The “Lilo & Stitch” star was 35.

The Ring actress Daveigh Chase’s cause of death revealed

The "Lilo & Stitch" star was 35.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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June 29, 2026 1:51 p.m. ET

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Daveigh Chase in Los Angeles in 2013. Credit:

Donato Sardella/WireImage

- The cause of death for Daveigh Chase has been revealed.

- Chase died June 16 at 35.

- Roy Hernandez, a man identifying himself as Chase's boyfriend, previously told TMZ that she died following complications from sepsis.

The cause of death for Daveigh Chase has been revealed.

The *Lilo & Stitch* actress was reported dead at 35 two weeks ago after Roy Hernandez, a man identifying himself as her boyfriend, told TMZ that she died from complications from sepsis and a blood infection on June 16.

On Monday, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner has ruled the cause of death to be acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), with chronic polysubstance use listed as a significant condition.

Daveigh Chase in Los Angeles in 2012.

Todd Williamson/WireImage

In a GoFundMe campaign established the day before Chase's death, Hernandez said the actress had received a terminal diagnosis. "When she started losing weight, she finally agreed to go to the hospital, and that's when we learned how serious her condition was," he wrote. "The doctors told me the medicine isn't working, and that she is passing away. Despite everything, Daveigh wants to spend her remaining time with me, comfortable and together, rather than in a hospital."

Chase last posted on Instagram in November 2017. Her last post on her Tumblr account came earlier that year.

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Chase was best known for playing the young ghost haunting a cursed video tape in 2002's *The Ring* and for voicing Lilo in the original *Lilo & Stitch*. She also portrayed Jake Gyllenhaal's sister in *Donnie Darko* and later played a supporting role on HBO's *Big Love*. Other projects included *Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures*, *Oliver Beene*, and the American dub of *Spirited Away*.

Daveigh Chase in 'The Ring'.

Merrick Morton/Dreamworks

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Chase's last screen appearances came in the 2016 movies *Jack Goes Home* and *American Romance*.

Chase also appeared such TV shows as *Sabrina the Teenage Witch*, *ER*, *Charmed*, *CSI: Crime Scene Investigation*, *Without a Trace*, and *The Practice*.

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