The mother of Daveigh Chase describes the Lilo & Stitch alum's battles with addiction prior to her passing.
Following the untimely death of her daughter, Daveigh Chase's mother speaks out. In response to the news of Daveigh's passing three days after the Ring actress passed away at the age of 35, her mother Cathy Chase described her daughter's recent battles with addiction.
"I was devastated," Cathy remembered in a June 19 interview with the Daily Mail. "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 added. "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."
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However, the mother of the former child star claims that Daveigh had been having problems for a long time, beginning when she was administered medicines, such as oxycodone, for a back injury sustained in a motorbike accident in 2016.
"She was seeking drugs and was partying with the wrong people," Cathy remarked. "I never kicked my daughter out. She wanted freedom and these people got her hooked on some drugs. That was the beginning."
The mother of the Lilo & Stitch actress continued by describing the last time she saw her daughter in 2019, when she paid her a visit in jail—the most recent of Daveigh's legal troubles.
"She was completely gone, like, out of her mind," Cathy clarified. "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."
Cathy would frequently look up her daughter's name in the L.A. County Medical Examiner's database in the years since she last saw Daveigh.
Nevertheless, Daveigh initially believed it to be "fake news" when her boyfriend Roy Hernandez told TMZ that the Spirited Away voice actor died on June 16 after battling meningitis and a blood illness.
"All of a sudden, it's all of these different legitimate sites had her name," she remembered, "and I realized that it wasn't fake."
On June 18, Cathy recognized her daughter's body and prayed over the remains with a chaplain.
"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 added. "It was a beautiful experience and I feel very blessed, too, to have been able to share that with my daughter."
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