Actress Daveigh Chase, known for her iconic roles as the voice of Lilo in Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” and as the terrifying ghost child Samara Morgan in “The Ring,” died on June 16, 2026, at age 35 from complications of bacterial meningitis and a blood infection, her father confirmed.
Chase’s father, John David Schwallier, confirmed her death to The New York Times, saying she had been homeless in Los Angeles and staying with her boyfriend near the hospital where she died. According to reports, the meningitis was compounded by several blood infections that turned septic and caused her body to shut down. Chase had been hospitalized earlier in June for severe malnutrition.
A Disputed Fundraiser
In the days before her death, a man identifying himself as Chase’s boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, set up a GoFundMe campaign that he said would fund her care and, later, a memorial. But the fundraiser quickly became a source of contention among Chase’s family and longtime associates, who said they did not recognize him.
Chase’s former manager, John Ryan Jr., said “a man claiming to be Daveigh’s boyfriend” had launched the page and that neither her family nor her close friends knew who he was. Ryan said Chase had a SAG trust account with more than enough money to cover her medical and related expenses. Ryan separately revealed to The New York Post that Chase had accumulated what he estimated to be millions of dollars in unclaimed residuals from her Lilo & Stitch deal — a contract she had signed at age eight that entitled her to ongoing compensation from merchandise sales, theme park attractions and products using her voice, rather than a one-time fee. Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) notices confirming unclaimed checks continued arriving at Ryan’s office for years, he said, but her addiction too consumed Chase — to heroin and fentanyl, according to Ryan — to collect them. Under SAG-AFTRA rules, the funds would typically pass to her next of kin. He urged the public not to donate until the organizer’s identity and claims could be verified.
Hernandez has rejected those suspicions. He said he had been in a relationship with Chase since 2019 and called it “100 percent” false to suggest the fundraiser was illegitimate, telling TMZ he had intended to use any money raised to ensure she received a proper memorial. In the appeal itself, Hernandez wrote that Chase had “always been a light in my life” but had “faced more than her share of hardship,” describing a troubled upbringing, estrangement from relatives and a struggle to find safety in downtown Los Angeles. Those biographical details, drawn from the disputed campaign, have not been independently confirmed, though Chase’s father has separately acknowledged that she had been homeless.
From Child Voiceover to Horror Icon
Born Daveigh Elizabeth Chase on July 24, 1990, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and raised in Albany, Oregon, Chase began performing at age three, doing voiceover work and theater. She landed her first television role at age seven with a small part in “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”
Her breakthrough came in 2001, when she played Samantha Darko in Richard Kelly’s cult film “Donnie Darko,” opposite Jake Gyllenhaal. She would reprise the role in the 2009 sequel “S. Darko.” Also in 2002, she voiced Chihiro Ogino in the English-language dub of Studio Ghibli’s acclaimed “Spirited Away.”
The year 2002 proved career-defining. Chase voiced the title role of Lilo Pelekai, a young Hawaiian girl who adopts what she believes is a dog but is actually an alien, in Disney’s animated hit “Lilo & Stitch.” She went on to perform the role in multiple sequels and the 2003–2006 television series.
That same year, at 12, Chase became the ghostly face of Gore Verbinski’s horror hit “The Ring” as Samara Morgan, the pale, dark-haired child who emerged from a television screen. The role earned her the 2003 MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, beating Willem Dafoe for “Spider-Man,” Daniel Day-Lewis for “Gangs of New York,” Colin Farrell for “Daredevil” and Mike Myers for “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”
In a 2002 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Chase said she relished the part. “It is not your typical character. Usually they are looking for a happy-go-lucky kid, but Samara was a pretty interesting character to play,” she said.
Her television work included single-episode appearances in “Charmed,” “ER,” “The Practice” and “Touched by an Angel.” From 2006 to 2011, she had a recurring, 32-episode role on HBO’s polygamy drama “Big Love” as Rhonda Volmer, a manipulative child bride raised in a fundamentalist compound.
A Retreat From Hollywood
After appearing in Thomas Dekker’s 2016 horror film “Jack Goes Home,” Chase largely stepped away from acting. She had begun slipping out of the spotlight years earlier and retreated from public view almost entirely by 2017, when she posted on social media for the last time.
Her manager of 15 years, John Ryan Jr., remembered her as someone who shunned the Hollywood lifestyle, was devoted to feline rescue and was content with a quiet life among her cats. He said she kept homes in Nevada and downtown Los Angeles, often retreating to Las Vegas for long stretches and turning down studio films in favor of independent projects.
Chase’s later years were marked by personal and legal difficulties. In 2017, she was arrested in Los Angeles after being found in a vehicle that had been reported stolen. The following year, she faced misdemeanor counts of possessing a controlled substance without a valid prescription and possessing drug paraphernalia.
In a June 19 interview with the Daily Mail, Chase’s mother, Cathy Chase, broke her silence, saying she had been “devastated” to learn of her daughter’s death after having no contact with her since 2019. Cathy said she had searched online forums and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s database nightly for years, looking for any sign of her daughter. She identified Daveigh’s remains at the hospital on June 19. Cathy attributed the start of her daughter’s addiction to a 2016 motorcycle accident in which Daveigh injured her back and was prescribed oxycodone. “She was seeking drugs and was partying with the wrong people,” Cathy said. “I never kicked my daughter out. She wanted freedom and these people got her hooked on some drugs. That was the beginning.”
In the days after Chase’s death, the dispute about the “boyfriend” escalated sharply. In a June 18 statement to Deadline, Ryan went further than his earlier remarks, alleging that Hernandez had brought Chase to the hospital “in terrible condition” and saying that, as far as he was concerned, “he should be in jail.” Ryan maintained there were no costs for the fundraiser to cover — “Daveigh’s estate has plenty of means to pay for the cremation,” he said — and accused Hernandez of keeping the family in the dark until after she died “so he can control the dialogue.” He said Chase’s father, John Schwallier, is her next of kin and “never signed any paperwork over to this so-called boyfriend,” and described a months-long effort by himself, Chase’s stepsister Gaia Brown and a private investigator to locate her. Ryan told Entertainment Weekly that Chase had been effectively missing from the industry since around 2015, after she failed to show up for a meeting connected to a potential project with director Rob Reiner. At one point, the search team reached her by phone and came close to placing her in a rehab facility in Costa Rica, but she disappeared before they could get to her.
A video that briefly circulated on social media in late 2025 — and was later removed — allegedly showed Chase extremely thin and barely conscious on the floor of a tent on Skid Row; Ryan said he traveled to the area after seeing it but was unable to locate her. He had also been developing a documentary about the search, tentatively titled “Finding Lilo,” which had attracted interest from major studios before her death.
Chase had been living in an RV with Hernandez in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, near Skid Row, before she was hospitalized for malnutrition on June 3. Hernandez has continued to deny any wrongdoing.