Search for Naya Rivera will include cabins along Lake Piru – Daily Mail

The search for missing Glee actress Naya Rivera has expanded to cabins surrounding the California lake where she disappeared. 

On Sunday the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office announced that cabins on the banks of Lake Piru will be searched after social media users theorized that Rivera could have ended up in one, but officials do not believe she is. 

‘In today’s search for Naya Rivera, cabins and outbuildings in the surrounding area will be checked once again, as well as the shoreline. This has been part of the ongoing search effort since her disappearance on Wednesday afternoon. Boat crews continue to scan the lake,’ the office announced Sunday afternoon. 

They also warned people about trying to search for her themselves and tweeted: ‘For those intent on searching for Naya Rivera on your own, 1. The lake is closed. 2. Temps are already in the 90’s. 3. The terrain around the lake is very steep and rugged. Our teams are well equipped and highly trained. We don’t want to have to rescue you.’ 

Rivera, 33, disappeared while out boating on the lake with her four-year-old son Josey on Wednesday. Josey was found alone in a rental boat with no sign of his mother, who is now presumed dead.

Authorities say they’re confident that Rivera is in the water but a search team will still walk to cabins nearby and deputies will knock on doors to ask if they know anything about Rivera’s whereabouts.

Scroll down for video 

If a cabin is not occupied, then deputies will look inside for any signs of the actress. 

The search has been difficult due to extremely poor visibility due to debris in the water, prompting searchers primarily rely on sonar technology to search the waters.

On Saturday Rivera’s heartbroken family was seen on the banks of the California lake where she disappeared. 

Her father George Rivera was seen running into the lake and splashing water over himself in an emotional moment as he tried to connect with his missing daughter. 

Rivera’s distraught mother was also pictured crumpled on the banks of the lake where her daughter vanished as the search continued for a fifth day. 

The distraught family was seen sharing a moving moment where they came together and hugged each other.  

Naya’s mom Yolanda Rivera was pictured kneeling with her arms outstretched in a moment of desperation in front of Lake Piru in Ventura near Los Angeles on Saturday alongside Naya’s brother Mychal as the duo joined in the recovery operation for the missing star’s body.  

Yolanda and Mychal put on life jackets and joined the Ventura County Sheriff’s search team as they scoured the lake. The pair were seen embracing along the banks of the lake. 

At other points during the day, younger members of the family were seen playing on a beach at the lake. 

‘They’re obviously devastated, grieving,’ Sgt. Marta Bugarin, a public information officer with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said. ‘Our goal is to try and bring some closure to the family today.’ 

The recovery operation will resume first thing on Sunday morning. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office was assisted with their search efforts by members of the Tulare and San Luis Obispo sheriff’s agencies as well as a private contractor, Bugarin said. 

Footage has been released showing the nightmarish underwater hunt for Rivera’s body as authorities warn she could be found ‘five minutes from now or five days from now’ and her devastated family say they ‘need closure’. 

Ventura County Sheriff’s Department shared footage of the ‘difficult’ search for the missing actress on Twitter Friday night, which has been hampered by the poor visibility of the lake’s murky waters. 

The video shows the images picked up around 30 feet below the surface of the water.

The lake itself is 1,200 acres and can reach depths of up to 130 feet. 

In it, authorities point to a barely visible tree limb highlighting the challenges divers are facing in trying to find the missing mother-of-one.  

‘Here’s an example of the underwater visibility at a 30-foot depth in Lake Piru,’ the Sheriff’s Department tweeted.  

A second social media post shows footage of the a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) being lowered into Lake Piru and details that specialized equipment including sonar, divers and dogs have also been deployed in the hunt.

‘Here’s the ROV used by @TulareSheriff in the search for Naya Rivera at Lake Piru today,’ the Sheriff’s Department wrote.     

With almost zero visibility, human divers are resorting to searching by feel, meaning it could take several days before crews can locate her body, Eric Buschow, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said at a press conference Friday evening.

‘We don’t know if she’s going to be found five minutes from now or five days from now, so we’re still going to be continuing this effort,’ he said. ‘The visibility in the water is one to two feet,’ Buschow added. 

Buschow said ‘promising’ images had shown up on the sonar Thursday night but when the ROV was dropped into the water the objects turned out not to be Rivera’s body.  

‘What they do is they go out and they tow these devices in the water that scan the bottom of the lake for any objects that might look like a body.

‘Last night, they had a couple of images that showed up on the sonar that they thought might be promising to investigate,’ he said. 

‘This morning, they sent an ROV, or a small robotic device, down into the water to examine those objects. Unfortunately, they did not locate Naya Rivera. They are still searching.’ 

Buschow admitted the conditions of the lake made the search ‘difficult’ but said he is confident Rivera’s body will be recovered. 

‘It’s very effective,’ he said of the sonar system. 

‘They get a really detailed image and they can go down and focus on specific things rather than putting divers in the water where they’re literally feeling around because they can’t see.’ 

The search resumed at 6am Saturday morning, with authorities now focusing on the north and east sides of the lake, based on where the boat was found and the currents of the water. 

A specially-trained dog is also being used in the search to sniff above the water’s surface and alert handlers to a body beneath. 

Authorities confirmed the mission had shifted to a recovery Thursday as hope of finding Rivera alive vanished.  

The actress’s distraught family said they just ‘wish’ she could be found so they could get some ‘closure’ over what is believed to have been a tragic drowning accident. 

A man thought to be 65-year-old Arnold Dorsey, the father of Rivera’s ex-husband Ryan Dorsey and the grandfather to Josey, told The Sun the whole family was ‘sad’ and were rallying around Rivera’s son.  

‘We are sad, we just wish they could find her so we can have some closure,’ he said outside Rivera’s mother Yolanda’s home in Valencia.

He said Josey was having some ‘good days’ after the four-year-old’s terrifying ordeal.    

‘We still have good days [with him], I can’t make any other comment at this time.’  

Josey was found asleep and alone on the rental boat Wednesday evening. 

He told police his mother had ‘jumped’ into the water to go swimming and never came back, but police admitted it was ‘challenging’ to interview a four-year-old.  

The lake was said to be a ‘sanctuary’ for Rivera and somewhere she had been going to for years. 

However, the waters are also known for their rip currents and for being full of debris, and eight people have drowned there since 1994. 

Authorities have said there is no evidence of foul play or suicide and that everything points to the young star accidentally drowning.