Coroner Rules Daveigh Chase, the Voice of Lilo, Died of AIDS

Daveigh Chase, who voiced Lilo in Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” and played the girl in the well in “The Ring,” died of AIDS, the Los Angeles County medical examiner has concluded.

Chase died June 16 at 35, after nearly two weeks in the hospital, “with advanced HIV/AIDS with wasting, cryptococcus without meningitis, MRSA and right thumb infection,” according to the medical examiner’s report obtained by USA Today and reported Nov. 10. The report lists her cause of death as AIDS, with chronic polysubstance abuse as an additional significant condition. The manner of death was natural. Toxicology found methamphetamine and fentanyl in her system. The report did not identify either drug as a cause of death.

The report describes Chase as having “a history of advanced untreated HIV/AIDS and drug use.” She was taken to Los Angeles General Medical Center on June 4 after she was found in the back seat of a vehicle “with complaints of headache, weakness, confusion, right thumb pain and a meth pipe nearby,” according to USA Today. Her health declined over the next 12 days.

Chase was born in Las Vegas in 1990. Her breakout role came in 2001, at 10, as the younger sister of Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in “Donnie Darko.” In 2002 she voiced Lilo, voiced Chihiro in the English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away,” and played Samara in “The Ring,” which won her an MTV Movie Award for best villain. Later credits included “ER” and HBO’s “Big Love.”

After her death, her father, John Schwallier, told The New York Times that his daughter had struggled with drug addiction since she was 13. He said she had been homeless and living in “destitute” conditions near the hospital where she died.

Her mother, Cathy Chase, gave a different account of how the addiction began. In an interview with the Daily Mail, she said her daughter was prescribed oxycodone and other painkillers after a motorcycle accident in 2016, which led to substance abuse. “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.”

Mark Groubert read through the report on Wednesday’s show and said the cause of death startled him, given how treatable HIV is today. He said he had just rewatched “Donnie Darko,” praised Chase’s performance and recommended the director’s cut.

He disputed the picture of her as penniless. He said he believed she had steady income from her work, through her SAG membership and residuals. In his view, her circumstances were not a matter of money, and he put responsibility partly on whoever was handling her affairs. Chase’s finances have not been publicly documented, and her father’s account to the Times described her as homeless and destitute. Groubert’s view could not be independently verified.

He called it one of the most unusual celebrity causes of death this year, and he set her death apart from losses that cannot be prevented. “If you have brain cancer and you pass away and it’s not treatable, that’s extremely sad,” he said. “But when you have two treatable diseases, meaning addiction, AIDS, and money, and celebrity, and fame, and you pass away from that, that’s a different animal.”

Effective treatment for HIV can suppress the virus and prevent progression to AIDS. The medical examiner’s report describes her HIV as untreated. It does not say how or when she was infected.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357. Free and confidential HIV testing and treatment locations can be found at HIV.gov.