Text messages between Naya Rivera and a relative helped authorities pinpoint a potential location of the actress before she went missing on Lake Piru.
Rivera sent a photo of her 4-year-old son to a relative some time between 90 minutes and two hours before her son was found alone on the boat, according to a report published Sunday by UsWeekly.
Tributes and messages of hope are pouring in as the search continues for missing #Glee star Naya Rivera. ???? https://t.co/ugfjS1ZlBS pic.twitter.com/GdUXJ3XTez
— E! News (@enews) July 9, 2020
“There was a picture sent to a family member that showed the boy on the boat by a cove,” Robert Inglis of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team told UsWeekly. “We found where that cove was.”
“We did send our dive members to those two locations and searched those extensively,” he added. (RELATED: Video Surveillance Shows Naya Rivera And Son Alone On Pontoon, Actress Presumed Dead)
Inglis told the outlet sometimes there are witnesses “who see someone jumping off a boat so [the rescuers] know which area to search and [they] can find the body more quickly.”
Heather Morris isn’t giving up hope. ❤️On Saturday night she reached out to police to see if she could join the search for Naya Rivera. (????:Getty Images) https://t.co/3rtzeEyrln pic.twitter.com/ractkZ3eMb
— E! News (@enews) July 12, 2020
“In this case, it really could be the whole lake,” Inglis said. “There are a lot of coves that have to be searched.”
The conditions on the lake have made it difficult for the search and rescue teams to recover Rivera’s body, Inglis said. The visibility on the lake is not good and there are trees in the lake that have created dangerous conditions for divers.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office claimed the search for Rivera will last until at least Tuesday.