In the early hours of a Tuesday morning in Maryland, a young woman whose silence had become a kind of eloquence on screen was taken from the world at eighteen. Kaylee Hottle, the deaf actress who brought the character Jia to life in the Godzilla franchise, died when the vehicle she was riding in left a two-lane highway at excessive speed and struck a culvert. She had only just begun to be recognized — a Saturn Award nomination at seventeen, a school still waiting for her return — and now those who loved her are left to hold a future that will not arrive.
Godzilla actress Kaylee Hottle, 18, killed in Maryland car crash
Kaylee Hottle, 18, died in the crash; the driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries and another passenger declined medical treatment.