Former child actor Daveigh Chase, best known for voicing Lilo in Lilo & Stitch, died in mid-June. Now, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office has revealed that her cause of death was AIDS.
Born in Las Vegas on July 29, 1990, Chase became a household name as a child star. In 2002, she voiced Lilo in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch before later that year starring as Samara Morgan in The Ring, a role that earned her the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.
While the case remains listed as “open,” documents reviewed by investigators reportedly identify AIDS as the cause of death. Investigators Trini Godoy and Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Martina Kennedy also listed chronic polysubstance use as a contributing factor.
Daveigh Chase’s cause of death was AIDS
Initial reports said Chase died from meningitis and a blood infection that led to complications from sepsis. However, the updated findings did not come as a surprise to her father.
Her father, John Schwallier, told NBC News that she had been homeless in Los Angeles and was suffering from severe malnutrition.
Speaking to the California Post, he said, “It’s something you sometimes have to expect with the lifestyle she was living,” according to UNILAD.
Schwallier said his daughter had struggled with addiction on Los Angeles’ Skid Row for more than a decade and that the two had not seen each other since she was about 6 years old.
“I had an empty feeling inside for not being with her for all these years,” he said.
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