The cause of death for actress Daveigh Chase, best known for her work in the original Lilo & Stitch and Donnie Darko, has been revealed after varying reports.
A medical report released on Monday revealed Chase died on June 17 from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, originally told TMZ at the time of her death that she passed from meningitis and “several serious blood infections.” However, Hernandez had previously started a GoFundMe for Chase, which her former manager and father, explicitly said was fraudulent.
Hernandez shared more details about her health in a GoFundMe started while Chase was still receiving treatment, writing that her “condition has become critical” and doctors had told him she didn’t have “much time left.”
“That GoFundMe is not going toward ANY expenses for Daveigh,” John Chase said in a statement to Deadline. “Myself, her father, her uncle and all of us close friends who knew her for decades are encouraging people not to donate to this page. This man making these claims brought her into the hospital in terrible condition and didn’t let any of the family know until she passed so he can control the dialogue.”
Prior to her untimely death at the age of 35, Chase’s mother revealed that she had been living homeless on Skid Row with her boyfriend. Speaking with the Daily Mail, her mother, Cathy, said that her daughter became addicted to drugs following a 2016 motorcycle accident when doctors prescribed her oxycodone among other painkillers to help with a back injury. The prescription led to severe substance abuse and a downward spiral.
“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.”
Cathy added she had not seen her daughter since October 2019, following which the actress became embroiled in several legal troubles.
“I honestly thought there was something wrong with her,” Chase’s mother said. “She was completely gone, like, out of her mind,” she said. “The drugs took hold of her.”
While Cathy would try to pick her daughter up from jail upon release, the actress was gone by the time she arrived. She often blamed herself until a chaplain gave her some clarity.
“I am a mother who loved her daughter so much,” she said. “But when I got there, she never waited. She went back to the streets and I couldn’t find her,” she added. “I will live forever feeling I failed her because they told me the wrong time when she was released [from jail] all those years ago.”
Upon learning of her daughter’s death, Cathy refused to believe it until she identified the remains. She recalls praying over her body at the hospital.
“I was devastated,” she said. “It felt like something inside of me squeezing all of the air out of me, and at the same time, It felt like I was exploding outwardly.”