THE 20-YEAR-OLD son of Anne Heche has filed court papers to control her estate after the actress died without leaving a will.

Homer Laffoon, Heche’s son with ex-husband Coleman Laffoon, filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday requesting that he be allowed to administer his mother’s estate.

The petition lists Homer Laffoon and 13-year-old Atlas Tupper, Heche’s son with former partner James Tupper, as her only heirs.

The document says the value of Heche’s estate is unknown. That is often the case on such initial filings, before anyone has the legal authority to assess the dead person’s assets.

Homer Laffoon also filed a petition asking that someone be appointed to represent his brother’s interests in court.

A representative of Heche declined to comment on the filing.

On 5 August, a car Heche was driving jumped a kerb and smashed into a Los Angeles home before bursting into flames. She was declared brain dead on 11 August, and was kept alive on life support for three more days so her organs could be donated.

Heche, 53, was among the biggest film stars of the late 1990s, starring opposite actors including Johnny Depp and Harrison Ford, and had worked consistently in movies and television for more than three decades.

She was married to Coleman Laffoon, a television camera operator, from 2001 to 2009, and was in a relationship with James Tupper, an actor, from 2007 to 2018. She had a son with each.