Naya Rivera Search & Rescue Team Member Speaks to Lake Piru's Drownings

A reported seven people have drowned in Lake Piru between the timespan of 1994 and 2000, and now a rescuer from Naya Rivera‘s search investigation is speaking out about the lake in particular.

The 33-year-old Glee actress disappeared while boating at the lake in California with her son Josey, 4, on Wednesday (July 8). Josey told authorities his mom went swimming and never came back to the boat.

“The best thing that we can say that contributes to a lot of the drownings is when people go swimming and they are not wearing their life vests. And they jumped off the boat,” Robert Inglis of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Team told Us Weekly. “It doesn’t take much to get exhausted if you’re not in shape. Winds do kick up at that lake, and the boats start to get away and you are trying to go after that boat … you could get a leg cramp. If you are wearing a life vest, you could rest and someone can go back and pick you up, or call for help or something like that.”

“So in scuba instruction, we have to teach a 10-minute tread water float, and I’ve had divers who are super muscular,” he continued. “They struggle because they are sinking. They can’t float. So depending on the body tone of a person, you could get that feeling that you are being sucked down because you really just can’t float.“

“We’ve been in that lake many times. I’ve been at the dam. I go to the deepest point. There is no rip current, there are no whirlpools,” he said. “I think it was seven years before, or seven years ago that they did have drowning in that lake.” The most recent drowning in Lake Piru reportedly occurred in 2008, according to some reports.

Robert also speculated what may have happened to Naya in the lake while she was swimming.