Search for Naya Rivera enters third day as police chief warns body of Glee actress may have become 'entangled' on lakebed

The search for the actress Naya Rivera, who police say has probably drowned, has entered its third day.

Ms Rivera, 33, who starred in the musical drama Glee, was reported missing on Wednesday afternoon after her son, 4, was found alone in a boat on Lake Piru in California's Ventura County, north of Los Angeles.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kevin Donoghue told reporters on Thursday: “Our hearts and our prayers and thoughts go out to the Rivera family. This is a terrible tragedy. ... We’re going to do everything we can to find her.”

Emergency services workers initially thought Ms Rivera could be alive and looked for her along the shoreline, but later began to search in Lake Piru itself.

Police said they couldn't put a timeframe on the search. Sgt. Donohue added: "If the body is tangled in something beneath the water, it may never come back up.

"There's no way to really say. We're putting our best foot forward to try and locate her, we're using all the assets that are available to us, we're using technology like Sonar."

CCTV footage released by police shows the star parking up at the rental boat site and walking to a pontoon with her son in tail. The pair then board the vessel and head north before the footage ends.

Police have also released a 911 call from a woman whose husband was one of the first people to find the child.

“The emergency is, we have a missing person,” an employee of the rental boat firm told an operator in the call. "We found a little girl in one of the boats by herself, and her mom is nowhere to be found.” The caller initially assumed Rivera’s son was a little girl, likely because of his long hair

The task facing divers is complicated by the depth of the lake differing greatly, police said, varying from between 50-60ft to 4ft over a short distance.

Visibility in the lake during the daytime is about eight to 10 inches, while sizeable debris including trees flow beneath the surface, police said.

More than 100 rescuers have been at the lake and involved in the effort to find Rivera, with "multiple dive teams" searching the murky depths while two helicopters continue to scour the waves from above.

Police said Rivera's purse, including ID, were on board, as well as a life jacket.

Rivera found significant success starring as a high school cheerleader in Glee. She looks increasingly likely to become the third major cast member to die in their 30s.

Co-star Mark Salling, who Rivera dated at one point, killed himself in 2018 at age 35 after pleading guilty to child sex offences.

Cory Monteith, one of the show's leads, died at 31 in 2013 from a toxic mix of alcohol and heroin.

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