Daveigh Chase, who starred in 'Lilo & Stitch' and 'The Ring,' died of AIDS, medical examiner says 10%
By Kaitlin Reilly5%
6/29/2026, 7:30:36 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Halo Effect, and Appeal to Emotion, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 15.9% saturation with 102 hits. Analysis detected 622 faulty-reasoning hits from 643 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 26.3% and a BS Rank of 10% (19,260 of 21,198 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 90.90% of the article peer group.
Health officials on Monday announced the cause of death for 35-year-old Daveigh Chase, a former child actor known for voicing Lilo in Disney's animated Lilo & Stitch and playing Samara in The Ring, who died on June 16.
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner reported that the primary cause of Chase's death was acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Chronic polysubstance use was also listed as a "significant condition," a term that refers to "using more than one substance and following a pattern of use that affects your health and quality of life," per the Cleveland Clinic.
"Daveigh was the sweetest woman on the planet and this is a huge loss to all of us," John Ryan Jr., a representative for Chase, told Yahoo following her death.
"Daveigh was one of my best friends for the last 17 years and we've managed her for over a decade.
We were in the middle of a documentary about her during this tragic passing."
TMZ was first to report Chase's death.
Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, told TMZ that she died after battling both meningitis and an infection in her blood.
He said it had led to septic shock.
Hernandez told the outlet that she was hospitalized for malnutrition earlier in June.
Chase, who voiced Lilo, in attendance at the premiere and afterparty for Lilo & Stitch in June 2002.
"She was the greatest.
She loved cats.
She worked with cat rescues with us.
She was very to herself, " Ryan told the BBC.
"She was not very Hollywood.
She'd rather eat at Bob's Big Boy and go home with the cats.
She loved acting but wasn't into the fame scene."
Chase began her Hollywood career in a 1998 episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Over the years, she's had guest appearances on numerous TV shows, including CSI, Cold Case and Without a Trace.
In 2008, she voiced the main character, Betsy, of Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures, a preschool series.
Her longest-running role was Rhonda, a child bride, in the TV series Big Love, which aired from 2006 to 2011.
But it was perhaps her film roles that she's most known for.
Chase played Samantha, the younger sister of Jake Gyllenhaal's character in the 2001 cult film Donnie Darko.
She later reprised the role in 2009's S.
Darko, a direct-to-video sequel.
Chase, center right, in Donnie Darko in 2001.
In 2002, Chase appeared as the ghostly Samara Morgan in The Ring.
That same year, she voiced Chihiro Ogino in the English dub of Spirited Away, from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.
She lent her voice again to Lilo in Disney's animated Hawaiian adventure Lilo & Stitch, which earned her an Annie Award the following year for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production.
Chase in The Ring, 2002.
"I just want to make something that I love and people will respect," Chase told Interview magazine in 2009.
"I want to do things that will change someone's life, not something they'll forget about tomorrow."
In 2016, she appeared opposite Rory Culkin and Nikki Reed in the independent horror movie Jack Goes Home.
Her final acting role was in the thriller American Romance that same year.
Chase was arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge in Los Angeles in 2018.
The year prior, she was arrested as a passenger in a stolen BMW during a traffic stop, resulting in a felony booking for riding in a vehicle without the owner's consent.
Ryan told the California Post that he and a family member of Chase's had recently hired a private investigator to try and find her after they lost contact.
"We were so close to finding her," he said.
"I can't believe this is real.
Her legacy and work will live on forever."
Speakers
4speakers39%attributed speech395writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageChase
35 attributed words14% of attributed speech63% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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