The Voice Behind Lilo Was Gone Too Soon as Daveigh Chase’s Cause of Death Officially Confirmed as AIDS

For a generation of kids who grew up in the early 2000s, Daveigh Chase was an omnipresent voice in some of the most beloved films of the era. She began her career as a child actor by age 7, appearing in commercials and on stage, and within a few years had carved out a place in popular culture that few child performers ever achieve. The name may not have always been front of mind, but her voice was unmistakable, bringing warmth, humor, and heart to one of Disney’s most enduring animated characters.

Chase voiced Lilo Pelekai, a quirky and lonely Hawaiian girl, in the Walt Disney Animation Studios feature ‘Lilo and Stitch,’ a film that became a critical and commercial triumph, grossing over $273 million worldwide. That same year, she pivoted entirely to play the nightmarish Samara Morgan in ‘The Ring,’ a performance so unnerving that it earned her the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. She also lent her voice to the Studio Ghibli film ‘Spirited Away’ and later transitioned to adult roles with the HBO drama series ‘Big Love,’ where she appeared from 2006 to 2011.

The official cause of death for Chase has now been confirmed, and the answer is as heartbreaking as anything that came before it. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner revealed the cause of death as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, while also finding that chronic polysubstance use was a contributing factor. She died in a hospital, and the manner of death was ruled natural. Chase was 35 years old.

The update comes nearly two weeks after the news of her passing first broke, with her boyfriend Roy Hernandez initially reporting that she had died from complications related to meningitis and sepsis after spending several days in the hospital. Hernandez had launched a GoFundMe campaign revealing that doctors had recently delivered a terminal diagnosis after she sought treatment for dramatic weight loss, writing that when she started losing weight, she finally agreed to go to the hospital.

The road that led Chase here was long and painful. Her mother, Cathy Chase, shared that the actress had long struggled with drug addiction following a motorcycle accident in 2016. Doctors prescribed her oxycodone and other painkillers after the accident injured her back, which her mother believes prompted a substance abuse spiral. Chase’s father told the New York Times that she had been homeless and had struggled with drugs since the age of 13, and that he had not spoken with her in many years. Her former manager, John Ryan Jr., recalled that she had entered a couple of rehabs and that she had been sober for a while before the two lost contact in late 2015, and that he had in recent years been developing a documentary chronicling her disappearance from Hollywood.

Chase’s boyfriend wrote in the GoFundMe post that after a difficult childhood and a painful falling out with her family, Daveigh was bullied and struggled to find safety and happiness in downtown Los Angeles, but that together they found moments of happiness and hope. The ‘Lilo and Stitch’ co-directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois paid tribute to Chase with artwork featuring Stitch, Scrump, and Pudge after news of her death spread, a quiet reminder of just how deeply her work had touched the people who made it with her.

The full arc of Daveigh Chase’s life, from the Annie Award-winning voice of an iconic Disney character to a woman lost to addiction and illness on the streets of Los Angeles, is one that raises painful questions about how Hollywood supports its young talent after the cameras stop rolling. If her story prompts any conversation about the systems that fail child stars, or the realities of AIDS and addiction in America, share your thoughts in the comments below.