Daveigh Chase's Mom Details Actress' Addiction Struggles Before Death

Daveigh Chase, Star of The Ring and Lilo & Stitch, Dead at 35

Daveigh Chase's mother is speaking out after her daughter's tragic passing.

Three days after the Ring star died at 35, her mom Cathy Chase reacted to the news of Daveigh's death and detailed her daughter's struggles with addiction in recent years.

"I was devastated," Cathy recalled to the Daily Mail in an interview published June 19. "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."

"I let out this guttural scream and I just was running," she continued. "And these weird sounds were coming out of me, these kind of, like, primeval sounds. 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."

Yet, according to the former child star's mom, Daveigh had been struggling for many years, with her issues starting after she was prescribed painkillers, including oxycodone, for a back injury following a motorcycle accident in 2016.

"She was seeking drugs and was partying with the wrong people," Cathy said. "I never kicked my daughter out. She wanted freedom and these people got her hooked on some drugs. That was the beginning."

The Lilo & Stitch star's mom went on to detail the moment she last saw her daughter in 2019 when she visited her in jail, which was the latest of Daveigh's legal issues.

"She was completely gone, like, out of her mind," Cathy explained. "I honestly thought there was something wrong with her. My daughter was never diagnosed with mental health other than PTSD. But the drugs took hold of her."

According to Cathy, she and Daveigh agreed that once the Donnie Darko star was released from jail, she'd pick her up.

"But when I got there, she never waited," Cathy said. "She went back to the streets and I couldn't find her."

But Cathy didn't ever lose hope. As she put it, "It upsets me because people are saying I must've been a bad mother, but I never gave up on her. As a mother, you don't give up on your child. I was hoping she would still come home."

Michael Tran/FilmMagic

In the years since she last saw Daveigh, Cathy would regularly search for her daughter's name in the L.A. County Medical Examiner's system.

However, when Daveigh's boyfriend Roy Hernandez confirmed to TMZ that the Spirited Away voice actress passed away June 16 following a battle with meningitis and a blood infection, she initially thought it was "fake news."

"All of a sudden, it's all of these different legitimate sites had her name," she recalled, "and I realized that it wasn't fake."

After Cathy identified her daughter's body on June 18, she and a chaplain prayed over the remains.

"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, too, to have been able to share that with my daughter."

Read on to see more celebrities who have lost their lives this year.

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