Amber Riley and Kevin McHale speak out on Glee co-star Naya Rivera's disappearance

Naya Rivera’s Glee co-stars Amber Riley and Kevin McHale spoke out on Sunday, after the actress who played Santana Lopez went missing while boating with her son at Lake Piru on Wednesday. 

Riley took to Twitter to ask fans to ‘show some respect’ and to pray for Rivera’s safe return, while McHale retweeted her message and asked for privacy for the missing star’s family. 

Rivera starred on the hit Fox show alongside Riley and McHale for all six seasons from 2009 until 2015. 

‘Show some respect. All our energy is going toward helping find Naya and praying for her safe return and for her family,’ Riley wrote. 

Riley went on to address calls from fans online for the original cast of Glee to speak out on Rivera’s disappearance.  

‘No one owes anyone online a performance of grief. This is very real and devastating. Focus on Naya and her family. Not us,’ she added. ‘We don’t matter right now.’

And McHale echoed her sentiment and said he was holding onto ‘hope’ that Rivera was going to be found. 

‘I cannot begin to understand what Naya’s family must be feeling,’ he wrote. ‘I know the rest of us are completely shattered, but not without hope.’

He continued to say: ‘Please respect her family & their privacy in this moment. Please refrain from judging those who don’t show their pain on social media.’ 

Their fellow Glee cast member Heather Morris took to Twitter to reach out the the Ventura County Sheriff, telling them how friends of Naya are feeling ‘powerless’ and ‘want to help in any way’ possible. 

‘My name is Heather Morris, I’m Nayas close friend and co-worker, and I’m trying to conduct an on foot search and rescue mission along with a small group of friends at Lake Piru,’ Morris wrote.

She made sure not to overstep, going on: ‘I understand your team is doing EVERYTHING in their power, but we are feeling helpless, powerless and want to help in any way. 

‘I have left a message with the department of Rescue and Air today, and I will call again tomorrow. Thank you’ 

Heather and Naya became close while playing BFFs-turned-girlfriends Brittany and Santana on Glee. 

Earlier in the week, Morris asked followers to pray for Rivera’s safe return, taking to her Instagram Story to say: ‘We need all the prayers we can to bring our Naya back home to us. We need your love and light.’ 

Yesterday was an emotional day for Rivera’s family, who came together at Lake Piru to resume their search.

Ryan Dorsey, Naya’s ex and father of son Josey, looked distraught as he processed the situation at her last known location. Also there were Rivera’s parents. 

‘They’re obviously devastated, grieving,’ Sgt. Marta Bugarin, a public information officer with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said. ‘Our goal is to try and bring some closure to the family today.’ 

The recovery operation has resumed today, Sunday.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office was assisted with their search efforts by members of the Tulare and San Luis Obispo sheriff’s agencies as well as a private contractor, Bugarin said.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Department shared footage of the ‘difficult’ search for the missing actress on Twitter Friday night, which has been hampered by the poor visibility of the lake’s murky waters.  

The video shows the images picked up around 30 feet below the surface of the water.

The lake itself is 1,200 acres and can reach depths of up to 130 feet. 

In it, authorities point to a barely visible tree limb highlighting the challenges divers are facing in trying to find the missing mother-of-one.  

‘Here’s an example of the underwater visibility at a 30-foot depth in Lake Piru,’ the Sheriff’s Department tweeted.  

A second social media post shows footage of the a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) being lowered into Lake Piru and details that specialized equipment including sonar, divers and dogs have also been deployed in the hunt.

‘Here’s the ROV used by @TulareSheriff in the search for Naya Rivera at Lake Piru today,’ the Sheriff’s Department wrote.

With almost zero visibility, human divers are resorting to searching by feel, meaning it could take several days before crews can locate her body, Eric Buschow, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said at a press conference Friday evening.

‘We don’t know if she’s going to be found five minutes from now or five days from now, so we’re still going to be continuing this effort,’ he said. ‘The visibility in the water is one to two feet,’ Buschow added. 

Buschow said ‘promising’ images had shown up on the sonar Thursday night but when the ROV was dropped into the water the objects turned out not to be Rivera’s body.  

‘What they do is they go out and they tow these devices in the water that scan the bottom of the lake for any objects that might look like a body.

‘Last night, they had a couple of images that showed up on the sonar that they thought might be promising to investigate,’ he said. 

‘This morning, they sent an ROV, or a small robotic device, down into the water to examine those objects. Unfortunately, they did not locate Naya Rivera. They are still searching.’ 

Buschow admitted the conditions of the lake made the search ‘difficult’ but said he is confident Rivera’s body will be recovered. 

‘It’s very effective,’ he said of the sonar system. 

‘They get a really detailed image and they can go down and focus on specific things rather than putting divers in the water where they’re literally feeling around because they can’t see.’ 

The search resumed at 6am Saturday morning, with authorities now focusing on the north and east sides of the lake, based on where the boat was found and the currents of the water. 

A specially-trained dog is also being used in the search to sniff above the water’s surface and alert handlers to a body beneath. 

Authorities confirmed the mission had shifted to a recovery Thursday as hope of finding Rivera alive vanished.  

The actress’s distraught family said they just ‘wish’ she could be found so they could get some ‘closure’ over what is believed to have been a tragic drowning accident. 

A man thought to be 65-year-old Arnold Dorsey, the father of Rivera’s ex-husband Ryan Dorsey and the grandfather to Josey, told The Sun the whole family was ‘sad’ and were rallying around Rivera’s son.  

‘We are sad, we just wish they could find her so we can have some closure,’ he said outside Rivera’s mother Yolanda’s home in Valencia.

He said Josey was having some ‘good days’ after the four-year-old’s terrifying ordeal.    

‘We still have good days [with him], I can’t make any other comment at this time.’  

Josey was found asleep and alone on the rental boat Wednesday evening. 

He told police his mother had ‘jumped’ into the water to go swimming and never came back, but police admitted it was ‘challenging’ to interview a four-year-old.  

The lake was said to be a ‘sanctuary’ for Rivera and somewhere she had been going to for years. 

However, the waters are also known for their rip currents and for being full of debris, and eight people have drowned there since 1994. 

Authorities have said there is no evidence of foul play or suicide and that everything points to the young star accidentally drowning.