'Glee' Star Naya Rivera Goes Missing After Boating With Son

“Glee” star Naya Rivera went missing after going on a boat trip with her four-year-old son on Wednesday. The police found her son alone in a boat on a lake in Southern California three hours after the actress and her son had left the dock.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s office said the 33-year-old actress rented the boat in the afternoon of Wednesday at Lake Piru, north-west of Los Angeles. Her son told investigators that she and his mom had gone swimming but Rivera never got back into their boat. Three hours later, a boater spotted Rivera’s son sleeping alone on their boat in the middle of the lake.

Authorities immediately started a search and rescue operation for Naya Rivera, both from air and with a dive team. The search was suspended overnight but authorities will resume their search at first light on Thursday.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Sheriff’s Captain Eric Buschow said it could be a possible case of drowning. He said her son had a life vest on when he was found by the boater, while an adult life vest was found on the boat.

In a statement, Rivera’s former publicist Zack Teperman said he was shocked by the news of the “Glee” star’s disappearance. “I still can’t believe what I’m hearing and hoping it isn’t true,” he said. “I’m just sad. Naya Rivera was one of the first people I had the honor of working with back in 2009 when I got into public relations and moved to Hollywood. One of the first people to allow me to give her advice and guide her through those crazy ‘Glee’ days,” he added.

Rivera started her career as a child actress. She starred in the CBS sitcom “Royal Family” when she was four and has appeared in TV commercials in the U.S. However, it was her role as Santana Lopez in the Fox show “Glee” that made her rise to fame. Her other projects include “The Master of Disguise” and “At the Devil’s Door.”

In 2014, Rivera married fellow actor Ryan Dorsey but they divorced in 2018. Dorsey is the father of her son.