GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Actor Hayden Panettiere died from an accidental overdose of several drugs, including fentanyl, and had been in rehab just weeks before, according to a coroner’s report obtained by The Associated Press.
Panettiere, 36, was found unresponsive in an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, on Aug. 16. Her on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach Hickerson were at the home.
A combination of fentanyl and its chemical
byproduct, as well as the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam, a muscle relaxer and a drug used to treat major depression and other serious mental health disorders, was found in Panettiere’s system, according to a statement from the Greenville County Coroner’s Office.
A more detailed report released to the AP said a senior deputy coroner who came to the Airbnb apartment to investigate Panettiere’s death found blue pressed pills and a straw on a table that would later test positive for fentanyl. A white powdery substance was found in her suitcase in a sunglasses case, according to the report.
When the investigator called Panettiere's father, he said she planned to spend her birthday five days later in Greenville, then head to Ukraine to visit her daughter.
The investigator talked to two men in the apartment with Panettiere. Both names were blocked out, but police have said her boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach were with her.
One of the men said he saw Panettiere putting on makeup at 10:30 a.m. the day she died.
He went back to sleep and woke up to a knock at the door. Both men found Panettiere face down in a sitting position on a sofa bed with her legs crossed. He said that wasn't unusual, but he couldn't wake her and noticed she was deep purple. He administered two doses of Narcan and then called 911 when she didn't respond, according to the report.
The investigator wrote in her report that the man told her he didn't know if Panettiere used any illegal drugs in the past two days, but “she was very good at hiding them.”
Asked for comment on the coroner's report, Kasey Kitchen, a publicist for the family, told The Associated Press that “the investigation is still ongoing and the case is complex."
Greenville Police confirmed Tuesday that their investigation into Panettiere's death is continuing.
Paramedics responded to Panettiere's apartment last month after a 911 call and performed CPR and other advanced resuscitation efforts for more than 40 minutes before she was declared dead. The autopsy found no signs of trauma that could have contributed to her death, Greenville County Coroner Mike Ellis said in a statement.
Panettiere soared to fame in the TV shows “Heroes” and “Nashville.” In her memoir “This Is Me,” released in May, Panettiere described lifelong scars from her early fame and acknowledged being addicted to alcohol and enduring postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, Kaya, with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.
She also endured family struggles and tragedy. Her parents’ marriage was strained and eventually ended. Her younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, who was also an actor, died of a heart condition in 2023, at age 28.
Panettiere also talked about her long relationship with Hickerson and allegations that the aspiring actor physically abused her.
He was charged in 2020 with multiple counts of felony abuse, and he pleaded no contest to two counts of injuring a spouse or partner and served a short time in jail due to the case. He was sentenced to four years of probation and anger management and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Hickerson completed the terms and recently asked a judge to reduce his conviction to misdemeanors; that request was denied.
In 2015, Panettiere said she was in a horrible cycle of using alcohol and drugs to battle depression and anxiety and had to find a way out of the darkness. She entered rehab while filming the show “Nashville.”
“I was the one who put myself in the first treatment center. I was drowning,” she said in a 2023 interview with Women’s Health magazine.
As a child, Panettiere acted in commercials and soap operas, including as the ever-troubled Lizzie Spaulding on “Guiding Light.” In “This Is Me,” she wrote that the traumas her character endured, from being kidnapped to killing her mother’s boyfriend, led her to associate “catastrophe with adoration.”
