The Tragic Story of Daveigh Chase, from Child Actor to ‘Unrecognizable’ Adult Who Struggled with Addiction (Exclusive)

The actress known for ‘Lilo & Stitch’ and ‘The Ring’ had a promising career, but her life was cut short at 35 after she struggled with substance abuse

NEED TO KNOW

Daveigh Chase, known for Lilo & Stitch and The Ring, struggled with addiction and homelessness in recent years
Friends and family say her challenges began after a 2016 motorcycle accident and worsened due to substance abuse
“It’s such a tragedy,” her friend Shawn Rosenthal tells PEOPLE

On June 16, Daveigh Chase, who voiced Lilo in Lilo & Stitch in 2002 and starred as Samara Morgan in the 2002 film The Ring, died after allegedly contracting meningitis while living on the streets of L.A. amid a serious drug addiction.

TMZ, who first reported her death, noted that she’d also been hospitalized earlier in the month for malnutrition. She was just 35.

“It’s such a tragedy,” her friend Shawn Rosenthal tells PEOPLE.

But the question remains: How did a once-promising child star, who landed coveted roles and even won awards, meet such an end?

Roy Hernandez, a man claiming to be Chase’s boyfriend, told TMZ that Chase’s life became more difficult as she dealt with bullying, had a falling out with her family and “struggled to find safety and happiness.” (Hernandez also set up a GoFundMe to pay for cremation expenses, but those close to Chase, including her former manager John Ryan, have urged people not to donate, questioning his intentions and relationship with Chase.)

In an interview with The Daily Mail, the late actress’s mother, Cathy Chase, denied that a family fallout was behind her daughter’s issues.

“It upsets me because people are saying I must’ve been a bad mother, but I never gave up on her,” she told the outlet of her late daughter. “As a mother, you don’t give up on your child. I was hoping she would still come home.”

Cathy says her daughter’s addiction struggles began after a 2016 motorcycle accident, when doctors prescribed her painkillers.

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

Cathy, a former nurse who moved from Oregon to Los Angeles for her daughter’s acting career, added that she “tried desperately to try to get [Daveigh] help, but you can’t legally force someone who doesn’t want that help.” Cathy also said that she believed the drugs had made her daughter mentally unwell.

“She was completely gone, like, out of her mind,” Cathy said. “The drugs took hold of her.”

Born in 1990, Chase was a child actress and launched her career with a guest role on Sabrina the Teenage Witch when she was just eight years old. She later landed her 2001 breakout role portraying Samantha Darko, the younger sister of Jake Gyllenhaal in the psychological thriller Donnie Darko.

In 2002, she was cast as the voice of Lilo Pelekai, a quirky Hawaiian girl, in Lilo & Stitch, and that same year starred as Samara Morgan, the main character in the horror film The Ring, which earned her an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.

Between 2003 and 2004, she had a starring role as Joyce, the girlfriend of Oliver Beene in the Fox period sitcom of the same name, and in 2006, starred as a teenage bride in the HBO series Big Love. Her final roles were in 2016’s horror films American Romance and Jack Goes Home, before she disappeared from acting completely. In recent years, she was reportedly homeless and living on Skid Row in downtown L.A.

Rosenthal tells PEOPLE that he tried several times to get Daveigh the help she needed during that period.

“I was pretty close to Daveigh from around 2018 to 2023,” Rosenthal says.

“She was an incredible singer, and we would play music together that, unfortunately, we never had a chance to record. I wound up getting clean in 2023, which is why I haven’t seen her since then. Some of her sober friends and I were trying to find her and get her help, but to no avail. She was surrounding herself with the worst of the worst people. It’s such a tragedy because no one cared for her best interests at all.”

Rosenthal confirms that in recent years, Chase no longer resembled the girl who appeared on TV and in film.

“She was very unrecognizable compared to her photos from when she was making films and doing voiceovers on TV shows,” he says. “I feared hearing this news. I pray she’s just finally at peace.”

In her Daily Mail interview, Cathy Chase says the news of Daveigh’s death left her devastated.

