Former child actress Daveigh Chase, known for Lilo & Stitch and The Ring, dies aged 35 from sepsis

Unbiased summary

Daveigh Chase, an American actress born on 24 July 1990 in Las Vegas, died on Tuesday aged 35 from sepsis caused by meningitis and a blood infection. She had been admitted to a Los Angeles hospital earlier in June for malnutrition. Chase was best known for voicing Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch, portraying Samara Morgan in the 2002 horror film The Ring, and voicing Chihiro in the English dub of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away. She also appeared in Donnie Darko and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Her boyfriend Roy Hernandez confirmed her death and had previously set up a GoFundMe campaign. Her manager of 15 years, John Ryan Jr, described her as private and not drawn to Hollywood fame. She had largely withdrawn from public life after 2015.

Generated with Claude Sonnet 4.6

Coverage by outlet

The Guardian left

Angle The Guardian frames Chase's death sympathetically, focusing on personal hardship and the emotional context provided by her boyfriend's GoFundMe statement.

Bias The Guardian gives significant space to the boyfriend's GoFundMe language, emphasising Chase's difficult childhood, family estrangement, and struggles in downtown LA, lending an emotional and humanising tone. It omits the arrests, drug-related incidents, and homelessness mentioned elsewhere, which presents a somewhat sanitised picture of her later life. It also omits the manager's quotes, which provide a more rounded professional perspective, and does not mention her retirement from acting or her Big Love role.

Daveigh Chase, child star known for Lilo & Stitch and The Ring, dies aged 35

BBC News centre-left

Angle The BBC offers the most professionally rounded account, foregrounding Chase's career achievements and her manager's personal recollections to present a balanced tribute.

Bias The BBC is the only outlet to prominently feature her manager John Ryan Jr as a source, adding professional credibility and personal warmth without sensationalism. It omits the arrests, homelessness, and drug-related incidents entirely, which means it avoids sensationalism but also leaves out factually documented aspects of her later life. The piece leans toward a celebratory obituary tone, which is a mild editorial choice, but it stays closer to neutral than the other outlets.

The Ring and Lilo & Stitch actress Daveigh Chase dies aged 35

Daily Mail right

Angle The Daily Mail leads with the most sensational framing, emphasising Chase's malnutrition hospitalisation, criminal record, homelessness, and a dramatic anecdote linking her to a drug overdose death.

Bias The Daily Mail is the only outlet to detail Chase's arrest history, including car theft and drug possession charges, and her alleged involvement in dropping an overdose victim at a hospital, framing her later life as a cautionary tabloid narrative of celebrity decline. While these facts may be accurate, their prominent placement — ahead of career context — skews the overall impression toward scandal. The outlet also includes an unrelated clickbait link to a celebrity divorce story, undermining journalistic tone, and uses phrases like 'shocking death' and 'tragic premonition' that constitute clear editorialising absent from the other outlets.

The Ring star who was also in Lilo & Stitch and Big Love dead at 35 after being hospitalized for malnutrition