Petition Calls for Warning Signs at Lake Piru After Suspected Drowning of ‘Glee’ Star Naya Rivera –
PIRU (CBSLA) – Following the presumed drowning of actress Naya Rivera whereas out boating together with her younger son Wednesday on Lake Piru in Ventura County, hundreds of individuals have signed a petition demanding that authorities put up warning indicators in regards to the lake’s highly effective undertow.
Safety video exhibits actress Naya Rivera and her son on the Lake Piru Marina hours earlier than she is presumed to have drowned whereas boating on July 8, 2020. (Ventura County Sheriff’s Workplace)
The 33-year-old Rivera rented a pontoon boat at about 1 p.m. Wednesday to take out together with her 4-year-old son on Lake Piru, positioned within the Los Padres Nationwide Forest about 50 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
About three hours later, one other boater discovered Rivera’s son sleeping within the boat by himself. He was sporting a life jacket. An adult-sized lifejacket was additionally discovered within the boat.
Divers have been scouring the waters since Wednesday night for Rivera, who’s presumed to have drowned.
A petition posted to Change.org calling for officers to place up warning indicators across the lake’s robust currents has garnered greater than 19,400 signatures as of Friday morning.
“Naya Rivera will not be the primary, nor the final to go lacking at Lake Piru,” wrote petition organizer Erin Jordan. “Lake Piru is a really deep lake with very dangerous whirlpools, individuals have been asking for years for town to place up warning indicators for swimmers. Locals of Ventura County don’t go to Lake Piru for that reason! Vacationer do not know what they’re moving into. Lake Piru wants indicators. We’re bored with ready. We want justice for all those that obtained misplaced at Lake Piru. Put up the indicators.”
The seek for Rivera has now stretched into its third day.
The water is chilly, there are rip currents and the depth of the lake varies within the space the boat was discovered, officers say. There’s additionally a number of particles on the underside, with bushes and roots, and visibility is poor.
A ship is docked and roped off with police tape at Lake Piru on July 9, 2020 in Piru, Calif. (Getty Photographs)
“Beneath the water, it’s so much by really feel,” mentioned Max O’Brien, a volunteer diver with Ventura County Sheriff’s Workplace Search & Rescue, advised reporters Thursday. “There’s a number of shrubbery and sticks that now we have to interrupt by means of, as we’re going by means of, so it’s type of a braille search.”
The search is specializing in the north a part of the lake, the place Rivera’s son was discovered alone on the boat.
“We have now to go along with the place the boat was discovered initially, after which work our manner outward from there,” sheriff’s Sgt. Kevin Donoghue mentioned.
FILE — Naya Rivera attends the Ladies’s Guild Cedars-Sinai annual luncheon on the Regent Beverly Wilshire Resort on Nov. 6, 2019 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Getty Photographs)
In the meantime, safety video launched Thursday exhibits Rivera pulling her SUV into the car parking zone of the Lake Piru Marina. She drives by means of a parking house, backs up after which parks off middle, crossing a line.
Rivera and her son then stroll to the dock, the place a crew member unties the traces and Rivera and her son pull out on the rented boat.
She had been to the lake up to now and was acquainted with the realm, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
Rivera is greatest recognized for the hit sequence “Glee,” which she starred in for its whole six-season run. She additionally appeared in “Devious Maids” and was lately on the present “Step Up: Excessive Water.”