Glee cast members Amber Riley and Kevin McHale admonished the show’s fanbase, asking them to exhibit compassion and empathy in the face of Naya Rivera’s disappearance—one day after Glee lead Lea Michele deactivated her account in the wake of online abuse.
“Show some respect. All our energy is going toward helping find Naya and praying for her safe return and for her family,” Riley wrote on Twitter. “No one owes anyone online a performance of grief. This is very real and devastating. Focus on Naya and her family. Not us. We don’t matter right now.”
McHale retweeted his former co-star and added, “I cannot begin to understand what Naya’s family must be feeling. I know the rest of us are completely shattered, but not without hope. Please respect her family & their privacy in this moment. Please refrain from judging those who don’t show their pain on social media.”
The tweets were the first public comments Riley and McHale made about Rivera, who disappeared on July 8 after going boating with her son, Josey Dorsey, on Lake Piru, a reservoir in the Los Padres National Forest. The actress is now presumed dead.
“We are confident, based on the circumstances, she was not a victim of foul play. There is no indication of this being an abduction or a homicide,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Captain Erich Buschow told E! Online on Sunday. “There is also nothing to indicate it was a suicide either.”