Hayden Panettiere death major update as new police report released
Police have released a devastating new statement on Hayden Panettiere's death after finding "a bag of medication" when paramedics ran to her aid. In a newly released report from the Greenville Police Department, officers said the Heroes star's on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother were in the South Carolina apartment where she suffered a suspected heart attack on Sunday (August 16). Officers said Zack was "very emotional," but added that Brian didn't show any emotion as the medics declared his 36-year-old partner deceased.
It was at this point that Brian allegedly revealed to police a "bag of medication" that Panettiere had been taking at the time of her death. The Greenville County Coroner's Office said Panettiere's cause of death remains under investigation, but the audio of the 199 call from the apartment showed a dispatcher described it as a "cardiac arrest".
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A dispatcher could be heard in the recording saying that Panettiere had suffered a suspected overdose, and sources told TMZ that Narcan, a nasal medication used to treat an opioid overdose, was also found on a mattress at the property. An autopsy report that was completed on Monday (August 17) found "no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death".
The Scream star was first linked to Hickerson in 2018, however their on-off relationship quickly became tumultuous, with Hickerson arrested several times on domestic violence charges. Panettiere had spoken about her troubled childhood in the spotlight months before her death, and even revealed intimate details about her relationship with Hickerson in her recent memoir.
In her book, titled This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere alleged that Hickerson beat her so severely that she had to stay housebound for weeks to keep her injuries from the public. She said she tried to keep the alleged abuse from the police because she feared the public would find out.
Hickerson was arrested in May 2019, with court records showing he was charged with one count of injuring a spouse or girlfriend, according to NBC News. He pleaded no contest to the allegations in April 2021 and was sentenced to four years' probation.
Their relationship appeared to end in 2020, and in July that year, she filed for a restraining order against him. The outcome of her request is not stated in the court records. The actress had not revealed that she was seeing Hickerson again, and it remains unclear why he and his brother were in the South Carolina apartment where she died.