By Page Six | Created at 2026-07-21 17:44:44 | Updated at 2026-07-21 20:52:38
3 hours ago
Actress Kaylee Hottle died after the driver of the car she was in “swerved off the road and hit a ditch” at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Page Six can confirm.
The “Godzilla vs. Kong” star was one of two passengers involved in the fatal crash on Windsor Road in Ijamsville, Maryland, the Fredrick County Sheriff’s Department wrote in a press release.
Per police, a 19-year-old was operating a 1995 Honda Accord when the vehicle “traveled 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 transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while the other passenger denied medical assistance.
As for Hottle, she was taken to a local trauma center and later pronounced dead. She was 18.
The crash remains under investigation. TMZ was the first to report the news.
Kaylee’s father, Joshua Hottle, shared the tragic news with the outlet, explaining that he learned about the crash while in Texas.
Joshua, who is deaf, explained in ASL that he learned his daughter’s heart stopped on the way to the hospital and that he was heading to Maryland to claim her body.
In an emotional Facebook video about Kaylee’s death, he captioned the post, “I am taking a flight that I never would like to take.”
Kaylee, who was also deaf, was born in Georgia but grew up in Austin, attending the Texas School for the Deaf before starting her career in acting when she was 9.
The child star first starred in a Glide commercial, a video messaging app used widely by the hard-of-hearing and deaf population.
Kaylee’s breakout role was as Jia in the 2021 Adam Wingard-directed film “Godzilla vs. Kong” alongside Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews.
In the film, the duo’s characters live on Skull Island, and Jia uses sign language to communicate with King Kong.
She also returned for the 2021 sequel, “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.”
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