Friends of Daveigh Chase, Known for ‘The Ring and Lilo & Stitch’, Spent Years Searching for Her Before Her Tragic Death at 35
Before the world learned that Daveigh Chase had died in a Los Angeles hospital, a small group of people who cared about her had already been quietly searching for her for years.
The actress, best known for her haunting turn as Samara Morgan in The Ring and for voicing Lilo in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, passed away on June 16 at age 35. Her death, confirmed by her boyfriend Roy Hernandez, was caused by meningitis and a severe blood infection that led to septic complications and multiple organ failure.
What makes the story even more heartbreaking is how hard those close to her had been trying to reach her. Sources within Chase’s inner circle say that reconnecting with the actress had become increasingly difficult as she withdrew from those around her during a period of personal struggle. The search, they said, had been going on for years before her death.
A Lead on Skid Row
Several months before Chase died, friends reportedly received information they believed pointed to her location in Skid Row, a section of downtown Los Angeles well known for its large unhoused population and tent encampments.
Acting on that tip, they say they were sent a video that appeared to show Chase living in the area. What the footage allegedly showed was deeply alarming.
Sources told TMZ that friends who viewed the video believed Chase had lost a dramatic amount of weight, with some estimating she may have weighed as little as 75 pounds at the time. Without hesitation, the group reportedly made their way to Skid Row to find her. It was a search driven by genuine fear for her life.
When they arrived, however, Chase was no longer there. Friends reportedly continued combing through parts of downtown Los Angeles in the weeks that followed, but every lead went cold. The woman they had known from childhood stardom was simply nowhere to be found.
Social Media Footage and Growing Alarm
The concern surrounding Chase did not end with the Skid Row search. Footage had also surfaced on social media, later removed by The California Post, which appeared to show the actress looking extremely thin and barely responsive inside what appeared to be a tent or trailer. The images reportedly intensified the worry among those who had been monitoring her from a distance.
Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, had also gone public with the severity of her condition in the days before her death. He launched a GoFundMe page confirming that Chase had been admitted to a Los Angeles hospital earlier that month due to malnutrition, and that she had been diagnosed with meningitis and multiple serious blood infections.
Hernandez later confirmed that the blood infection caused septic complications that ultimately led to her body shutting down.
A Career That Defined a Generation
To understand the weight of this loss, it helps to know just how much Daveigh Chase meant to the world of entertainment. Born on July 24, 1990, in Las Vegas and raised in Albany, Oregon, she began her career at just seven years old, appearing in commercials and stage productions.
By eight, she had landed guest roles in major television series, including Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, The Practice, and ER.
Her breakout moment in film came in 2001 with Richard Kelly’s cult classic Donnie Darko, where she played Samantha Darko alongside Jake Gyllenhaal. That same year, she lent her voice to Chihiro Ogino in the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. Then came 2002, the year that cemented her legacy on two entirely different fronts.
That year, Chase voiced the title character Lilo in Disney’s beloved animated film Lilo & Stitch, earning a Young Artist Award and an Annie Award for her voice performance. In the same year, she delivered a chilling, career-defining performance as the vengeful Samara Morgan in The Ring, a role that earned her an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.
Beginning in 2006, she also took on a recurring role in the HBO drama Big Love, which explored the dynamics of a fundamentalist polygamist Mormon family.
Those Left Behind
The grief surrounding Chase’s passing is layered with regret. People close to the actress say they are devastated not only by her death, but by the fact that all their efforts to find her ultimately came to nothing.
They had hoped to reconnect with her and get her the help she needed, but circumstances never allowed it.
Chase’s death has prompted an outpouring of tributes from fans, fellow entertainers, and film communities online. Letterboxd, the popular film-logging platform, posted publicly in her memory, reflecting how deeply her work had become part of cultural memory for an entire generation.
For many, she is the girl who made them believe in the magic of Lilo’s friendship with Stitch, and also the face that made them afraid to look at a television screen. She was 35.
