Naya Rivera

**Naya Rivera** ( January 12, 1987 – July 8, 2020) was an American actress, singer, and model.

## Early Life

Naya Marie Rivera was born in Valencia, California, on January 12, 1987. She was raised in Valencia and lived in or around Los Angeles for most of her life. She was of African-American, German, and Puerto Rican descent. When the term "Afro-Latinx" became widespread in the 2010s, she was often identified as such. Her mother, Yolanda Previtire (née White), is a real estate agent and former model, while her father, George Rivera, worked various IT jobs including positions at Disney and Universal Music. Her parents had married in 1986, but divorced in 1996, and her mother was remarried to Charles Previtire in 1999; Rivera was close with her stepfather, but did not really know her grandparents. Her maternal grandmother was Clara White, an abortion counselor and figure in the civil rights movement who was involved in the March on Washington, Selma to Montgomery marches, and 1968 Chicago riots, and who organized protests with and was represented by activist and lawyer Lloyd Barbee.

Rivera did not grow up speaking Spanish at home, but understood it and later learned to speak it. She was the oldest of three children: her younger brother is former NFL tight end Mychal Rivera (b. 1990), and her younger sister is runway model Nickayla Rivera (b. 1994). During the time her parents were married, the family's income would fluctuate dramatically, sometimes living lavishly and other times struggling; when they were in financial difficulty, Rivera approved the use of some of the money she earned as a child that was set aside in her Coogan account. The family owned a boat and often went boating when Rivera was a child; she still enjoyed boating as an adult and took many trips to Lake Piru near her home, which she considered a "sanctuary".

## Disappearance and death

On July 8, 2020, Rivera was declared a missing person after her four-year-old son, Josey, was found alone in Rivera's rented boat at Lake Piru, a reservoir in the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County, California. Rivera had been visiting the lake for years, and was considered a strong swimmer. The search for both Rivera and Josey had begun at 4:00 p.m. PDT, three hours after they left the dock, when their rental was over and they had not returned. Josey was found alone, asleep on the boat with his life jacket on, around 5:00 p.m. Josey told investigators that he and Rivera were swimming when she told him to get back onto the boat. Police reports state that he recalled that she helped him climb back into the boat but was unable to climb back onboard herself and then disappeared underwater, while Ryan Dorsey's lawsuit claims that Josey Dorsey climbed aboard unaided while his mother struggled to do the same. Both accounts state that he watched his mother reaching up and calling out for help; he searched for a rope on the boat to help while she was struggling. He also stated that his mother was not wearing a life jacket.

The next day, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office confirmed to NBC that Rivera was presumed dead and that rescue efforts would shift to recovery efforts. On July 11 and 12, Rivera's parents and stepfather, brother, ex-husband Ryan Dorsey and close friend and co-star Heather Morris joined the search team at the lake, and the sheriff's office dissuaded more civilians from trying to search because of dangerous terrain. On July 13, it was announced that a body had been found by divers in Lake Piru when the search resumed in the morning; the body was confirmed to be Rivera's at a press conference held later that day. The sheriff suggested that Rivera and Josey may have found themselves caught in a rip current and struggled to get back to the boat, saying that she likely "mustered enough energy to save her son, but not enough to save herself". On July 14, the Ventura County medical examiner released an autopsy report stating that the cause of death was an accidental drowning and that there was no evidence of injury or intoxication