Local authorities involved in the search for Naya Rivera have said that the Glee star’s body may never be recovered as the frantic search continues.
In a press conference on Thursday (July 9, local time) Sgt. Kevin Donoghue of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office explained that “terrible” visibility (less than one foot) in the lake makes it quite possible that a body may not be recovered.
“If the body is entangled in something underneath the water it may never come up,” Donoghue said on Thursday. “We don’t know.”
“There’s a lot of trees and plants and such that are under the water that can cause entanglement. Makes it unsafe for divers and a complicated search,” he said.
Prior to the press conference, local police told PEOPLE that they’re “confident” Rivera is still in the water.
As it currently stands, authorities have been lead to believe that Rivera has drowned in the lake, with no evidence to support that she exited the lake on shore.
Donoghue explained today that emergency crews have search the entire “”shoreline for any clues whatsoever, any personal items, any footprints, anything that would indicate that she made it out of the water and because of the absence of those clues, that is why the focus of the search right now is in the water.”
Speaking to PEOPLE, Donoghue said that they haven’t ruled out the possibility of Naya Rivera suffering some sort of medical episode in the water.
“She could have suffered a medical episode. We just don’t know. We won’t know until we find her.”
Donoghue has also informed PEOPLE that the search will continue if Rivera is not found on Thursday, asserting that the decision will be made when the team feel they have done everything in their power to recover her body.
“It is a large area under the water. Water visibility being what it is, we will continue the search. The decision to end the search will be really formulated when we are confident we have done everything we can do to search as much as we can search, but we are not there yet.”
Unfortunately, experts and authorities currently believe that her body is somewhere within the large body of water.
“Based on the information we have so far, we are fairly confident the focus of our search being in the water.”
Authorities are still trying to piece together a timeline of events.
More to come.
