Daveigh Chase’s friend and former manager has revealed that the former child actor had been missing for 10 years before her death was announced earlier this week.
Chase, who voiced Lilo in Disney’s 2002 animated hit Lilo & Stitch and terrified audiences as Samara Morgan in The Ring the same year, was 35.
The actor’s death was announced by her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, who told TMZ that she died Tuesday after a bout of meningitis and a blood infection that caused septic issues.
Chase’s father, John David Schwallier, confirmed the news to The New York Times, adding that his daughter had been homeless and living in Los Angeles with her boyfriend near the hospital where she died. “Him and her were destitute,” Schwallier said.
In an interview published Thursday, John Ryan Jr., a Hollywood producer who represented Chase in the last stage of her career, told Entertainment Weekly that the actor disappeared over a decade ago.
Ryan said he last saw Chase in November 2015 and discovered she was missing after she skipped a meeting with acclaimed filmmaker Rob Reiner (who was killed in December 2025).
“At first, I thought she was kidnapped or something, and then we started putting two and two together,” Ryan told EW, adding that he had helped Chase into “a couple rehabs back in the day,” but that he and her friends weren’t overly concerned about her sobriety.
He said a missing persons report was never filed because she left of her own admission. He recalled seeing her occasionally make headlines, such as her 2017 arrest for riding in a stolen car.
Ryan said he first began hearing troubling reports about Chase’s circumstances around five years ago. About six months ago, he said, someone sent him a video that showed her in Los Angeles’ Skid Row. “I ran down there, and by the time I went down there, she had already left,” he said. “We’ve been looking for her ever since. We’ve had private eyes on it.”
Ryan said he was in the process of developing a documentary about the search for the missing actor, tentatively titled Finding Lilo, when he found out about her death.
“I didn't think it’s my story to tell,” he said of his decision not to go public about her disappearance sooner. “I didn’t want to put my little sister on blast. We had hopes she’d come back, and everyone would’ve just assumed she’s been retired these last 10 years.
”Once I got video of her, and how bad she looked, I said, ‘We need to bring the public in on this. I don’t want to protect the brand anymore. I want to protect the girl.’”
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