Daveigh Chase's cause of death confirmed as AIDS after star dies aged 35
Daveigh Chase's cause of death has been confirmed after the former child star actor died aged 35.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's office has named 'acquired immunodeficiency syndrome', known as AIDS, as the main cause of Daveigh Chase's death.
'Chronic polysubstance use' was also listed a significant condition linked to her death, which is the use of more than one drug in a short time.
Chase's death has been determined as natural after she passed away on June 16.
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Chase - whose real surname is Schwallier - shot to fame in the early 2000s for her roles in horror classic The Ring and Disney's Lilo & Stitch.
Her final onscreen appearance came in 2016's American Romance, though her former manager and friend, John Ryan Jr. revealed that Chase had been missing since she failed to attend a scheduled meeting with Rob Reiner in 2015.
He told Entertainment Weekly: "Rob Reiner had called us and had a role for her, and she never showed up.
"He said, 'I've got a role I want to talk to her about — have her come in!' And then when we followed up the next day with him, like, 'Hey, how did [the meeting] go?' They were like, 'She never showed.' "And then we were like, 'Okay, something's up.'
"We called, we went down and told [the police]."
Following Chase's death, reports soon began to emerge of the terrible conditions she had been living in, with an Instagram video appearing to show her looking very unwell and unable to move inside a tent.
Chase was reportedly living on Skid Row, a homeless community of thousands in Los Angeles.
Her mother Cathy told the Daily Mail she would regularly check the LA County Medical Examiner's system for news of her daughter's death after drugs 'took hold of her'.
When the news broke of Daveigh's death, Cathy said: "I let out this guttural scream and I just was running. And these weird sounds were coming out of me, these kind of, like, primeval sounds.
"And I went out into the backyard, and I was screaming, 'No, no, no, no!' I am in so much pain, but I hope her soul heard me."
Meanwhile, Chase's friend Shaun Rosenthal told People: "Some of her sober friends and I were trying to find her and get her help, but to no avail.
"She was surrounding herself with the worst of the worst people. It's such a tragedy because no one cared for her best interests at all."
Daveigh Chase: A timeline of her Hollywood career, personal struggles and alleged disappearance
1998
Daveigh Chase becomes an actor by accident. Her mother Cathy crashes her car while on a trip to Los Angeles from their home in Albany, Oregon.
Doctors tell Cathy she can’t drive for six months, and Daveigh is encouraged to pursue her dreams of acting while the family are stuck in L.A.
Aged eight, Chase starts to appear in small parts in shows such as Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Charmed
2001
Chase lands her breakthrough role in cult film Donnie Darko, playing Jake Gyllenhaal’s onscreen sister Samantha Darko. The character later gets her own spinoff film in 2009 titled S. Darko.
In the same year, she voices lead character Chihiro Ogino in the American dub of Studio Ghibli classic Spirited Away.
2002
Chase stars as Samara in the US remake of The Ring aged just 11, and in the same year voices Lilo in Lilo & Stitch.
Mid-2000s
Chase meets John Ryan Jr, who would later go on to manage her.
Ryan says he saw her as a ‘little sister’. After her death, he says Chase liked to drink, but wasn’t into heavy drugs. He checked her into ‘a couple rehabs back in the day’.
2009
Chase says in an Interview Magazine profile: “I just want to make something that I love and people will respect. I want to do things that will change someone’s life, not something they’ll forget about tomorrow.”
2015
According to Ryan, Chase fails to show up to a meeting with Rob Reiner about a role and effectively disappears from public life.
Ryan says she was ‘sober a while’ before she went missing.
2016
Chase injures her back following a motorbike accident and is prescribed oxycodone. Her mother Cathy believes this is how she became addicted to drugs.
February 2017
Chase is arrested on a warrant for failing to appear in court for a traffic violation. She is also questioned regarding an unidentified man’s death from an overdose after allegedly leaving him outside the hospital and leaving the scene. Chase was not accused of playing any role in his death.
November 2017
Chase is arrested again after being found in the passenger seat of a car believed to be stolen.
2018
Chase is charged with possession of a controlled substance without a valid prescription and possession of drug paraphernalia.
2025
Cathy loses contact with her daughter. Later in the year, Ryan becomes aware of a video which allegedly shows Chase on Skid Row.
He manages to get her on the phone, but by the time he gets to Skid Row she’s no longer there.
15 June 2026
A man named Roy Hernandez, who says he is Chase’s boyfriend, launches a GoFundMe for her. He writes: “Daveigh was diagnosed with meningitis and several serious blood infections. Her condition has become critical, and the doctors have told me she may not have much time left.”
Ryan later says Chase’s family did not know about Hernandez, and encourages people not to donate to the fundraiser.
16 June 2026
Chase dies from sepsis at a Los Angeles hospital.
Daniel Murphy