The mystery surrounding Daveigh Chase's death has been answered. Nearly two weeks after the former child star died at 35, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner officially ruled that the The Ring and Lilo & Stitch actress died from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), with chronic polysubstance use listed as a significant contributing condition.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the ruling follows earlier reports that Chase had died after complications from sepsis and a blood infection. Those details first surfaced through Roy Hernandez, who identified himself as the actress' boyfriend. Hernandez launched a GoFundMe campaign one day before Chase's June 16 death, revealing that doctors had recently delivered a terminal diagnosis after she sought treatment for dramatic weight loss.
"When she started losing weight, she finally agreed to go to the hospital," Hernandez wrote. "That's when we learned how serious her condition was." He added that doctors told him "the medicine isn't working," and said Chase wanted to spend her remaining time "comfortable and together, rather than in a hospital."
The news marks a heartbreaking final chapter for an actress whose work defined early-2000s pop culture. In the span of a single year, Chase became both the lovable voice behind Disney's Lilo & Stitch and the nightmare-inducing Samara Morgan in The Ring.
She also appeared alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko, starred in HBO's Big Love, and voiced Chihiro in the English-language version of Spirited Away. Her performance as Samara earned her an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, while Lilo & Stitch won her an Annie Award for voice acting.
After her death, Chase's mother, Cathy, shared details about the addiction that changed her daughter's life. She said that downward spiral began after Chase was prescribed oxycodone and other painkillers following a motorcycle accident around 2016.
"She was seeking drugs and was partying with the wrong people," Cathy said. "I never kicked my daughter out. She wanted freedom and these people got her hooked on some drugs. That was the beginning." Reflecting on seeing her daughter during a jail visit in 2019, she added, "She was completely gone, like, out of her mind... The drugs took hold of her."
Former manager John Ryan Jr. said Chase sought treatment during that period, telling Entertainment Weekly she entered "a couple of rehabs" and that she struggled more with alcohol than harder drugs.
According to Ryan, she had been "sober [for] a while" before the two lost contact in late 2015. In recent years, he had been developing a documentary chronicling Chase's disappearance from Hollywood after she withdrew almost entirely from public life.
