Naya Rivera’s Glee co-star Jane Lynch says news of lake disappearance ‘is very heartbreaking’

Jane Lynch was seen for the first time since news that her Glee co-star Naya Rivera’s four-year-old son was found alone in Lake Piru, Ventura County, California where she is now missing and presumed dead on Wednesday.

The 59-year-old actress was seen on a solo shopping trip in Beverly Hills on Friday.

She was asked about her former castmate as she said: ‘Oh it’s very heartbreaking. It’s very, very, very hard. 

‘Sending the best to her family and that sweet little boy and yeah it’s pretty awful.’

Fellow castmate Heather Morris was also seen out for the first time since the tough news.

The 33-year-old actress was seen on an errand run in Los Angeles.

She has remained hopeful about Rivera as she took to Instagram on Friday to post a video of the sky with the caption:  ‘BringNayaHome’

They all starred on the Fox series from 2009 to 2015.

 Meanwhile her ex Ryan Dorsey was seen arriving  at his former mother-in-law’s home on Friday as crews continued recovery efforts for his ex-wife.

The 36-year-old Justified actor looked downcast as he arrived and carried in supplies for the family. 

His arrival came after People reported that three months before Naya’s disappearance on March 26, she and Ryan filed a new agreement to ‘share joint physical custody of their son Josey, which would include holidays and his summer vacation.

The former married couple decided on ‘an equal timeshare to be mutually agreed upon by the Parties consistent with the schedules of each Party and the minor child,’ according to the documents.

‘The Parties shall also equally divide all holidays, vacation time, pupil-free days, and summer vacation. The Parties shall meet and confer to determine the holiday schedule. The Court reserves jurisdiction in the event of a dispute,’ the agreement continued. 

‘The Parties shall share joint physical custody of the minor child with [Rivera] having primary physical custody of the minor child. [Dorsey] shall be afforded frequent and meaningful custodial contact with the minor child according to’ a schedule created by the two parents. 

Both Ryan and Naya were also to each get two separate weeks alone with Josey throughout the summer.

Meanwhile law enforcement sources ruled out suicide as a factor and believe the disappearance on the lake was accidental.

Sgt. Kevin Donoghue told People on Friday: ‘We interviewed her son and there was nothing that we learned from her son that would have suggested that this was suicide. Everything that we’ve learned so far leads to this being some sort of water recreational accident.’

‘To say definitively what actually happened, we really can’t say. We just don’t know, it’s a mystery,’ Donoghue added. ‘We’re still investigating, we’re still searching. We’re trying to uncover clues as we go. But so far, we really don’t have a lot of information to make any guesses as to what could have happened.’

He also said that it’s unclear if Josey climbed back into the boat himself or if Naya helped him back in. He said, ‘I know she was in the water. I don’t know if she helped him back on the boat. That I don’t know.’

The conditions in Lake Piru are making it difficult for the rescue crew to find Naya, but they used a scanning sonar on Friday to ‘paint pictures of the lake bed floor.’

Police said on Thursday that the search and rescue mission for Rivera is now being considered a recovery operation, a day after she vanished from the California lake where she’d been boating with her son.

Rivera vanished on Wednesday while on Lake Piru with her son Josey, who told police that she’d ‘jumped’ into the water to go swimming and never came back. He was found asleep on their drifting boat.

This comes after search and rescue teams searched the lake on Thursday and local sheriffs gave grim details about the lake which Rivera was familiar with and had been visiting for years.

Ventura County Deputy Sheriff Chris Dyer said on Thursday that Lake Piru was a ‘sanctuary’ for Naya, she was familiar with the lake and has been going there for years.

Rivera welcomed her son, Josey Hollis, with then-husband Ryan Dorsey in 2015. She called her young son ‘my greatest success, and I will never do any better than him’ in her 2016 memoir ‘Sorry Not Sorry.’

Rivera and Hollis divorced in 2018, after Rivera had earlier applied to end the marriage in 2016 but the couple had initially reconciled.

On Thanksgiving weekend 2017, Rivera was arrested in West Virginia on suspicion of domestic battery against Dorsey. The Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office said Dorsey later asked that Rivera not be prosecuted.

Dorsey, also an actor, has appeared on shows including Ray Donovan and Justified.

Former Glee co-star Matthew Morrison defended Rivera at the time of her arrest, saying she was a ‘great mom’.

Initially, police had hoped to find the actress alive and were searching the expansive shoreline as well as in the water. Now though, they say the mission is a recovery operation.

‘There’s no evidence of foul play at this point. This may well be a case of drowning,’ sheriff’s Capt. Eric Buschow said.

He said it was an employee who works at the boat shack who found the boat and the child in the north part of the lake.

‘My indication is that the child was found sleeping on the boat,’ he said at a press conference near the lake Thursday.

‘I’ve been told Naya Rivera has been coming here for years and she is familiar with the lake. This might be a little sanctuary for her, especially on a Wednesday – no one’s here on a Wednesday so it’s a good day to come. She rented the boat.’

Deputy Sheriff Dyer added: ‘We’re not presuming her dead and right now it’s still a search and rescue operation, we’re searching not only the water but the shoreline. We hope for the best and prepare for the worst.’

The senior officer said at this point all signs point to this being a horrible accident.

‘There was no collision or signs of struggle,’ he said. ‘We are using our helicopters, we are using our dive teams, we are using sonar equipment and our unmanned aerial drone team.

‘It’s extremely difficult to search this lake, it goes from depths of 40ft to 5ft.

‘Visibility in the daytime is 8 to 10 inches. At nighttime it’s zero. Everywhere you see a buoy on the lake is a low part.

‘There’s full-grown trees and debris under the lake. It’s been a couple years since someone drowned here in Lake Piru, that an accident’s happened in the lake, but it has happened before,’ he said. 

Tahj Mowry, whom Naya revealed in her memoir was her first kiss, shared an Instagram tribute to her this Friday.

‘My sweet Naya – to say that I am devastated would be an understatement. This is a nightmare. Everyday gets harder. However, I am holding onto hope that you will be found,’ he began.

⁣’We grew up together. We became adults together. We experienced so many firsts together. You were my first experience with everything; love, intimacy, heartbreak. We broke each others hearts and then mended them back together…more than once. I will never not think of you,’ he continued.

‘No woman has ever measured up what you gave me or how you made me feel. I’ve never liked to admit it but I have never stopped loving you. A part of me always wished for the day where God would bring us back together to be what we dreamt we could have been.’

Offering warm words to Rivera’s family he added: ‘I still have faith. I still have hope. Let’s please all pray that she is found and brought home safely. ‘

Mowry concluded: ‘Naya, I miss you deeply. I wish I got the chance to tell you that once more but I’m believing I will get that chance. I know deep down you’ve always known how I felt. I look forward to the day where I can see your beautiful face once more and tell you everything I’ve wanted to say that I didn’t get the chance to say. I love you forever. I always have and I always will.