Actress Kayley Hottle died at 3 a.m. Tuesday after the driver of the car she was riding in “veered off the road and crashed into a ditch,” Page Six confirmed.
The “Godzilla vs. Kong” star was one of two passengers involved in a fatal crash on Windsor Road in Ijamsville, Maryland, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
Police said the 19-year-old was driving a 1995 Honda Accord when the vehicle “veered off the right side of a two-lane roadway and struck a culvert.”
“Excessive speed is believed to be a contributing factor to the collision,” the statement continued.
The driver was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, but the other passenger refused medical assistance.
Hottle was taken to a local trauma center, where he was later pronounced dead. The deaf actress was 18 years old.
This accident is still under investigation. TMZ was first to report the news.
Kaylee’s father, Joshua Hottle, broke the tragic news to the outlet, explaining that he learned of the accident while in Texas.
Joshua, who is deaf, explained in ASL that he learned his daughter’s heart had stopped on the way to the hospital and was planning to fly to Maryland to retrieve her body.
In an emotional Facebook video about Kaylee’s death, she captioned the post: “I’m on a plane I never want to be on.”
Kaley was born in Georgia, but grew up in Austin, attended the Texas School for the Deaf, and began her acting career at the age of nine.
The child actor first appeared in a commercial for Glide, a video messaging app widely used by people who are hard of hearing or hearing impaired.
Kaley’s breakout role was as Gia in the 2021 Adam Wingard-directed film Godzilla vs. Kong, co-starring Rebecca Hall, who played Dr. Eileen Andrews.
In the movie, the two characters live on Skull Island, and Gia uses sign language to communicate with King Kong.
She also returned for the 2021 sequel Godzilla X Kong: New Empire.
