As the search and recovery operation for missing actress Naya Rivera continues, authorities are now confirming that they do not believe the Glee star ever left the waters of Lake Piru on Wednesday. Rivera had gone missing after renting a pontoon boat with her 4-year-old son, who said that his mother never returned to the boat after they went swimming. A life vest aboard the vessel led authorities to believe that she may have entered the water without the floatation device.
Speaking with PEOPLE on Sunday, Sgt. Shannon King confirmed that authorities still have no reason to believe that Rivera ever “left the water,” as there is “no evidence to say she left the water.” Reiterating earlier statements, King added that “it appears to be 100 percent just a tragic drowning.”
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Although the search for the actress has largely focused on the water, with authorities bringing in dive teams to search the lake bed, fans had theorized that Rivera could have possibly made it to shore. In their efforts to locate the actress, authorities had searched by land and air, checking the shoreline as well as the surrounding land for any signs of her. On Sunday, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department announced that they would be expanding their search to “cabins and outbuildings in the surrounding area.”
King, who confirmed that the search of these areas had been completed, explained that Sunday’s search was to ensure that “nothing has changed” since the last time they had searched the lake’s surrounding areas. He added that that the cabins near Lake Piru are “not occupied” and that “nothing came” of the search. He went on to explain that much of the search efforts on Sunday had been focused on the shoreline. King said that “there were a lot of folks that were talking on social media about, ‘Oh, check the cabins. Maybe she’s there, maybe she’s hanging out.’” Since the search party had “extra” personnel on Sunday, they “did go to a couple of the cabins that were on the north end of the lake, that’s all that’s out there, and nothing came of it.”
Set to continue Monday morning, search efforts will refocus on the waters of Lake Piru. Authorities have said that it is possible for a body to become entangled in the plants and trees that lie on the bottom of the lake, and the poor visibility of the water has made it difficult for divers to search. Along with “visual surface checks,” search party personnel are also using sonar equipment, with King explaining that “when they see the sonar vision coming back on their screen, the slower they go, the clearer it is.”
