Naya Rivera, ‘Glee’ actress, is missing at California lake

Naya Rivera, 33, who starred in six seasons of Fox’s “Glee” as the sharp-witted cheerleader Santana Lopez, was missing Wednesday night as a search team scoured Lake Piru in California, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.

>>Daniel VictorThe New York Times
Published : 9 July 2020, 10:43 AM
Updated : 9 July 2020, 10:43 AM

The sheriff’s office said that it was searching for a “possible drowning victim.” The search was suspended late Wednesday and will be resumed Thursday morning.

A sheriff’s office spokesman, Eric Buschow, said that Rivera had rented a boat with her 4-year-old son Wednesday afternoon. Another boater found the son alone on the boat at 4pm, he said.

The boy was safe Wednesday night, he said.

Rivera began acting as a 4-year-old on the CBS sitcom “The Royal Family” and made guest appearances on a number of shows, including “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Family Matters” and “Baywatch.”

She broke through to wider stardom on “Glee,” with her role growing throughout the first season before she was made a series regular in the second season.

Rivera married actor Ryan Dorsey in 2014 and gave birth to their son, Josey Hollis, in 2015. The couple split in 2018.

Her most recent post on Twitter was a photo of herself and her son.

The cast of “Glee” has dealt with its share of heartbreak. Cory Monteith, who played Finn Hudson, was found dead in a hotel room in 2013 from a drug overdose when he was 31. Mark Salling, who played Noah Puckerman, was 35 when he died in an apparent suicide in 2018, weeks after he pleaded guilty to federal charges of being in possession of child pornography.

© 2020 New York Times News Service