Former child star Kaylee Hottle’s cause of death revealed

Former child star Kaylee Hottle, best known for her role in Godzilla vs Kong, died this week at age 18 in a horror car crash. 

The deaf actress’ dad, Joshua Hottle, confirmed the tragic news to TMZ – and just days after the July 21 accident, her cause of death has been revealed.

Kaylee’s cause of death was due to multiple blunt force injuries, ruling her manner of death an accident, according to the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, per People.

On Tuesday, her father explained in American Sign Language (ASL) that the fatal crash had occurred in Maryland in an emotional livestream on Facebook.  

Joshua, who was in Texas when he got a call about the accident, signed that he received a follow-up call from authorities that let him know his daughter’s heart had stopped beating on the way to hospital. 

He told TMZ he was flying to Maryland to claim his daughter’s body. 

“I am taking a flight that I never would like to take,” he captioned the Facebook announcement video. 

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According to a statement from police, the car she was in “swerved off the road and into a ditch” at 3am, Page Six confirmed. 

Kaylee was one of two passengers in the car, which was being driven by a 19-year-old when it “travelled off the right side of the two-lane roadway and struck a culvert.” 

“Excessive speed is believed to be a contributing factor in the collision,” the statement continued.

The driver was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, while the other passenger denied medical treatment at the scene. 

Kaylee was rushed to a local trauma centre and was later pronounced dead. 

The crash remains under investigation. 

Kaylee was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but raised in Austin where she attended the Texas School for the Deaf. 

She started acting at age nine, and her first role was in a commercial for Glide, a video messaging app which is popular in the deaf community. 

In 2021 she hit the big screen playing Jia in Godzilla vs Kong, alongside Rebecca Hall and Alexander Skarsgård. 

Hall and Skarsgård made headlines at the time of filming, after they both learnt ASL to communicate with her on set. 

In 2024, Kaylee reprised her role as Jia in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.

Her other notable parts include playing Joon in a Season 4 episode of Magnum P.I. in 2021.