Daveigh Chase died of AIDS and substance abuse, medical examiner says
A medical examiner said Daveigh Chase died of AIDS, with chronic polysubstance use also contributing. Her death at 35 reopened scrutiny of HIV stigma and late-stage illness.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner listed AIDS as Daveigh Chase’s primary cause of death and chronic polysubstance use as a significant contributing condition. The manner of death was natural, and the record says Chase died in a hospital in Los Angeles on June 16, 2026, at age 35.
Chase also used the name Daveigh Schwallier. Her father, John David Schwallier, told The New York Times that she had been homeless and had struggled with drugs since age 13, and that he had not spoken with her in many years. Earlier accounts had described her death as a complication of meningitis, but the medical examiner’s finding replaced those reports with a more specific medical explanation.
The disclosure places Chase’s death within a wider public-health reality that extends far beyond one former child star. The World Health Organization says AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says HIV continues to affect groups unevenly in the United States, with stigma, poverty, discrimination and limited access to care shaping those gaps. Chase’s case reflects the way late-stage illness can intersect with substance use, unstable housing and long stretches without consistent medical support.
Chase was widely recognized for voicing Lilo Pelekai in Disney’s 2002 animated film Lilo & Stitch and for playing Samara Morgan in The Ring that same year. She also voiced Chihiro in the English-language version of Spirited Away. Her early career brought formal recognition as well, including a Young Artist Award for Lilo & Stitch, while IMDb lists an MTV Movie Award win for Best Villain for The Ring. The contrast between that early visibility and the circumstances surrounding her death underscores how celebrity can coexist with deep personal and medical hardship, especially when addiction and HIV-related illness go untreated.
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