The “Lilo & Stitch” star was 35.

The Ring actress Daveigh Chase’s cause of death revealed

The "Lilo & Stitch" star was 35.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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and Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

EW's editorial guidelines

June 29, 2026 1:51 p.m. ET

Daveigh Chase in Los Angeles in 2013. Credit:

Donato Sardella/WireImage

- The cause of death for Daveigh Chase has been revealed.

- Chase died June 16 at 35.

- Roy Hernandez, a man identifying himself as Chase's boyfriend, previously told TMZ that she died following complications from sepsis.

The cause of death for Daveigh Chase has been revealed.

The *Lilo & Stitch* actress was reported dead at 35 two weeks ago after Roy Hernandez, a man identifying himself as her boyfriend, told TMZ that she died from complications from sepsis and a blood infection on June 16.

On Monday, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death to be acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), with chronic polysubstance use listed as a significant condition. (*Us Weekly* was first to report the results of the medical examiner records.)

Daveigh Chase in Los Angeles in 2012.

Todd Williamson/WireImage

In a GoFundMe campaign established the day before Chase's death, Hernandez said the actress had received a terminal diagnosis.

"When she started losing weight, she finally agreed to go to the hospital, and that's when we learned how serious her condition was," he wrote. "The doctors told me the medicine isn't working, and that she is passing away. Despite everything, Daveigh wants to spend her remaining time with me, comfortable and together, rather than in a hospital."

Speaking to the *Daily Mail*, Chase's mother Cathy believes that her daughter's addiction began when she was prescribed oxycodone and other painkillers after injuring her back in a motorcycle accident around 2016. "She was seeking drugs and was partying with the wrong people," she said. "I never kicked my daughter out. She wanted freedom and these people got her hooked on some drugs. That was the beginning."

Daveigh's former manager, John Ryan Jr., previously told ** that the actress checked into "a couple rehabs," but indicated that she was struggling more with "drinking than heavy drugs," and said that she was "sober [for] a while" by the time he lost touch with her in late 2015.

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Chase was best known for playing the young ghost haunting a cursed video tape in 2002's *The Ring* and for voicing Lilo in the original *Lilo & Stitch*. She also portrayed Jake Gyllenhaal's sister in *Donnie Darko* and later played a supporting role on HBO's *Big Love*. Other projects included *Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures*, *Oliver Beene*, and the American dub of *Spirited Away*.

Chase's last screen appearances came in the 2016 movies *Jack Goes Home* and *American Romance*.

Daveigh Chase in 'The Ring'.

Merrick Morton/Dreamworks

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In her *Daily Mail *interview, Cathy said that she visited her daughter in jail after several run-ins with law enforcement, and that the last time she saw the actress in person was in October 2019.

"She was completely gone, like, out of her mind," Cathy told the outlet. "I honestly thought there was something wrong with her. My daughter was never diagnosed with mental health other than PTSD. But the drugs took hold of her ... She went back to the streets and I couldn't find her. I will live forever feeling I failed her."

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