This is just so heartbreaking. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department has released the final known video of actress Naya Rivera as she pulled up to the dock at Lake Piru to go boating on a gorgeous, sunny day with her four-year-old son Josey. It was taken on closed-circuit TV camera around 1pm on July 8, and showed the former Glee star rolling up in her Merdeces G-Wagon, looking so chic and summery in a black tank top and white shorts for a day on the water with her little boy. Josey would be found three hours later alone on the boat, with his mom missing. Naya has since been presumed drowned after an extensive search of the lake has still not recovered her body over 24 hours later.
The video was taken showing the parking lot, boat docks and open water of Lake Piru, northwest of Los Angeles. Naya is seen pulling her SUV into a nearly empty parking lot, getting out and going around to the other side to collect Josey from his carseat. She then grabbed a large white beach bag out of the back of her vehicle and slung it around her shoulder before she and Josey walked towards the dock.
The pair initially stopped at what appeared to be a boat rental stand, where she spent several minutes. Then what looked to be an employee walked ahead of her and showed Naya and Josey to a boat on the left hand side of the dock, on a slip facing the open lake. Later, the boat pulled out into the open water and headed away from dock, with just Naya and Josey aboard.
Three hours later, the 33-year-old’s son would be found by another boater alone on the pontoon boat, unanchored and drifting with Naya nowhere to be found after going for a swim. “We’ve had no indication after talking to her son that Ms. Rivera made it to shore. So the focus of our search efforts are in the water at this time,” Sgt. Kevin Donoghue told reporters in an afternoon news conference on July 9. He added that Josey, “gave enough information to investigators to conclude that his mother never made it out of the water.”
What started as a search and rescue mission late in the afternoon of July 8 has now turned into a recovery process. Authorities are combing the lake for Naya’s body after she was presumed to have drowned. Donoghue cautioned, “It’s too early to say what happened here…” but that, “Our hearts and our prayers and thoughts go out to the Rivera family. This is a terrible tragedy for all of them and we hope to bring closure for that family.”