Hayden Panettiere’s death has been ruled an accident, and the investigation is now closed, South Carolina police announced Wednesday.
“Based on the Medical Examiner’s determination and the findings of the investigation, Hayden Panettiere’s death has been ruled accidental. The Greenville Police Department has concluded its investigation,” the department told Global News in a statement Thursday.
Panettiere, who was 36 when she died and known for her roles in the TV shows Nashville and Heroes, was found unresponsive in an apartment building in Greenville, S.C., on Aug. 16, shortly after police received a call for a reported cardiac arrest.
The conclusion of the police investigation comes about a month after the Greenville County Coroner’s Office determined that the actor died from the toxic effects of fentanyl and other drugs, and also ruled her manner of death an accident with no signs of trauma or foul play.
Her on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, and his brother Zach Hickerson were at the apartment block at the time of her death, police said in an incident report in which details of a conversation between the brothers and police were heavily redacted.
FLIE: Hayden Panettiere and Brian Hickerson are seen on January 31, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.
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She and Hickerson were in a tumultuous relationship for years, with Hickerson facing allegations of physical abuse towards the late actor.
He was charged in 2020 with multiple counts of felony abuse, and pleaded no contest to two counts of injuring a spouse or partner and served a short time in jail as a result. He was sentenced to four years of probation and anger management and ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
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Panettiere was open about her mental health and had entered rehab on several occasions, including in the weeks before her death, her mother, Lesley Vogel, told NBC News in an exclusive interview. In it, she noted that she had never heard her daughter mention fentanyl.
The actor also spoke publicly about her struggles with addiction and postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter Kaya with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014. He has had full custody of the child since 2018.
In a her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, which was published in May, Panettiere wrote, “Not being under the same roof with her [Kaya] every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life, and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion, including sadness, resentment, and anger I felt because of it…
“I grieve that I’m not the mother I thought I’d be, and definitely not the mother I want to be. Trust me, no one should ever have to raise a child on FaceTime,” she continued.
Earlier this month, Klitschko was granted status to protect their daughter’s inheritance after filing an emergency petition in California, claiming that items belonging to Panettiere had been seized in a federal investigation and that valuables were missing after an unnamed, unauthorized individual accessed her residence in Los Angeles.
Klitschko’s filing also stated that before the Nashville star’s death, the former couple had hired security at her Los Angeles home because an unnamed person had accessed the property without authorization.
He and Kaya, 11, appeared in a California court via video call on Oct. 8. Only Kaya was visible on camera.
In an Instagram post paying tribute to Panettiere, Klitschko wrote, “Hayden was, although no longer my partner, an important part of my life and the mother of our daughter, Kaya.”
“She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry. Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives,” he continued.
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