Hayden Panettiere’s Sudden Death: Details from Incident Report

According to a police incident report obtained by NBC News, the late actor Hayden Panettiere’s former boyfriend and his brother were present at the South Carolina apartment complex where she suffered cardiac arrest leading to her death. The heavily redacted report from the Greenville Police Department disclosed that Brian Hickerson, Panettiere’s on-again, off-again partner, and his brother Zach Hickerson, were at the scene inside Judson Mill Lofts.

The responding officer, Matthew Bryan, noted that he first spoke with Zach Hickerson, who appeared “very emotional” while emergency medical services were attending to Panettiere. The report also stated that Brian Hickerson became visibly emotional after emergency services declared the 36-year-old actor dead.

Brian Hickerson showed police a “bag of medication” that Panettiere was reportedly taking at the time of her death. Officer Bryan wore a body camera during the emergency response. The recorded video has not been publicly released.

Attempts to contact Brian and Zach Hickerson for comments by NBC News on Monday and Tuesday went unanswered. The Greenville County Coroner’s Office stated Panettiere’s death cause is under investigation. An autopsy performed on Monday revealed no trauma signs contributing to the death.

Authorities received a 911 call about a “reported cardiac arrest” around 1:50 p.m. Sunday. An acquaintance of Panettiere made the call. The coroner’s office stated that Panettiere was found unresponsive in the residence where she had been staying temporarily. Despite efforts to revive her, Panettiere was pronounced dead at 2:32 p.m.

Panettiere’s relationship with Hickerson ended in 2020 amidst domestic violence allegations. She detailed some experiences in her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” published three months before her death. In the memoir, Panettiere described an incident where Hickerson beat her severely, causing her to remain indoors for weeks.

Hickerson faced arrest on May 2, 2019, for injuring a spouse or girlfriend, according to Los Angeles County criminal court records. He pled no contest on April 20, 2021, and received a four-year probation sentence. On July 14, 2020, Panettiere sought a restraining order against Hickerson. The court records did not identify the victim in the alleged assault case, and the restraining order outcome is unknown.

Panettiere publicly addressed the abuse in 2020, aiming to encourage others in abusive situations to seek help. She expressed a commitment to preventing Hickerson from harming anyone else.

Hayden Panettiere gained fame for her TV roles as a high school cheerleader with unique abilities on NBC’s “Heroes” and as a country music star on ABC’s “Nashville.”