Anne Heche sadly passed away after she was taken off life support due to a car accident that left her in critical condition.
And it is all the more devastating for Heche’s mother…
Scroll down to find out why.
The devastating crash on August 5 not only took Heche’s life…
But completely uprooted the life of Lynne Mishele, whose house and belongings have been destroyed.
Heche, fifty-three, was taken to hospital in “a critical condition” following a car crash on August 5…
According to Sky News, the actress had been “driving at speed down an LA street” before she crashed into a house.
The Los Angeles Fire Department noted that the crash “sparked a heavy fire” which left the actress with burns…
That requires “surgical intervention.”
In the video taken just after the brutal accident, the actress’ behavior was rather erratic, according to TMZ.
Apparently, Heche was “acting erratically” soon after she lost consciousness.
Sources told the media outlet that the “law enforcement were able to get a warrant.”
So that officials could determine whether the actress “was under the influence” with a sample of her blood.
And that’s not all…
According to reports, police believe Heche was indeed “under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
Heche committed “at least 2 hit-and-runs” before she drove through a home…
When her car was set ablaze and she faced “significant injuries.”
A representative for the actress told TMZ at the time, that Heche was “fighting for her life” in hospital…
As well as being in a critical condition with “pulmonary injuries” in which she required “mechanical ventilation.”
“Shortly after the accident, Anne Heche became unconscious, slipping into a coma, and is in critical condition. She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention,” concluded the rep.
Heche was in a coma for a week, dealing with her significant injuries.
The rep told PEOPLE that “she is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.”
Since the incident, investigators have called the case a “felony.”
According to the Daily Mail, Heche was “having a bad day” in the run-up to the accident…
In Friday’s episode of Heche’s Better Together podcast, she appears to “slur her words” as she and co-host Heather Duffy tell the “audience they are drinking vodka with wine chasers.”
As “a vodka distillery which sponsored one of their shows gave them free alcohol.”
However, it is not clear whether the podcast was filmed on the Friday of the accident.
“Dr. Rahm said that we should be drinking vodka instead of wine,” Duffy said, while Heche added that “we listened and we are drinking it.”
And it’s the next revelation that’s got fans talking after the actress revealed she was having a “bad day.”
“I don’t know what happened, sometimes days just suck and I don’t know if you ever have them [but] some days, those no good, very bad days, and some days, days just end up like this.
“Sometimes days just suck and I don’t know if you ever have them, but you know some days, Mama says just gonna be like this. Some days there are those no good, very bad days,” said Heche.
“And I don’t know why some days just end up like this, and things don’t really rock me like that,” continued the actress.
Heche later revealed how she has “had a tough week,” and explained, “how people interrupted her meditating at her apartment.”
So does that mean Heche was indeed having a bad day on Friday? Well, we don’t for sure…
Before the accident, the actress was seen “speeding down an alleyway and narrowly missing the pedestrian as she walked along the sidewalk in the Mar Vista area of the city.”
The newly released footage shows a woman who has not been identified, looking astonished as the Heche’s Mini Clubman raced past just before 11 am on Friday.
TMZ reports that Heche “may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
When she plowed into the home of Lynne Mishele.
Heche’s family later revealed she was declared brain dead due to the extent of her injuries.
Announcing she will be taken off life support.
It has been announced that she will stay on a ventilator so that doctors can check her organs to see if they are able to be donated before they turn off the life support.
It has been shared that Heche suffered “severe anoxic brain injury” due to the crash according to a statement made by her family.
This means her brain was starved of oxygen for a significant amount of time.
A rep for her family said: “We want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers for Anne’s recovery and thank the dedicated staff and wonderful nurses that cared for Anne at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills hospital.”
“Unfortunately, due to her accident, Anne Heche suffered a severe anoxic brain injury and remains in a coma, in critical condition. She is not expected to survive.”
The statement continued: “Anne had a huge heart and touched everyone she met with her generous spirit.
“More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work – especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love. She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light.”
Heche’s rep then revealed even more details after it was disclosed the actress was not expected to survive…
The rep explained that the Donnie Brasco actress chose to be an organ donor long ago and, according to reports, will be alive until the check is done.
