New information has emerged about the final months of actor Debbie Chase, who died at 35 from complications of meningitis. According to people familiar with her situation, she had been living homeless in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, became severely underweight, and was eventually hospitalized for malnutrition and serious infections. Her death was pronounced at a Los Angeles hospital on June 16.
Her longtime manager, John Ryan, told the California Post that he first saw a social media video of Chase at the end of last year, later deleted, showing her extremely thin and struggling to stand and move inside a tent or trailer in Skid Row. Sources close to Chase had previously told TMZ that during that period she may have weighed about 34 kilograms. Ryan said he and Chase’s 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 then traveled to the area where she had been seen to try to bring her into rehab, but she was gone by the time he arrived. “We were so close to finding her,” he said.
Ryan also said he is working on a documentary called “Finding Lilo” about friends’ efforts to locate her, and that several major studios have already shown interest. After her death, he called her “the sweetest, brightest light in Hollywood” and said, “I can’t believe this is real. Her legacy and her work will live forever.”
Chase’s death was announced by Roy Hernandez, who described himself as her partner and had recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to pay for her medical treatment. Ryan questioned Hernandez’s connection to Chase, saying none of her friends or family had heard of him, while confirming that Chase had a SAG trust account set up to cover all expenses. Chase was born in July 1990 in Las Vegas, began acting at age 8, appeared in series including Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, ER, and Michael Landon, Father I Knew, and became famous as Samara Morgan in The Ring and as the voice of Lilo in Lilo & Stitch. In later years she drifted from the spotlight, was arrested several times on charges including drug possession and driving a stolen car, and was investigated in 2017 after allegedly dropping an unconscious man outside a hospital; he later died of a drug overdose. She had not appeared on social media since 2017, and her last red carpet appearance was in 2013.
