Daveigh Chase’s Mother Cathy Breaks Silence After Her Daughter’s Death

Cathy Chase is speaking out about her daughter Daveigh's tragic death, revealing the years-long search and heartbreak that followed the actress's disappearance from public life.

Cathy Chase is opening up about her daughter Daveigh's tragic death and the painful spiral that preceded it. The late actress, who rose to fame voicing Lilo in the beloved Disney classic "Lilo & Stitch," passed away on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. She was 35.

For years, Cathy had turned to Google and platforms like Reddit, searching for any trace of her daughter. Daveigh had drifted into drug addiction and homelessness as her career slowed in the mid-2010s.

Her final onscreen appearance came in the 2016 thriller "American Romance," and she later lent her voice to the video game character Kiwako Seto in "Let It Die" that same year.

Mother and daughter had been out of contact since 2019, and the nightly online search had become a grim routine for Cathy — until that Tuesday evening, when news of Daveigh's death began making headlines, confirming her worst fears.

"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," Cathy told the Daily Mail.

Family members confirmed that Daveigh's cause of death was linked to bacterial meningitis and a blood infection — complications tragically common among the homeless.

When Cathy found out the news, she let out a scream and ran to her backyard, overwhelmed by grief and disbelief.

"I let out this guttural scream and I just was running. And these weird sounds were coming out of me, these kind of, like, primeval sounds," she recalled. "And I went out into the backyard, and I was screaming, 'No, no, no, no!' I am in so much pain but I hope her soul heard me."

Despite the intensity of that moment, Cathy admitted she had been mentally bracing herself for this possibility for years. In addition to her news searches, she regularly checked the LA County Medical Examiner's system, dreading what she might find.

"I would just put her name in the coroner's [search system] and see if her name came up and if somebody had her somewhere," she said. "I would look at their list of unidentified bodies. It was very difficult, but you do everything you can as a mother."

Still, no amount of preparation could soften the blow of seeing it confirmed. TMZ was the first to break the news on the day Daveigh died, with confirmation from her reported boyfriend Roy Hernandez. Even then, Cathy 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.

Cathy and her family traveled to the hospital to identify Daveigh's remains on Thursday, June 18, accompanied by a chaplain. The moment, though heartbreaking, carried a quiet sense of peace for the grieving mother.

"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," she said. "It was a beautiful experience, and I feel very blessed to have been able to share that with my daughter."

Daveigh's former manager and longtime friend John Ryan confirmed that her body would be cremated.