Daveigh Chase, the actress known for “The Ring” and “Lilo & Stitch,” died at 35 on June 16, and Los Angeles medical examiner records list AIDS as the cause of death, with chronic polysubstance use also noted.
Daveigh Chase’s death was recorded by the Los Angeles medical examiner with a stark conclusion: AIDS.
Chase. the actress best known for voicing Lilo in Disney’s animated “Lilo & Stitch” and for playing the horror villain Samara in 2002’s “The Ring. ” died at 35 on June 16 in a hospital in Los Angeles. according to online medical examiner records viewed through Los Angeles medical examiner online records. Her manner of death was listed as natural.
The records released through the medical examiner show AIDS as the cause of death. Chronic polysubstance use was also listed as a significant condition.
The timeline has been closely watched since her death was first reported. Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, told TMZ that the cause was meningitis and an infection in her blood. TMZ also reported that Chase had been admitted to a Los Angeles hospital for malnutrition earlier in the month.
Her family’s account has described a longer struggle. Chase’s father, John Schwallier, told The New York Times that she struggled with drug addiction since she was 13 and that she had been homeless and in “destitute” near the Los Angeles hospital where she died.
Her mother has also tied the onset of substance problems to a prior injury. In an interview with the Daily Mail. she said Chase was prescribed oxycodone and other painkillers after a motorcycle accident in 2016. The mother said her daughter was “seeking drugs” and “partying with the wrong people. ” adding. “I never kicked my daughter out. She wanted freedom and these people got her hooked on some drugs. That was the beginning.”.
Born in Las Vegas in 1990, Chase broke through as a child actress in 2001’s psychological thriller “Donnie Darko,” when she was 10, playing the sister of Jake Gyllenhaal’s character. She later voiced Lilo and appeared as Samara, earning an MTV Movie Award for best villain for “The Ring.”
Beyond those roles, she voiced Chihiro in the English dub of the animated classic “Spirited Away,” and appeared on television shows including “ER” and “Big Love.”
The sequence of records and family accounts leaves the details of Chase’s final stretch harder to reconcile in one simple story: medical examiner documents cite AIDS and chronic polysubstance use. while earlier reports through her boyfriend pointed to meningitis and an infection in her blood. following a hospitalization tied to malnutrition earlier that month.
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Daveigh Chase The Ring Lilo & Stitch AIDS Los Angeles medical examiner Roy Hernandez TMZ meningitis malnutrition substance abuse