UPDATED 7/13, 12:15 p.m. ET: Naya Rivera texted a family member a photo of her location not long before her disappearance on Lake Piru, and authorities are using it to aid in the search.
“There was a picture sent to a family member that showed the boy on the boat by a cove. We found where that cove was,” Robert Inglis of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Team told Us Weekly.
Just after 12:30 ET on Monday, the sheriff's office tweeted, "Happening now: A body has been found at Lake Piru this morning. The recovery is in progress. A news conference will take place at 2 pm at the lake."
The aforementioned photo Rivera texted was snapped about 90-120 minutes before her son Josey was discovered alone on a pontoon boat on July 8. Amid the wider search, the cove and the boat’s location were given special focus. “We did send our dive members to those two locations and searched those extensively,” Inglis told Us. He added that often witnesses “see someone jumping off a boat so we know which area to search and we can find the body more quickly. In this case, it really could be the whole lake. There are a lot of coves that have to be searched."
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The search for Naya Rivera is still underway, days after its been presumed that she drowned.
Rivera’s ex-husband Ryan Dorsey and her father have joined the efforts, with both of them searching for the missing actress themselves. Images surfaced of Dorsey and Rivera’s father swimming fully clothed in the waters of Lake Piru, which is about 60 miles northwest of central Los Angeles.
According to People, other members of Rivera’s family have been present at the lake. “Naya’s mother and brother have been at the lake every day since Naya disappeared,” a source told the outlet. “They have been in constant contact with the Sheriff’s Office and involved in the search. On Saturday morning, they joined the search on a sheriff’s boat.”
Rivera and Dorsey divorced in 2018 after nearly four years of marriage. They share a son, four-year-old Josey, who was found alone on a rented pontoon on Wednesday after he and Rivera had gone swimming. The boy told authorities that they had gotten in the lake together but she never climbed back in the boat.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department shared an update on Sunday, as the search for Rivera entered day four: “In today’s search for Naya Rivera, cabins and outbuildings in the surrounding area will be checked once again, as well as the shoreline. This has been part of the ongoing search effort since her disappearance on Wednesday afternoon. Boat crews continue to scan the lake.”
On the second day of the search, authorities revealed that they now think Rivera “drowned in a tragic incident” and had pivoted from a “search and rescue mission” to a “recovery” mission.
“Our goal is to bring the family closure,” Ventura County Sheriff Sgt. Marta Bugarin told reporters. “It’s a traumatic time for them. They’re devastated, obviously.”
In addition to divers, helicopters, drones, and cadaver dogs, crews are now using sonar and robotic devices to scan the bottom of the lake and explore underwater.
“We don't know if she's going to be found five minutes from now or five days from now,” Ventura County Sheriff's Capt. Eric Buschow said on Friday.
