- The former child star died on June 16 at the age of 35.
- A medical examiner’s report released Monday listed AIDS as the cause of death.
- Chronic polysubstance use was also listed as a significant condition contributing to her deat
Daveigh Chase's father has shared an emotional response following the actress's tragic death. The former child star, best known for The Ring and as the voice of Lilo in Lilo & Stitch, died on June 16 at 35.
A medical examiner's report released Monday listed AIDS as the cause of death. "Chronic polysubstance use" was also listed as a significant condition contributing to her death.
Speaking to The New York Post, Chase's father John Schwallier said her cause of death "doesn't surprise" him. He noted the family had already acknowledged that the former child star distanced herself from her close-knit circle and battled substance abuse following a 2016 painkiller prescription. She was reportedly homeless at the time of her death, he said.
"It is what it is," Schwallier told the publication about his daughter's death. "It's something you sometimes have to expect with the lifestyle she was living." He said Chase's remains went to her mother, Cathy.
Schwallier noted he hadn't seen Chase in person since she was around six, though they spoke on the phone while she was growing up. “I had an empty feeling inside for not being with her for all these years,” he said.
Chase struggled for years with addiction and homelessness on LA's Skid Row. Her manager and friends allegedly tried for years to get her off the streets and into rehab, but she refused.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Cathy said her daughter's struggles with addiction started after a 2016 motorcycle accident when she was prescribed painkillers. "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,' she said.
Cathy added that she was "devastated" to learn of her daughter's death from online headlines.
Apart from voicing Lilo in Lilo & Stitch, Chase also played the lead, Chihiro Ogino, in the English dub of the acclaimed Japanese film Spirited Away. The former actress last appeared in the 2016 thriller American Romance before stepping away from the public eye.