Cause of death revealed for 18-year-old ‘Godzilla’ actress Kaylee Hottle, reports say - AZ Family

What the report says

AZFamily, carrying a Gray News report, says authorities have reportedly identified the cause of death for 18-year-old actress Kaylee Hottle after a crash in Maryland earlier this week. Citing multiple reports, the article says Maryland’s medical examiner found that Hottle died from multiple blunt force injuries and classified the death as accidental.

According to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office account cited by AZFamily, Hottle was riding in a 1995 Honda Accord early Tuesday in Ijamsville, Maryland, when the vehicle left the right side of a two-lane road and struck a culvert. The sheriff’s office said a 19-year-old man was driving. Hottle was transported to a trauma center and later died. The driver was hospitalized with injuries described as not life-threatening, while another passenger declined treatment at the scene.

The sheriff’s office said speed is believed to have contributed to the crash, though the investigation is still ongoing. The report does not state that any charges have been filed or that investigators have reached a final conclusion beyond the medical examiner’s ruling on cause and manner of death.

Hottle was known for playing Jia in 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong” and returning to the role in 2024’s “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” AZFamily notes that she was deaf, from a multigenerational Deaf family, and a senior at the Texas School for the Deaf, which acknowledged her death on Instagram. Her father, Joshua Hottle, also discussed her death in an American Sign Language Facebook livestream, saying he was traveling from Texas to recover her body.