Hayden Panettiere death investigation now involves DEA, two states
The investigation into the death of actress Hayden Panettiere has expanded to involve the Drug Enforcement Administration and authorities in two states. The probe has increasingly focused on the possible role of drugs in her death, according to multiple media reports.
Panettiere was pronounced dead last month at an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, just days before she would have turned 37. A responding officer wrote in an incident report that Panettiere “did not seem to have any obvious physical reasons to be unresponsive,” according to the New York Times.
The DEA joined the investigation shortly after her death, the Times reported.
Authorities in Los Angeles and South Carolina are now involved. ABC News and TMZ reported Monday that the investigation has become more focused on drugs. Sources told both outlets that Panettiere flew from Los Angeles to South Carolina the day before her death.
Citing sources, ABC News reported authorities could be investigating whether Panettiere had been provided drugs before her death. Law enforcement sources told TMZ that Panettiere may have taken an oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl. Officials have not publicly confirmed this.
No toxicology findings or other autopsy details have been released by South Carolina authorities.
Panettiere, a onetime child star known for the TV shows “Heroes” and “Nashville,” had spoken publicly about her struggles with alcohol addiction and depression. In her memoir, “This Is Me,” published in May, she described lifelong scars from 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.
“I think there’s been this very common misconception that I just gave up my child,” Panettiere said in an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty in May. “That could not be farther from the truth.”
She said she was in a “horrible cycle for years of battling depression and anxiety and alcoholism and substance abuse” while “just trying to find my way back, my way out of the darkness.” She entered rehab in 2015 while filming “Nashville.”
Over the weekend, Panettiere’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, was taken into custody following an alleged fight at a Greenville restaurant, Nexstar’s WSPA reported. His brother, Zachary Hickerson, was also arrested. Both were present at the time of Panettiere’s death.
