'1, 2, 3!,' a Leap Into the Water, Then: 'Help!'

More details on 'Glee' star Naya Rivera's final moments in new autopsy, investigative reports
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 12, 2020 6:00 AM CDT
New Details of Naya Rivera's Final Moments
In this Feb. 23, 2016, file photo, actress Naya Rivera is seen in West Hollywood, Calif.   (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

Details released in July already laid out that Naya Rivera died by accidental drowning. Now, an update reveals more of what happened in her final moments, including information obtained from her young son, who was with her on California's Lake Piru when she died. Per full autopsy and investigative reports from the Ventura County Medical Examiner obtained by People and The Hollywood Reporter, the Glee star's 4-year-old son, Josey Hollis Dorsey, told investigators that he and his mom had counted "1, 2, 3!" before jumping off their pontoon boat together into the water on July 8. Once they were in the water, the boy says, Rivera instructed him to get back in the boat. "She helped him onto the boat and then he ... heard [Naya] yell 'help' and she put her arm in the air," the investigative report notes. Rivera was then said to slip under the surface.

While the 33-year-old actress was "considered to be a good swimmer" and was in generally OK health, the report adds that she did suffer from vertigo "that would get worse when she was in the water," and that could get to the point where she'd end up vomiting. She was said to use antihistamines to manage it. Rivera also had been on medication for a recent sinus infection, and toxicology tests she also had small amounts of anti-anxiety medication and an appetite suppressant in her system. The drugs were not IDed as factors in her death. Meanwhile, the toxicology report notes three cans of White Claw—one empty, one opened but mostly full, and one unopened—were found on the boat; the report notes Rivera had a BAC of 0.016. The man who rented Rivera the pontoon boat said she declined a life vest for herself, but he put one on the boat anyway, per THR. Her life vest was found on the boat. (More Naya Rivera stories.)

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