Mystery still surrounds the sudden death of child actress Skye McCole Bartusiak who was found by her boyfriend sitting up in bed dead at her home in Houston, Texas on Saturday.

Initial reports had quoted her mother saying that the 21-year-old Bartusiak had been experiencing epileptic seizures since childhood with the episodes becoming more frequent in recent days, but medical investigations have yet to determine if the condition was responsible for her sudden passing.

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Her boyfriend and family believe that a sudden epileptic attack may have caused the actress to chock to death in her sleep.

Bartusiak's mother, Helen, reportedly tried to apply CPR to revive the actress before paramedics arrived, but to no avail.  She said she had often done that whenever her daughter had an attack, and they used to work fine.

Helen Bartusiak said emergency responders tried to resuscitate the young actress for 45 minutes more but they could not detect any heartbeat at that point.

Before her death Saturday, Bartusiak, best remembered for her role as Mel Gibson's youngest dauther in the 2000 movie "Patriot", had been busy preparing for a film project that she was to produce and direct.

Bartusiak began her acting career at age six when she appeared in the 1999 film, "The Cider House Rules."  This was followed by the highly acclaimed movie "Patriot", where she won the hearts of critics and moviegoers as the young daughter of Mel Gibson's revolutionary war character.

In 2001, Bartusiak was again cast in the film "Don't Say a Word" as daughter to Michael Douglas.

Her latest movie outing was in the 2012 indie thriller "Sick Boy".

TagsSkye McCole Bartusiak, Skye sudden death, patriot, Mel Gibson daughter in Patriot