Debbie Chase’s Last Years Marked by Homelessness, Malnutrition and Disappearance

New details have emerged about the final months of actress Debbie Chase, who died at age 35 from complications of meningitis. According to people close to her, she spent time homeless in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, became severely underweight, and was eventually hospitalized because of malnutrition and serious infections. Her death was confirmed at a hospital in the city on June 16.

Her longtime manager, John Ryan, told the California Post that he first saw a now-deleted social media video from late last year showing Chase in an extreme state of emaciation, writhing on the floor of a tent or caravan in Skid Row and struggling to stand. Sources close to Chase had previously told TMZ that while she was there, her weight was estimated at about 34 kilograms. Ryan said he and her half-sister, Gaia Brown, hired a private investigator after she disappeared and they did not know where she was. He later reached her by phone and rushed to the area where she was said to be, hoping to bring her into rehabilitation, but she had already left. “We were so close to finding her,” he said.

Ryan also said he is working on a documentary called “Finding Lilo,” about attempts by her friends to locate her, and said several major studios have already shown interest. On learning of her death, he called Chase “the sweetest, brightest light in Hollywood” and said, “I cannot believe this is real. Her legacy and her work will live forever.”

Chase was born in July 1990 in Las Vegas and began acting at age 8, including a guest role on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She later appeared in Charmed, ER and Michael Landon, the Father I Knew, and gained her biggest fame as Samara Morgan in The Ring and as the voice of Lilo in Lilo & Stitch. In later years she withdrew from public life, was arrested several times on drug possession and stolen vehicle charges, and in 2017 was investigated after driving an unconscious man out of a hospital, leaving him there and driving away; he was later found to have died of a drug overdose. She had not been seen on social media since 2017, and her last red-carpet appearance was in 2013.