Naya Rivera’s Text Just Before Disappearing Could Offer Clues About Her Final Moments

As the search for Glee actress Naya Rivera enters its sixth day, police say that a text sent from Rivera to her relative could contain vital clues for finding her.

As Us Weekly reports, Rivera vanished while boating with her son on Lake Piru, 56 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Around 90 to 120 minutes before Rivera’s son Josey was found alone aboard the boat that she had rented, Rivera sent a text of her son posing in a cove.

Robert Inglis of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Team explained that the image gave the team clues about where to focus their search.

“There was a picture sent to a family member that showed the boy on the boat by a cove,” the said. “We found where that cove was.”

Normally, when there isn’t a witness to a disappearance, a rescue team may be forced to begin their search blindly. But in this instance, even without someone who saw Rivera at her last moments, rescuers knew where to start their investigation.

“We did send our dive members to those two locations and searched those extensively,” he said.

Usually, witnesses are available “who see someone jumping off a boat so we know which area to search and we can find the body more quickly. In this case, it really could be the whole lake. There are a lot of coves that have to be searched.”

Rescuers were forced to temporarily halt their efforts after conditions became too difficult to work in. Visibility in the lake got so low at one point that divers couldn’t read a watch in front of their faces. Debris as dead trees in the water also made it difficult for them to maneuver.

Divers have resorted to using sonar to try to locate Rivera’s body. While the search has been slow going, Inglis says he is confident that they will locate her at some point. Once her body is found, he says that it may offer more insight into what caused the actress’s death.

He speculated that the boat could have been picked up by the wind, making it difficult for her to swim back to it. The sides of the lake are at times steep and rocky, making exit in an emergency difficult.

The lake has a reputation as a dangerous spot with numerous deaths there over the years, as The Inquisitr previously reported.

Josey told authorities that his mom went into the water but didn’t return.