The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has revealed the official cause of death for Daveigh Chase, the actress best known for voicing Lilo in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch. According to Deadline, the medical examiner listed acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) as the primary cause of death, with chronic polysubstance use listed as a significant contributing condition. The manner of death was ruled natural. Chase died on June 16, 2026, in Los Angeles at the age of 35.
What The Medical Examiner Found
The official ruling updates the initial account provided by Chase’s boyfriend Roy Hernandez, who told TMZ shortly after her death that she had died from complications of meningitis and a blood infection that led to sepsis. The medical examiner’s report confirms that AIDS, which severely compromises the immune system’s ability to fight infections, was the underlying cause, with the meningitis and sepsis consistent with the opportunistic infections that can prove fatal in advanced AIDS cases. Chase had also been hospitalized for malnutrition in the weeks before her death.
A Career That Left A Lasting Mark
Daveigh Chase began acting at age 7 and built a remarkable body of work as a child performer. Her two most iconic roles arrived simultaneously in 2002: she voiced Lilo in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, a performance that gave heart and personality to one of the most beloved Disney characters of the modern era, and she played Samara Morgan, the terrifying antagonist of the horror film The Ring. In the same year she also voiced Chihiro in the English dub of Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away. She appeared in the cult classic Donnie Darko in 2001 and went on to play Rhonda Volmer in HBO’s Big Love from 2006 to 2011.
Chase’s mother, Cathy Chase, told the Daily Mail that her daughter’s addiction began after she was prescribed oxycodone and other painkillers following a motorcycle accident around 2016. Chase’s father, John Schwallier, told the New York Times that she had been homeless in Los Angeles in her final years. Her former manager and close friends had spent years trying to locate her and connect her with help before her death. She was 35 years old.
For Disney fans, Daveigh Chase’s voice is inseparable from Lilo. Her warmth, quirkiness, and emotional depth in that role helped make Lilo & Stitch the enduring classic it remains today, and the character continues to resonate with audiences more than two decades later, with Walt Disney Animation Studios recently announcing a new Lilo & Scratch animated short. TheDisneyScoop.com extends its condolences to her family, friends, and everyone who loved her work.
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