Actress Hayden Panettiere has died following a suspected overdose at an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina.
The 36-year-old was found unresponsive in an armchair at an Airbnb rental on Sunday afternoon. Her on-off boyfriend, 37-year-old Brian Hickerson, was asleep in a bedroom at the time.
Brian Hickerson's brother Zach discovered Panettiere around 1.30pm at the Judson Mill Loft complex. He told police that Panettiere was his brother's girlfriend, revealing that the pair had reunited.
Medics performed CPR at the scene before she was pronounced dead. A 911 dispatcher reported a suspected overdose shortly before 2pm, and audio of the call suggested only Panettiere was in need of medical care.
Police confirmed that Narcan, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, was found beside her on a mattress.
Greenville arrival
Panettiere is believed to have flown from her home in Los Angeles to Greenville on Saturday. Hickerson was registered as residing in Los Angeles with her, though some reports suggested he was actually living in Greenville, which is his hometown.
While Hickerson's sister Ann Stewart Hickerson still lives in the city, the rest of his family are based elsewhere. His brother Zach, a devout Christian and golf fanatic who works in health technology, was visiting from Nashville. His younger brother Clark lives in Raleigh, while sister Ashley lives outside of South Carolina.
Neither of Hickerson's parents still live in Greenville following their divorce. His father Charles lives in Nashville with his wife Halima, while his mother Megan lives 250 miles away on Pawley's Island with her husband Bob Carpenter.
Surveillance footage showed two ambulances arriving at the apartment complex on Sunday. Both departed without putting anyone inside, and a coroner's van arrived later to transport Panettiere's body.
It remains unclear whether Brian or Zach Hickerson made the 911 call. Police described Zach Hickerson as being very emotional while medics attempted to save Panettiere.
Brian Hickerson did not become emotional until EMS declared her officially deceased, the police officer reported. Hickerson showed Greenville police a bag of medication that Panettiere was taking, though the contents are not yet known. Toxicology reports may take up to eight weeks to confirm her official cause of death.
Nashville coincidence
Panettiere's former co-star Charles Esten had visited the exact same apartment complex on Friday. Esten and Panettiere previously starred together in the country music television drama Nashville.
Esten, 60, posted a video of himself wandering through Judson Mill on Friday as he walked to a soundcheck for a show at The Foundry, a music venue located within the complex.
Writing on Facebook, Esten said he and his wife Patty did not see Panettiere during their visit. He called her presence at the site the very next day a strange coincidence.
"Alongside the horrific news of her passing, we have both been stunned to hear in news reports that Hayden had apparently arrived there at the same Judson Mills (the loft apartments, not the venue) the very next day," Esten wrote.
He said their tour bus had already driven them through the night to Wilmington by Saturday, leaving them oblivious to all that was to come.
"I just wish that it had actually put us there together at the same time," Esten wrote. "And that we somehow could have bumped into her. And got to hug her, and laugh in amazement with her. And tell her how much we love her again."
Addiction struggles
Panettiere would have turned 37 on Friday. Three months before her death, she released a memoir giving a searing account of her childhood in the spotlight, the expectations of a pushy parent, and her adulthood battles with addiction and personal breakdowns.
She wrote that she wanted to explain it all, stating: "I refuse to be defined by my tragedies."
The actress, who had her first acting role at 11 months old, was open about her struggles with alcohol and drugs. She said someone on her team began giving her happy pills when she was 15 to help her get through interviews and red carpet appearances.
"They were to make me peppy during interviews," Panettiere told People in 2022. "I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing, or what door that would open for me when it came to my addiction."
She suffered from postpartum depression after a difficult birth with her daughter Kaya in December 2014 and turned to alcohol. In 2018, she handed over custody of the then-three-year-old girl to her father, Ukrainian former professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
Panettiere was later prescribed opioids after an old neck injury flared up. She said in 2023 that her tolerance got so high, so fast, that it became a problem, and she spent eight months in rehab in 2020.
In March this year, she was pictured walking with crutches at an airport. She explained at the time that she was suffering from a pinched nerve in her back.
Her family had also been touched by addiction. Her brother Jansen died from a heart condition at the age of 28 in 2023, but Panettiere wrote in her memoir that he had previously smoked crack and snorted heroin with a roommate, once overdosing in their Los Angeles living room.
She wrote that she was horrified by his drug use, knowing the dangers of addiction firsthand.
Toxic relationship
The confirmation that Panettiere had reconciled with Brian Hickerson surprised her friends, following a turbulent history between the pair. They met at a West Hollywood bar in the summer of 2018.
By 2019, Panettiere was accusing him of punching and slapping her in a drunken rage, leaving her with bruises and scratches. Police were called to domestic incidents in May 2019 and again on Valentine's Day in 2020.
Hickerson was convicted of domestic violence following the 2020 arrest and sentenced to 45 days in prison, serving 19 days. Panettiere obtained a restraining order against him in July 2020, writing that she hoped others would be inspired by her to walk away from abusive partners.
The couple reunited before having an explosive fight outside a Los Angeles hotel in May 2022, where a disheveled Hickerson was restrained while Panettiere yelled at him.
Secret reconciliation
Panettiere was said to have walked away for good in July 2022, and she kept their subsequent reconciliation a secret.
"If Brian was back in her life, then it was something she was hiding because she wasn't speaking about it with many of her friends," one friend told Page Six.
"If you've gone through some dark times with people, and spoken about it, then there can be shame if you get back together with that same person. So maybe that was why she hadn't mentioned it to us."
Families on both sides had strongly opposed the relationship. Following Panettiere's death, her mother Lesley Vogel spoke out against Hickerson on Tuesday.
"This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson," Vogel said.
The Hickerson family had previously told Us Weekly in November 2019 that the couple were very toxic for each other.
"Brian's family is extremely concerned for his safety when he is with Hayden," the family said. "They are terrified that Brian will once again find himself accused of domestic violence. Hayden and Brian are very toxic for each other."
Hickerson has not yet commented on Panettiere's death.