“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,” Cathy told the outlet, adding that she last saw Daveigh in 2019.

Cathy also said that she would routinely scroll through various social media platforms and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s website at night, looking for traces of her daughter — including on Tuesday, June 16, just before news of the actress’s death broke.

In that moment, she said, “I was devastated.”

“It felt like something inside of me squeezing all of the air out of me, and at the same time, it felt like I was exploding outwardly,” Cathy told the Daily Mail. “I let out this guttural scream and I just was running. And these weird sounds were coming out of me, these kind of, like, primeval sounds,” she told the outlet. “And I went out into the backyard, and I was screaming, ‘No, no, no, no!’ I am in so much pain, but I hope her soul heard me.”

Daveigh Chase’s Mom Reacts to Daughter’s Death at 35, Says The Ring Actress Struggled with Addiction After Back Injury

“I let out this guttural scream and I just was running,” said Cathy Chase, who added that she last saw Daveigh in 2019

NEED TO KNOW

Daveigh Chase’s mom, Cathy Chase, shared her reaction to her daughter’s death at age 35 in a new interview
Cathy also claimed that Daveigh, whose death was confirmed by PEOPLE on June 17, struggled with addiction and homelessness
Daveigh’s mother also said she last saw her daughter in 2019 while visiting her in jail
Daveigh Chase’s mother is opening up about her daughter’s death.

Daveigh, best known for playing Samara Morgan in The Ring and voicing Lilo in Lilo & Stitch, died at 35, PEOPLE confirmed on Wednesday, June 17. In a new interview with the Daily Mail, her mother, Cathy Chase, shared her reaction to Daveigh’s death.

In that moment, she said, “I was devastated.”

“It felt like something inside of me squeezing all of the air out of me, and at the same time, it felt like I was exploding outwardly,” Cathy told the Daily Mail.

She said she then ran outside.

“I let out this guttural scream and I just was running. And these weird sounds were coming out of me, these kind of, like, primeval sounds,” she told the outlet. “And I went out into the backyard, and I was screaming, ‘No, no, no, no!’ I am in so much pain but I hope her soul heard me.”

Daveigh’s boyfriend Roy Hernandez claimed on GoFundMe that The Ring actress contracted meningitis and “several serious blood infections” and that her condition eventually became “critical.” He also claimed that she had “a difficult childhood and a painful falling out with her family” in the fundraiser, which Daveigh’s former manager and longtime friend John Ryan later urged fans not to donate to.

While speaking with the Daily Mail, Daveigh’s mom claimed that her daughter struggled with addiction. It began after Daveigh took painkillers after injuring her back in a motorcycle accident about a decade ago, according to Cathy. After that, the late actress “was seeking drugs and was partying with the wrong people,” her mom claimed to the Daily Mail.

Cathy also said that her daughter struggled with homelessness.

Daveigh launched her career with several starring roles in films like the American dub of Spirited Away, Lilo & Stitch, Donnie Darko and The Ring — the last of which earned her an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. Her final role was in the 2016 film American Romance.

The last time Cathy — a former nurse who said she moved from Oregon to Los Angeles to support her daughter’s acting career — claims to have seen her daughter was in October 2019 while visiting her in jail. She made plans to pick Daveigh up after her release, but told the Daily Mail that “when I got there, she never waited.”

“I went to pick her up the day after she was released because I didn’t know she was let go early. I can’t stop blaming myself for that. She went back to the streets after she was released,” she told the outlet. After that, Cathy said she lost contact with Daveigh entirely.

“I never kicked my daughter out,” she continued. Elsewhere in the interview, Cathy said she “tried desperately to try to get [Daveigh] help, but you can’t legally force someone who doesn’t want that help.”

She later identified Daveigh’s remains on Thursday, June 18. Recounting the experience, she told the Daily Mail, “We were able to lay hands and pray. Technically, we were touching the glass, but it’s as close as we could get, so we were able to lay hands and pray for her.”

“It was a beautiful experience, and, I feel very blessed, too, have been able to share that with my daughter,” Cathy said.

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