Five days after Naya Rivera was reported missing on Wednesday, July 8, officers confirmed that she was found dead in Lake Piru.
Us Weekly confirmed that officers were looking for the 33-year-old Glee star on July 8 after she was late to return the pontoon boat.
“It is believed that Naya and her son were swimming in the lake near the boat and as they were getting back into the boat, her son made it into the boat and Naya went underwater and did not resurface,” the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department told Us at the time.
Rivera shared Josey with ex-husband Ryan Dorsey. The pair, who wed in July 2014, surprised fans with their decision to tie the knot just three months after her split from Big Sean. (Rivera and the 32-year-old rapper called off their engagement in April 2014.)
The Step Up: High Water star later revealed in her 2016 memoir that she briefly dated Dorsey, 36, before she met Sean.
“By the time we sort of reconnected, I was like, gosh, there’s a reason why you keep coming back in my life and we keep coming back together,” Rivera wrote of Dorsey in her 2016 book, Sorry Not Sorry.
Rivera and Dorsey’s marriage nearly came to an end in November 2016 when she filed for divorce. While they later reconciled, their relationship hit another rough patch in November 2017 when Rivera was arrested after an alleged altercation with Dorsey. After the actress subsequently filed for divorce for the second time, the domestic battery charges against her were dropped as Dorsey decided not to press charges.
While their divorce was finalized in June 2018, the twosome continued to coparent Josey. The day before Rivera brought her son to the lake on July 8, she shared a sweet snap with the little boy via Instagram.
“Just the two of us,” she captioned a photo of her kissing her son.
As fans flooded the comments section of Rivera’s post with positive thoughts, another one of Rivera’s social media posts went viral.
“No matter the year, circumstance, or strifes [every day] you’re alive is a blessing,” Rivera wrote on July 2 via Twitter. “Make the most of today and every day you are given. tomorrow is not promised.”
Scroll through for everything we know about Rivera’s accident — including the lawsuit her ex filed in November:
With reporting by Marjorie Hernandez and Kayley Stumpe
