His death was the result of a brawl in a parking lot outside a Winchell's Donuts store at 438 Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena near his apartment building during the early morning hours of December 29, 1996. Later that day at around 12 noon, he lunched with Leo Bulgarini and Catherine Case at a local restaurant. According to them, Nance had a visible "crescent shaped bruise" under his right eye and when they asked him how he got it, he told them the story about the fight by first quoting: "I told off some homeless kids. I guess I got what I deserved." Nance claimed that at around 5:00 am, he got into a fistfight with two dark-haired young men who he referred to as "long-haired hippies" or "homeless crack-heads" in the parking lot outside the donut store while waiting for it to open. According to Nance, "two homeless bums" walked up to him and asked him for spare change. Nance refused to give them any money by mouthing off to them and saying: "get a job and a haircut", and a brawl ensued where Nance received several punches to his face during the fight as he was knocked down to the ground. There were no witnesses to the incident and it remains unclear if Nance had been drinking during that morning or who threw the first punch. He soon went home from the restaurant, complaining of a headache. However, the head injuries he received caused a subdural hematoma, resulting in his death the following morning over 24 hours later after receiving the injuries. Nance died alone in his apartment. His dead body, clad in a robe and pajamas, was discovered on the bathroom floor by Bulgarini who checked up at around noon on December 30. An autopsy revealed that the actor's blood alcohol level was .24 percent at the time of his death. The men involved in the brawl that led to Nance's death have never been arrested or identified. The police are treating Nance's death as a "cold case".
