rocks beneath the surface.

Naya has now been missing for four days, presumed drowned. Picture: BACKGRID

He said: “People have broken their necks before. It’s happened in pools quite frequently, it can happen in lakes as well.”

If you go into some coves you could have 3ft off bottom and not even see it until you jumped in. There are places [like that] with the lake when you start to get more north because that’s where the shallow part of the lake is.

“There’s a lot of brush, you have these trees that are there and they do stick up.”

This story originally appeared on The Sun and is republished here with permission