Daveigh Chase, the voice of Lilo in ‘Lilo & Stitch’ and the child star of ‘The Ring,’ died on June 16 in Los Angeles at age 35. Her boyfriend had said the cause was meningitis. The forensic examiner said otherwise.
The official report confirmed that she died of AIDS, worsened by chronic use of multiple substances. Chase had left the spotlight behind more than a decade ago, and spent her final years battling addiction, living in Skid Row, one of the areas hardest hit by poverty in Los Angeles.
Her friend Shawn Rosenthal told PEOPLE that they tried to help her without success. ‘She surrounded herself with the worst people,’ he said. ‘No one cared about her well-being.’ Today, amid family disputes over a fundraiser, only one certainty remains: the girl who gave Lilo her voice spent her final years completely alone.