Former Child Stars Tried To Help Erin Moran

The final days of Erin Moran’s life were plagued with instability as the star shuffled around various locations in Indiana’s Harrison County while her fellow former child actors tried in vain to get her the help she needed.

Moran, 56, was found dead Saturday by emergency responders after a dispatcher for the Harrison County sheriff's department received a 911 call.

An autopsy is pending.

According to the Indianapolis Star archives, the actress who played Joanie Cunningham on “Happy Days” was last known to be living at a Holiday Inn Express in Corydon, where she was spotted in September 2012.

Her distance from her California support system of former child stars may have contributed to her struggles, according to Paul Petersen, of the child-actor advocacy group A Minor Consideration.

“She was so far away in Indiana,” Petersen lamented in a Facebook post early Sunday morning. “The help she ran from was right here, as close as a call.”

Petersen, himself a former child star on “The Donna Reed Show,” said the group did its best for Moran.

“I am proud of our efforts over the years to help Erin Moran whose troubles were many and complex. Don’t doubt for a moment that we tried…sincerely tried through time and treasure…to give comfort to one of our own.

“At least a half-dozen [former child stars] were actively reaching out to Erin in the last week of her life... From Paris to London, from New York to LA, our members were in there pitching, doing what they could to help. Do not doubt that for a minute.

“Erin had friends and she knew it. Abandonment was not the issue... We did our best with the resources available to us, but it was a very dark room. Some don’t find the light switch in time.”