“It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable,” the statement read.
Authorities were still gathering evidence from the crash a week after the incident…
And were expected to present a case to prosecutors once the investigation is complete.
However, the actress has now passed away, family and friends confirmed.
A rep for Heche’s family told TMZ: “We have lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul, a loving mother, and a loyal friend.
“Anne will be deeply missed but she lives on through her beautiful sons, her iconic body of work, and her passionate advocacy.
“Her bravery for always standing in her truth, spreading her message of love and acceptance, will continue to have a lasting impact.”
Before her death was announced, the actress was reportedly in “legal trouble,” after the LAPD took over to investigate the incident.
According to TMZ, the police said they were “treating the incident as a potential felony investigation because the woman inside the home, Lynne Mishele, suffered.”
Lynne Bernstein, a neighbor of Mishele, told PEOPLE the tenant was “extremely fortunate to have survived the accident.”
She further added, “that she was in shock before she even noticed the vehicle as she saw him and two other neighbors inside her house trying to help everyone get out safely.”
Mishele narrowly escaped with her 2 dogs and pet turtle from the wreckage.
But everything else was destroyed.
According to Bernstein, the vehicle drove all the way into the house.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said that the damage was severe and caused heavy fire to the one-story home.
The Fire Department even red-tagged the house, which means the building is not safe for occupancy in its current state.
Though she managed to survive the wreckage, the fire department wrote: “[Mishele] lost an entire lifetime of possessions, mementos, all equipment for her business including her laptop and iPad, all of her clothing and basic necessities, and all household items.”
Many have donated to her GoFundMe page here.
But since the tragic news of Heche’s death, the LAPD have ended their investigation into the crash.
Police released a statement confirming their decision in light of the recent news, on Friday.
“As of today, there will be no further investigative efforts made in this case,” they said, as per 1News.
They explained: “Any information or records that have been requested prior to this turn of events will still be collected as they arrive as a matter of formalities and included in the overall case.”
Concluding their statement, they said: “When a person suspected of a crime expires, we do not present for filing consideration.”
And now all eyes are on Heche’s mother who has to make a yet another tribute to one of her children…
And it is heartbreaking.
But first, let’s look back at the relationship Heche shared with her mother…
In 1997, the Chicago-based Nancy Heche was absolutely livid when Heche told her she’d fallen in love with Ellen DeGeneres.
The 85-year-old, a Christian psychologist who uses the Bible in her counseling practice, was initially furious when her daughter broke the news to her.
“I am plummeted into disbelief and outrage,” she wrote.
“I am dumbfounded, in a state of shock. Doesn’t Anne know what homosexuality has done to our family? How will we ever be able to close the gap, the avowed heteros*xual mother and the avowed homos*xual daughter?” she added.
It was only after Heche’s 2001 memoir Call Me Crazy was published that Nancy confessed there was “no place among the lies and blasphemies in the pages of this book,” according to reports.
But what did Heche reveal that made her mother call her memoir blasphemous?
Well, Heche revealed her father, Donald, molested her from the time she was a toddler all the way up until she was twelve.
But her daughter’s revelations left her mother with painful memories, as she recalled that she didn’t know her husband was gay until he was dying in 1983 from suffering AIDS.
And Nancy even confessed she never knew about the double life her husband played because she was a 50s girl.
The mother of 5 came under the spotlight again when she revealed in her 2006 memoir: The Truth Comes Out: When Someone You Love is in a Same-Sex Relationship, that she used amyl nitrate poppers with Donald to improve their s*x life…
And also took married lovers.
But the sad irony of all this is that Nancy has witnessed 4 of her children’s death in her lifetime.
Before Heche was born, her sister, Cynthia, then just 2-months-old, died from a heart defect. Then Heche’s 18-year-old brother, Nathan, died in a car accident 3 months after Don Heche’s death. Another sister, Susan Bergman, who wrote her own family memoir called Anonymity died in 2006 from brain cancer.
Leaving Nancy to outlive 4 of her 5 children.
Only 1 Heche sibling, Abigail, is still alive.
Our thoughts go out to Heche’s family in this difficult time.