Cause Of Death Revealed For ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Actress

Actress Daveigh Chase, who died in mid-June at the age of 35, died of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and prolonged drug abuse.

Chase, best known as the voice of Lilo in Disney’s 2002 smash animated feature “Lilo & Stitch,” died in a Los Angeles hospital, and according to a medical examiner’s report reviewed by E! News, the manner of her death was listed as “natural,” and the cause of death was AIDS. Years of substance abuse, the report also noted, had been a major contributing factor in her death.

As The Daily Wire previously reported, Chase had been living on the streets for some time prior to her passing. Initial reporting from entertainment news site TMZ quoted Roy Hernandez, who claimed to be her boyfriend, as saying that she’d died from meningitis and an infection in her blood that led to sepsis.

Chase, who also gave a terrifying performance as the ghostly Samara Morgan in “The Ring,” had been struggling with addiction for years and had recently been hospitalized in Los Angeles due to malnutrition.

The actress’s longtime manager, John Ryan, told The California Post at the time of her death that Chase likely still had millions in uncollected residuals. He explained that the deal Chase had signed when she got the role of Lilo — at just 8 years old — had included residuals and a cut of any future toys or theme park attractions that featured her voice. That money, which has continued to roll in, was apparently left uncollected as she was “too far gone” to accept her payments.

Years earlier, Ryan said that he and Chase’s stepsister Gaia Brown had hired a private investigator in the hopes of tracking Chase down and forcing her to get treatment for what they believed was addiction to heroin and fentanyl.

When a 2025 video circulated on social media, showing an emaciated and barely conscious woman who looked a lot like Chase on Skid Row, they went there to search for her. Ryan said at the time that he even spoke to her on the phone, but by the time they got to Skid Row, she had left.

“We were so close to finding her. Daveigh was the sweetest and brightest light in Hollywood. I can’t believe this is real. Her legacy and work will live on forever,” Ryan said.

Chase’s final role was in 2016’s “American Romance.”