Daveigh Chase's cause of death ruled as AIDS, medical examiner says

The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner has ruled that actress Daveigh Chase died from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), with chronic polysubstance use listed as a significant contributing condition. She was 35.

Chase died on June 16. Shortly after her death, Roy Hernandez, who identified himself as her boyfriend, told TMZ that she had died from complications related to sepsis and a blood infection.

A GoFundMe campaign created the day before her death said Chase had recently received a terminal diagnosis after seeking medical care for severe weight loss. According to the fundraiser, doctors told Hernandez that treatment was no longer working, and Chase wanted to spend her remaining time outside the hospital.

In interviews after her death, Chase's mother, Cathy, said her daughter's addiction began after she was prescribed opioid painkillers following a motorcycle accident around 2016. She said Chase later struggled with substance use and periods of homelessness. Former manager John Ryan Jr. previously said Chase had attended rehabilitation programs and had experienced periods of sobriety.

Chase was best known for voicing Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch and for playing Samara Morgan in the 2002 horror film The Ring. She also appeared in Donnie Darko, Big Love, Spirited Away (English dub), Jack Goes Home, and American Romance, her final screen credits in 2016.