Naya Rivera’s Glee castmates pay tribute after body was found

Naya Rivera’s Glee castmates paid tribute to her after police confirmed that a body pulled from Lake Piru on Monday is indeed the 33-year-old actress just six days after she vanished.

Jane Lynch was the first to pay her respects as she took to Twitter on Monday morning to write:  ‘Rest sweet, Naya. What a force you were. Love and peace to your family.’

They both starred on the Fox series from 2009 to 2015; Naya as cheerleader Santana Lopez and 59-year-old Lynch as coach Sue Sylvester.

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The actress’s family rushed to the lake on Monday morning and some of her Glee castmates, including Heather Morris, were also there. 

Max Adler, who played football player Dav Karofsky, continued the social media tributes as he posted several broken heart and crying emojis. 

Joshua Sussman – who portrayed Jacob Ben Israel in the  Fox series – wrote: ‘[Broken heart emoji] Naya, you will be missed so much [sad face emoji]’

After news broke that Naya’s body had been recovered from the lake, Lea Michele returned to social media to pay tribute to her late co-star.

She posted a black and white snap of Rivera in one of her Glee costumes to Instagram Story.

Michele did not write any words but went on to share another black and white snap of some of the Glee cast looking out over a beach.

Confirmation of Rivera’s death came on the seventh anniversary of the death of Cory Monteith, Glee star and Michele’s real-life love who was found dead of a drugs and alcohol overdose in a hotel room in Vancouver, B.C., on July 13, 2013.

Michele honors Monteith each year and began her montage of photos on Instagram Story with a black and white photo of the actor posing against the backdrop of New York City.

A day prior, Rivera’s co-star Amber Patrice Riley took to Twitter to urge her followers to show some respect for Naya’s family and friends.

She wrote: ‘Show some respect. All our energy is going toward helping find Naya and praying for her safe return and for her family. No one owes anyone online a performance of grief. This is very real and devastating. Focus on Naya and her family. Not us. We don’t matter right now.’

Fellow castmate Kevin McHale backed Riley’s statement as he retweeted it with the added commentary: ‘I cannot begin to understand what Naya’s family must be feeling. I know the rest of us are completely shattered, but not without hope. 

‘Please respect her family & their privacy in this moment. Please refrain from judging those who don’t show their pain on social media. [heart emoji]’ 

Other celebs paid tribute including Pretty Little Liars star Janel Parrish who wrote: ‘Rest In Peace and power, Naya [sad face and broken heart emojis]’  

The Ventura County Sheriff Twitter announced the grim discovery on Twitter, saying: ‘A body has been found at Lake Piru this morning.

‘The recovery is in progress.’

Rivera vanished on Wednesday on Lake Piru after taking a pontoon boat out on the water with her four-year-old son Josey.

Josey was later found alone, sleeping on the boat, by another group who noticed it drifting.

Search and rescue teams have spent the last six days combing the lake for traces of the actress but struggled against poor visibility and the sheer size of the lake.

On Monday, they honed in on a cove where the actress had taken a photograph of Josey and sent it to a relative 90 minutes before he was found on the boat.

They focused their search on that cove on Monday.

The actress grew up 20 miles from the lake and was familiar with it, police sources said last week. 

She thought of it as her ‘sanctuary’, despite it being known for rip currents and icy waters that can overpower swimmers. 

On Sunday, Naya’s distraught family were seen at the lake trying to assist investigators in their search for her.

Josey told police that his mother ‘jumped in’ and never came back up to the surface.

He was wearing a life jacket but the actress’s was on the pontoon when it was recovered.

‘There was a picture sent to a family member that showed the boy on the boat by a cove. We found where that cove was,’ Robert Inglis of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Team told Us Weekly.

He previously said: ‘What I suspect is that the winds kicked up.

‘Those pontoon boats are very light, and when you push them, it can get away from you. She might’ve tried to swim after the boat. But that’s all speculation. Once we do locate her, that’ll answer a lot more questions.’

Police have not shared the image and it’s unclear which cove it was taken in. Over the weekend, they asked members of the public not to go looking for the star themselves in the dangerous water.

The actress’s father George on Sunday appeared to help co-ordinate the hunt for his missing daughter after police confirmed ‘nothing came’ of their search of cabins along Lake Piru.

Naya’s costar Kevin McHale wrote again on Monday evening about the late actress in a heartbreaking Instagram post about the plans they made together last week.

‘My Naya, my Snixxx, my Bee. I legitimately can not imagine this world without you,’ he began.

‘A week ago today we were talking about running away to Hawaii. This doesn’t make sense. And I know it probably never will.’

He also revealed the two shared in their grief when they learned of the death of their costar Cory Monteith.

‘7 years ago today, she and I were together in London when we found out about Cory. We were so far away, but I was so thankful that we had each other,’ he wrote.

The actor went on to salute her as ‘independent’ and ‘strong,’ adding that ‘the idea of her not being here is something I cannot comprehend.’

‘She was the single most quick-witted person I’ve ever met, with a steel-trap memory that could recall the most forgettable conversations from a decade ago verbatim. The amount of times she would memorize all of those crazy monologues on Glee the morning of and would never ever mess up during the scene… I mean, she was clearly more talented than the rest of us. She was the most talented person I’ve ever known. There is nothing she couldn’t do and I’m furious we won’t get to see more,’ he continued.

He also included a sweet anecdote about how he first met Naya on the set of Glee.

‘I’m thankful that my dad happened to have met her weeks before I did and when I got Glee, he told me to “look out for a girl named Naya because she seemed nice.” Well dad, she was nice and she became one of my favorite people ever.’

He ended the anguished post with praise for his costar’s undying love for her son.

‘If you were fortunate enough to have known her, you’ll know that her most natural talent of all was being a mother. The way that she loved her boy, it was truly Naya at her most peaceful. I’m thankful that Naya got that beautiful little boy got back on that boat. I’m thankful he will have a strong family around him to protect him and tell him about his incredible mom.

‘I just hope more than anything that her family is given the space and time to come to terms with this. For having such tiny body, Naya had such a gigantic presence, a void that will now be felt by all of us – those of us who knew her personally and the millions of you who loved her through your TVs. I love you, Bee,’ he concluded. 

Darren Criss, who starred with Naya on Glee, shared his own thoughts on her death in a Twitter thread.

‘She was bold. She was outrageous. She was a LOT of fun,’ he wrote. ‘Naya made me laugh like no one else on that set. I always said it while we were working together and I’ve maintained it ever since. Her playful, wicked sense of humor never ceased to bring a smile to my face.’

He added that he ‘always loved her voice, and savored every chance I got to hear her sing.’

‘I think she had more talent than we would have ever been able to see,’ he wrote.

‘I was constantly moved by the degree to which she took care of her family, and how she looked out for her friends. She showed up for me on numerous occasions where she didn’t have to, and I was always so grateful for her friendship then, as I certainly am now.

‘And even as I sit here, struggling to comprehend, gutted beyond description- the very thought of her cracks me up and still brings a smile to my face. That was Naya’s gift. And it’s a gift that will never go away. Rest in peace you wild, hilarious, beautiful angel,’ he finished.