Daveigh Chase's friend reveals more details about her final years before tragic death aged 35
Warning: This article contains references to drug addiction which some readers may find distressing.
On 16 June, Daveigh Chase died from sepsis after suffering from meningitis in a Los Angeles hospital.
The 35-year-old was perhaps best known for voicing Lilo in the 2002 Disney animated classic, Lilo & Stitch.
Chase also played the role of antagonist Samara Morgan in the American remake of The Ring as well as voicing Chihiro in the English dub of Spirited Away.
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Her manager John Ryan Jr confirmed her death, and said that she had been admitted to hospital for malnourishment before she passed away.
And now, a friend of the late actor, Shawn Rosenthal, has shared further details about her later years.
Chase had begun acting at four years old, booking her first Hollywood job when she was seven but she had retired full time from the industry in 2015.
Rosenthal told PEOPLE he was ‘pretty close’ to her from ‘around 2018 to 2023’.
In recent years, Dave was reportedly homeless and living on downtown LA’s Skid Row with it said she had a serious drug addiction.
"She was an incredible singer, and we would play music together that, unfortunately, we never had a chance to record,” Rosenthal claimed.
“I wound up getting clean in 2023, which is why I haven't seen her since then. 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."
He added that in recent years, Chase was ‘unrecognisable’ to the girl who appeared on screen and when she was working in the industry.
“I feared hearing this news. I pray she's just finally at peace,” Rosenthal added.
The late actor’s mum, Cathy Chase, also said the last time she saw her daughter was in 2019 and has been ‘mentally preparing for this moment for years’.
“I actually thought it was fake news, that first time I saw it, and then, but then all of a sudden, it's all of these different legitimate sites had her name and I realized that it wasn't fake,” she told the Daily Mail.
The star injured her back after a motorcycle accident around 2016, and her mum said she would take painkillers, such as oxycodone, which she thinks marked the beginning of her addiction.
Cathy added that she ‘never gave up on her’ and was ‘hoping she would still come home’.
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Topics: Celebrity News, Entertainment
Jess Battison