Daveigh Chase, the actress best known for her roles in The Ring and Lilo & Stitch, spent the final years of her life living in an RV with her boyfriend in downtown Los Angeles, TMZ has learned exclusively.
According to sources close to the actress, Chase and her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, were residing in the RV in the Boyle Heights area, just minutes from Skid Row, until June 3, when she was admitted to a local hospital.
Chase died Tuesday at the hospital at the age of 35. Sources told TMZ her cause of death was meningitis and a blood infection.
Friends had spent years trying to locate Chase after she largely disappeared from the public eye amid personal struggles. Sources say that several months before her death, those close to her received information suggesting she was living in the Skid Row area. They feared her weight had dropped to as little as 75 pounds.
Despite searching Skid Row and other parts of downtown Los Angeles, friends were unable to reconnect with Chase before she was hospitalized.
Chase gained fame for playing Samara Morgan in the 2002 horror classic The Ring and for voicing the title character in Disney’s animated film Lilo & Stitch.