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Naya Rivera missing: Glee co-stars Demi Lovato and Heather Morris ask fans to pray

Actor is presumed dead after swimming in California’s Lake Piru

Jacob Stolworthy,Louis Chilton
Thursday 09 July 2020 14:23 BST
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Former Glee star Naya Rivera missing at California lake

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Naya Rivera’s Glee co-stars Demi Lovato and Heather Morris have sent messages of hope after the actor went missing while boating with her four-year-old son.

Rivera’s young son was reported to have been left alone on the pontoon boat on California’s Lake Piru, and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department are now searching for a presumed drowning victim.

In the hit Fox show, Lovato played the love interest of Rivera’s character, Santana Lopez.

“Please pray for @nayarivera to be found safe and sound,” she wrote after posting a photo of a candle.

Morris, who played Brittany S Pierce in the series, wrote on her Instagram Stories: “We need all the prayers we can to bring our Naya back home to us. We need your love and light.”

A search and rescue dive team and helicopter equipped with a drone are both assisting in the search for Rivera, 33.

According to the Ventura Sheriff’s Department, Rivera and her son were swimming, and he was wearing a life vest, but she was not. Rivera’s son, whose father is actor Ryan Dorsey, is reportedly unharmed.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Twitter account initially wrote that there was an ongoing search for a possible drowning victim at Lake Piru. The account subsequently identified the missing person as Rivera.

The search is currently paused, as authorities wait until “first light” on Thursday morning to resume.

Lake Piru is situated in Ventura County, California, in the Los Padres National Forest, which is over 50 miles north of Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, Rivera tweeted a photo of her and her son with the caption: “Just the two of us.”

Rivera appeared in all six seasons of Glee.

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