Inside Daveigh Chase’s Battle with Drug Addiction and Homelessness

Cathy Chase is speaking out following the death of her daughter, Daveigh Chase, who passed away at age 35. The grieving mother is recounting the harrowing years she spent searching for her daughter after addiction pulled her into a life on the streets.

Daveigh Chase's mother, Cathy Chase, is opening up about her late daughter following the actress's tragic and untimely death. Daveigh, who rose to fame in the 2000s as the voice of Lilo in "Lilo & Stitch," passed away on June 16, 2026. She was 35.

Cathy described leaving her career as a nurse and relocating to Los Angeles to support Daveigh's acting ambitions, after raising her in Albany, Oregon. It was a sacrifice that paid off early — Daveigh had already been appearing in commercials from as young as three years old.

She arrived in Hollywood in the early 2000s and wasted no time making her mark, landing roles in major productions including Steven Spielberg's "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," where she played a singing girl, and "Donnie Darko," in which she portrayed Jake Gyllenhaal's sister.

By that point, she had also racked up appearances on prominent TV shows including "ER," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," "Charmed," and "The Practice."

Her biggest breakthrough soon followed. Daveigh voiced the beloved title character in "Lilo & Stitch" and delivered a chilling performance as Samara in the 2002 horror film "The Ring."

More roles came in the years that followed, though her career began to slow around the mid-2010s — a shift that, according to Cathy, coincided with a devastating turning point in her daughter's personal life.

Around 2016, Daveigh sustained a back injury in a motorcycle accident and was prescribed strong painkillers, including oxycodone. Cathy believes that prescription marked the beginning of her daughter's addiction.

From there, Daveigh moved on to harder substances and drifted into a dangerous social circle.

"She was seeking drugs and was partying with the wrong people. I never kicked my daughter out. She wanted freedom and these people got her hooked on some drugs. That was the beginning," Cathy said.

By 2018, Daveigh was cycling in and out of jail on drug and other charges. The last time Cathy saw her in person was October 2019, during a jail visit following Daveigh's arrest on two counts of burglary.

The woman she encountered was unrecognizable.

"She was completely gone, like, out of her mind," Cathy recalled. "I honestly thought there was something wrong with her. My daughter was never diagnosed with mental health other than PTSD. But the drugs took hold of her."

During that visit, the two discussed Daveigh returning home, and Cathy agreed to pick her up upon her release. It wasn't to be. "But when I got there, she never waited. She went back to the streets and I couldn't find her," Cathy said.

What followed were years of desperate searching.

Cathy and Daveigh's 19-year-old brother combed through Los Angeles looking for any trace of her. Cathy developed a nightly ritual of scouring platforms like Google and Reddit for updates on her daughter's whereabouts.

Daveigh's former manager, John Ryan, and her stepsister, Gaia Brown, also joined the effort — eventually enlisting a private investigator in hopes of locating Daveigh and connecting her with support services.

Late last year, a deeply troubling video surfaced on social media, showing Daveigh alarmingly thin and barely conscious on the floor of what appeared to be a tent or trailer in LA's notorious Skid Row.

John later said he managed to get in contact with Daveigh and began arranging treatment — but she disappeared before plans could be carried out. He and the rest of the family only learned of her death through media coverage.

For Cathy, the news broke through one of her nightly searches. Even then, she struggled to accept what she was reading.

"I actually thought it was fake news, that first time I saw it, and then, but then all of a sudden, it's all of these different legitimate sites had her name and I realized that it wasn't fake," she said.

'I was devastated. It felt like something inside of me squeezing all of the air out of me, and at the same time, It felt like I was exploding outwardly," she shared.

She traveled to the hospital shortly after to identify her daughter's remains, accompanied by a chaplain. The moment was one she described with unexpected tenderness.

"We were able to lay hands and pray. Technically, we were touching the glass, but it's as close as we could get, so we were able to lay hands and pray for her," Cathy said. "It was a beautiful experience, and, and I feel very blessed, too, have been able to share that with my daughter."

Daveigh's family confirmed that her death was linked to bacterial meningitis and a blood infection — complications frequently associated with homelessness. John confirmed that her remains would be cremated.