Manager of Former Child Star Says She Was Missing for 10 Years Before Death

Jason Merritt / Getty ImagesDaveigh Chase, best known for Lilo Stitch and The Ring, had been missing for nearly a decade before her death, her former manager says. The former child actor died Tuesday at age 35 after complications from meningitis and a blood infection that led to sepsis, according to her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chase’s former manager, John Ryan Jr., revealed that the actress vanished from the lives of friends and industry colleagues after 2015. Ryan said he became concerned when she failed to attend a meeting with filmmaker Rob Reiner and was never heard from again by those closest to her. “At first, I thought she was kidnapped or something,” Ryan told the outlet, adding that private investigators had been searching for her in recent years. Chase’s father, John David Schwallier, told The New York Times that the actress had struggled with substance abuse since her early teens and had been homeless in Los Angeles with Hernandez before her death. After finding fame as the voice of Lilo in Disney’s 2002 animated hit Lilo Stich and starring as Samara Morgan in The Ring that same year, Chase stepped away from acting after 2016. Ryan said he had begun developing a documentary about the search for the actress, tentatively titled Finding Lilo, before learning of her death.Read it at The IndependentRead more at The Daily Beast.