Daveigh Chase's father files request over her six-figure estate as new details shared
Daveigh Chase’s father has filed a request to oversee her estate.
The former child actress died tragically last month aged just 35 years old after a period of drug addiction and homelessness. Her mother, Cathy Chase, said she left behind $400,000 in personal property and asked the court to appoint her as the administrator, according to court documents.
However in a court filing last week, Chase’s father John Schwallier, asked the court to allow him to oversee his daughter’s estate. He appointed a licensed professional fiduciary and paralegal as administrator to act on his behalf, Page Six reports. He declined to take the role on himself.
Daveigh died without leaving a will, according to the filing, and she was ‘unhoused in LA’.
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A hearing has been scheduled for 26 August in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The late actresses’ former manager, John Ryan, told The Post he had ‘millions’ in unclaimed residual cheques at the time of her death, but she was ‘too far gone’ towards the end of her life to claim them.
Ryan said both he and her stepsister Gaia Brown had enlisted the help of a private investigator in 2025 to track Chase down. He was able to speak with her on the phone, but she ‘disappeared’ after.
Chase, who shot to fame as a child star, was best known for portraying Samara Morgan in the classic 2002 horror film The Ring, as well as voicing Lilo in Disney’s animated Lilo & Stitch.
The BBC reported that Chase’s cause of death was due to AIDS, citing official findings.
According to the outlet, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner also listed ‘chronic polysubstance use’ under ‘other significant conditions’, and ruled her death to be ‘natural’.
Polysubstance use is the official term for using more than one drug or substance at the same time or within a short period of time.
Chase’s father, John Schwallier, told The New York Post that his daughter’s cause of death ‘doesn’t surprise’ him, adding that ‘it is what it is’ and that ‘it’s something you sometimes have to expect with the lifestyle she was living’.
The outlet alleged that she had been battling addiction and homelessness on Skid Row in Los Angeles for years, and he didn't have contact with her.
Schwallier told The Post that Chass’s remains have gone to her mother, as he has not seen his daughter in person since she was six years old, adding that they spoke only on the phone when she was growing up.
He said that he’s willing to go to court to get some of her cremated remains if he has to, as he wants to put them in a handmade box in his home in the Philippines.
Schwallier told the publication: “I had an empty feeling inside for not being with her for all these years.”
Her manager also paid tribute, telling the BBC, “She was the greatest. She loved cats. She worked with cat rescues with us. She was very to herself.
"She was not very Hollywood. She'd rather eat at Bob's Big Boy and go home with the cats. She loved acting but wasn't into the fame scene.”
Daveigh Chase: A timeline of her Hollywood career and personal struggles
1998
Daveigh Chase becomes an actor by accident. Her mother Cathy crashes her car while on a trip to Los Angeles from their home in Albany, Oregon.
Doctors tell Cathy she can’t drive for six months, and Daveigh is encouraged to pursue her dreams of acting while the family are stuck in L.A.
Aged eight, Chase starts to appear in small parts in shows such as Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Charmed
2001
Chase lands her breakthrough role in cult film Donnie Darko, playing Jake Gyllenhaal’s onscreen sister Samantha Darko. The character later gets her own spinoff film in 2009 titled S. Darko.
In the same year, she voices lead character Chihiro Ogino in the American dub of Studio Ghibli classic Spirited Away.
2002
Chase stars as Samara in the US remake of The Ring aged just 11, and in the same year voice Lilio in Lilo & Stitch.
Mid-2000s
Chase meets John Ryan Jr, who would later go on to manage her.
Ryan says he saw her as a ‘little sister’. After her death, he says Chase liked to drink, but wasn’t into heavy drugs. He checked her into ‘a couple rehabs back in the day’.
2009
Chase says in an Interview Magazine profile: “I just want to make something that I love and people will respect. I want to do things that will change someone’s life, not something they’ll forget about tomorrow.”
2015
According to Ryan, Chase fails to show up to a meeting with Rob Reiner about a role and effectively disappears from public life.
Ryan says she was ‘sober a while’ before she went missing.
2016
Chase injures her back following a motorbike accident and is prescribed oxycodone. Her mother Cathy believes this is how she became addicted to drugs.
February 2017
Chase is arrested on a warrant for failing to appear in court for a traffic violation. She is also questioned regarding an unidentified man’s death from an overdose after allegedly leaving him outside the hospital and leaving the scene. Chase was not accused of playing any role in his death.
November 2017
Chase is arrested again after being found in the passenger seat of a car believed to be stolen.
2018
Chase is charged with possession of a controlled substance without a valid prescription and possession of drug paraphernalia.
2025
Cathy loses contact with her daughter. Later in the year, Ryan becomes aware of a video which allegedly shows Chase on Skid Row.
He manages to get her on the phone, but by the time he gets to Skid Row she’s no longer there.
15 June 2026
A man named Roy Hernandez, who says he is Chase’s boyfriend, launches a GoFundMe for her. He writes: “Daveigh was diagnosed with meningitis and several serious blood infections. Her condition has become critical, and the doctors have told me she may not have much time left.”
Ryan later says Chase’s family did not know about Hernandez, and encourages people not to donate to the fundraiser.
16 June 2026
Chase dies at a Los Angeles hospital after suffering from meningitis.
If you or someone you care about is struggling with drug addiction, support is available. Speak to a trusted service such as FRANK, your local NHS drug and alcohol support team, or a recovery organisation for confidential advice and help taking the next step.
Topics: Celebrity, TV And Film, Money
Greg Harris