Daveigh Chase, the former child star whose voice brought Lilo Pelekai to life in Disney's Lilo & Stitch and whose eerie turn as Samara Morgan haunted a generation of horror fans in The Ring, has left behind an estate worth roughly $400,000 but no will to say who should get it.
According to court documents, Chase's mother, Cathy Chase, has petitioned a Los Angeles court to be named administrator of her daughter's estate. In the filing, Cathy states that Daveigh had no children and was never married, leaving the matter of dividing her assets to the probate process rather than a personal directive. As part of the petition, Cathy also signed an acknowledgement of the responsibilities she’d take on as administrator, like safeguarding estate property, notifying creditors, keeping financial records, and filing a full inventory with the court.
Chase died June 16 at a Los Angeles hospital at age 35, after being admitted for severe malnutrition. Her official cause of death was ruled AIDS with chronic polysubstance use as a contributing factor; the death was classified as natural. Some early reports had pointed to meningitis and a related bloodstream infection as complicating factors in her final days.
Cathy Chase has said she believes her daughter’s addiction can be traced back to a 2016 motorcycle accident that left her on prescription pain medication for injuries. Speaking publicly about the years that followed, she pushed back on any suggestion that family estrangement was to blame. “I never kicked my daughter out,” she said, adding that she continued trying to help even after Daveigh declined treatment.
The filing lists Cathy Chase and Daveigh’s father, John Schwailler, as next of kin, though Cathy noted she does not have a current address for Schwailler, who reportedly splits time between Las Vegas and the Philippines. That uncertainty could complicate the probate proceedings as the estate moves forward.
Separately, some outlets have reported the actress may be owed additional, unclaimed SAG-AFTRA residuals tied to her voice work on Lilo & Stitch — a figure that, if confirmed, would exist apart from the $400,000 in personal property cited in the current court filing. A GoFundMe campaign launched after her death by a man identifying himself as her boyfriend has also drawn scrutiny; a family representative told reporters that neither Chase's relatives nor her longtime friends recognised the individual, and noted she already had a SAG-administered trust intended to cover end-of-life costs.
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