Daveigh Chase’s Mom Spent Years Searching for Death

Cathy Chase says she believed the first reports of Daveigh Chase’s death were “fake news” until multiple sites confirmed it—and that fear had been living with her for years. She described searching coroner records, blaming medication after a 2016 motorcycle ac

When Cathy Chase finally looked at the flood of early reports that Daveigh Chase had died, she said she couldn’t make herself believe it at first—despite seeing her daughter’s name appear across multiple places.

The former child star, known for voicing Lilo in Lilo & Stitch and for playing Samara in The Ring, died earlier this week at age 35. Family members have since revealed she apparently died from meningitis after years of personal struggles that reportedly included drug addiction and homelessness.

Cathy told DailyMail.com that her first reaction wasn’t grief—it was disbelief. “I actually thought it was fake news, that first time I saw it, and then, but then all of a sudden, it’s all of these different legitimate sites had her name and I realized that it wasn’t fake.”

What followed, she said, landed on top of a routine she’d been forced to live with for years: the fear that the devastating news could come at any time.

After she lost contact with Daveigh, Cathy described a practice that’s part search, part dread. “I would just put her name in the coroner’s [search system] and see if her name came up and if somebody had her somewhere. I would look at their list of unidentified bodies. It was very difficult, but you do everything you can as a mother.”.

She tied that tightening fear to a turning point she believes began after a motorcycle accident around 2016. In Cathy’s telling, the pain medication prescribed after the injury may have contributed to the addiction that followed.

“She was seeking drugs and was partying with the wrong people. I never kicked my daughter out. She wanted freedom and these people got her hooked on some drugs. That was the beginning.”

Cathy also pushed back against criticism she said she’s faced since her daughter’s death, insisting she never stopped trying to help. She described Daveigh’s last visit in 2019, after one of her releases from jail, saying she was alarmed by how unrecognizable her daughter looked.

“She was completely gone, like, out of her mind. I honestly thought there was something wrong with her.”

In Cathy’s account. Daveigh’s mental health history included PTSD. but she said people focusing on blame misunderstand what took over after the drugs came in. “My daughter was never diagnosed with mental health other than PTSD. But the drugs took hold of her. It upsets me because people are saying I must’ve been a bad mother. but I never gave up on her. As a mother, you don’t give up on your child. I was hoping she would still come home.”.

The interview also comes after footage surfaced showing Chase living in a tent on Los Angeles’ Skid Row while appearing severely unwell. Cathy said watching it was brutal.

“In the video, she was in a really bad shape. She was very frail. She was fragile. She was saying no, and trying to push the camera away, and they were shoving it in her face. It was gross. She was obviously drugged out of her mind. She was nothing but skin and bones and I didn’t want to think that was my daughter.”.

For anyone who followed Daveigh’s work—from her voice role as Lilo to her chilling performance as Samara—her death lands with a particular kind of shock. And for her mother. Cathy says the shock wasn’t sudden; it was the culmination of a fear she’d been feeding with every search and every scan of coroner records.

SAMHSA resources were also referenced in connection with substance abuse support, with the suggestion to check StartYourRecovery.org for help.

Daveigh Chase Cathy Chase Lilo & Stitch The Ring Skid Row meningitis drug addiction homelessness PTSD motorcycle accident 2016 DailyMail.com