Heather Morris has called for prayers for Naya Rivera

She wrote on her Instagram Story: "We need all the prayers we can get to bring our Naya back home to us. We need your love and light."

A search was embarked on for Naya after Josey was found alone on a boat on Lake Piru in California on Wednesday (08.07.20) afternoon, three hours after they had rented the craft.

According to TMZ, Josey - whose father is Naya's ex-husband Ryan Dorsey - was asleep when he was found in the vessel by another boater and later told Ventura County Sherrif's deputies that his mother had gone swimming in the water, but didn't get back up into the boat.

Divers, assisted by helicopters and drone operatives immediately started searching the lake, but had found no trace of the actress until the search was suspended at nightfall.

A Ventura County Sheriff's Department spokesperson confirmed they had deployed air and dive teams to "search for [a] possible drowning victim".

Naya's life jacket was still in the boat, and her purse was found inside her car, which was in the parking lot near the boat rental company.

Josey is said to be OK and is with family members.

The search operation will resume at "first light" on Thursday (09.07.20).

Earlier this week, the 33-year-old star had shared a post on her social media accounts of her cuddling up to her son.

It was captioned: "Just the two of us."