Naya Rivera’s body is being looked for by robots.
The ‘Glee’ star is presumed dead after she went missing on Wednesday (08.07.20) afternoon when her four-year-old son Josey was found alone on a boat on Lake Piru in California, and now Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies have been sending out remotely operated vehicle’s (ROV) to find the body after they spotted a dark shape in the water.
Whilst the object ended up being a tree branch, they are also using side-scan sonar, dogs and divers to try and locate Naya’s body.
It comes after divers revealed they are having to use "touch" to search underwater for Naya, due to poor visibility in the water.
Volunteer diver, Max O’Brien, said: "The visibility is about 1 to 2 feet … There’s a lot of tree branches and overgrowth from when the lake was lower, so we’re digging through, breaking through sticks and searching a heavy brush bottom. Under the water, it’s a lot by feel. Again, there’s a lot of shrubbery and sticks that we have to break through as we’re going through, so it’s kind of a Braille search."
The news comes after Ventura County Sheriff Sergeant Kevin Donoghue admitted there is "no way to really say" what happened, and said her body "may never come back up".
He explained: "If the body is entangled on something beneath the water, it may never come back up. There’s no way to really say. We’re putting our best foot forward to try and locate her, we’re using all the assets that are available to us including technology like sonar … We’re relying on their expertise to help us in that endeavour. We’re going to do everything that we can to find her."
More than 80 people are involved in the search after the police deployed "helicopters, boats, and ATV vehicles", and it was recently stated in a police report that investigators "believe Naya drowned in what appears to be a tragic accident".