GREENVILLE, S.C. — New details have emerged regarding the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, with local authorities confirming she died at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday, though the exact cause of her death remains undetermined as investigators continue their work.
According to television station WYFF4, police and emergency medical personnel responded to a report of an unresponsive woman at Judson Mill Lofts on Easley Bridge Road at 1:51 p.m. Sunday. Panettiere died at the scene, the station reported. Police told WYFF4 that their preliminary investigation “has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances,” though officials have not released additional information regarding what led to her death.
TMZ, which was first to report Panettiere’s death Sunday night, cited law enforcement sources confirming that police had responded to an incident involving the actress and that an investigation remained open. TMZ also reported that Panettiere and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, had flown from Los Angeles to the South on Saturday, a day before her death, and that Hickerson’s family had been made aware of what happened. A source close to the actress told TMZ that Panettiere had been complaining of back pain over the past year, though the outlet noted it remained unclear whether that detail bore any connection to her death.
Panettiere’s death was formally confirmed by her representative in a statement provided to ABC News on Sunday night. Her father, Skip Panettiere, said in that statement that his daughter had been “an incredible light and a force of nature” to everyone who knew her and to the audiences who watched her on screen throughout her career, and he asked for privacy for the family as they process the loss.
The relationship between Panettiere and Hickerson has drawn renewed attention following her death, given its documented history of domestic violence. According to Variety’s reporting on Panettiere’s recently published memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” the book detailed what Variety described as her “abusive relationship” with Hickerson, who was served with a five-year restraining order in 2021. Hickerson was sentenced to 45 days in prison for domestic violence that same year. In the memoir, Panettiere recounted the escalation of the abuse, writing about the first time Hickerson slapped her and describing how, over time, “the slaps became hits,” according to Variety’s account of the book. She wrote that during one incident, he injured her face so severely that she did not leave her house for weeks.
Variety further reported that Panettiere and Hickerson reconciled after that period, but he was accused of hitting her again in 2020 while the couple was in Wyoming, resulting in his arrest on a domestic battery charge. It remains unclear, based on currently available reporting, why the two were reportedly together again in the days leading up to Panettiere’s death.
Despite the extensive documented history between Panettiere and Hickerson, no outlet has reported any confirmed connection between that relationship and the specific circumstances of her death, and police in Greenville have not indicated that Hickerson is considered a suspect or person of interest in their preliminary investigation. Authorities have stressed that their early findings have not pointed to foul play, though a full determination of cause of death will likely depend on further investigative steps, including any toxicology testing that may be conducted as part of a standard death investigation.
Speculation regarding a potential link between Panettiere’s death and her previously disclosed struggles with substance use has also circulated following the news, given that she had spoken publicly and repeatedly over the years about past battles with alcohol and drug use, including in her recently published memoir. However, no official source — including police, her family, her representatives or a medical examiner’s office — has indicated that drugs or alcohol played any role in her death. Absent confirmed toxicology results or another official finding, any such connection remains speculative rather than established fact.
Similarly, questions have arisen about whether Panettiere’s death could be connected to any underlying cardiac condition, particularly given that her younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, died in February 2023 at age 28 from what his family described at the time as cardiomegaly, an enlarged heart, coupled with aortic valve complications. As of this report, there has been no official evidence or statement connecting Hayden Panettiere’s death to a similar hereditary heart condition, and this possibility likewise remains unconfirmed.
Tributes to Panettiere continued to circulate widely across social media and among former colleagues in the days following news of her death. Actress Selma Blair left comments on one of Panettiere’s final Instagram posts expressing grief over the loss, writing, “I love you. Don’t be gone. Don’t be gone. Please. Please,” followed shortly afterward by a second comment reading, “I love you whale tail my friend.”
Panettiere had published her memoir on May 19, roughly three months before her death, detailing her experiences growing up as a child star, her struggles with postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter, and her path toward recovery from addiction. She had spoken emotionally in past interviews about the difficulty of relinquishing custody of her daughter, Kaya, to her ex-partner, boxer Wladimir Klitschko, in 2018, when Kaya was 7 years old. “I mean it was the worst signing those papers and like the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever, ever had to do in my life,” Panettiere said in a 2022 interview reflecting on that decision.
As of this report, the Greenville County Coroner’s Office has not released an official cause of death, and authorities have given no timeline for when a final determination might be made public. Additional updates are expected in the coming days as the investigation continues, with police reiterating that their preliminary findings have not identified any indication of criminal wrongdoing in connection with Panettiere’s death.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login