A newly released coroner’s report says Hayden Panettiere was discovered unresponsive at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina, last month. According to The New York Times, the report described drug paraphernalia found near her and noted that she had recently completed treatment at a rehabilitation facility.
On Tuesday, the coroner’s office determined that Panettiere died from the toxic effects of fentanyl and other drugs and ruled her death accidental. In addition to fentanyl, the report identified traces of alprazolam, commonly known as Xanax; the muscle relaxant methocarbamol; and quetiapine, a medication primarily used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder but also prescribed for depression.
The report obtained by The Times on Wednesday said that on Aug. 16, a senior deputy coroner investigating the apartment—where Panettiere, her on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson, and Hickerson’s brother Zach were—found “a small, clear plastic bag with blue tablets that appeared to be pills and a cut straw, which later tested positive for fentanyl.” The investigator also discovered “multiple prescription bottles on a kitchen table; a small lunch box with glass vials, prefilled and empty syringes in the refrigerator; and a small, clear plastic bag containing an unidentified white powdery substance inside a gray sunglass case.”
The report stated that a man at the apartment said he saw Panettiere applying makeup at around 10 a.m., and that they ate bowls of cereal before he returned to sleep. Later that afternoon, she was found on a sofa bed with her legs crossed, face down and unresponsive. Brian Hickerson said he noticed Panettiere turning purple and administered two doses of nasal Narcan, an medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, before calling 911. She was pronounced dead at the scene 30 minutes after EMTs began resuscitation efforts.
One person at the scene told the investigator that Panettiere had a history of drug, alcohol and nitrous oxide abuse and had recently stayed at a drug rehabilitation facility. Another person said he did not know whether she had used drugs that day or the day before.
Panettiere was known for her work across film and television, including Remember the Titans, Raising Helen, Scream 4, Ice Princess and I Love You, Beth Cooper. Her breakthrough came as cheerleader Claire Bennett on Heroes. She later portrayed Juliette Barnes in the series Nashville from 2012 to 2018.
During that period, Panettiere acknowledged struggling with postpartum depression after the birth of her only child, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, with Ukrainian boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2014. She later disclosed that she had experienced severe postpartum depression, substance abuse and anxiety.
In her 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere said she drank heavily to cope. She recalled waking up shaking and needing either alcohol to get through the day or opioids to avoid drinking. She wrote that a doctor warned her she would “be dead within five years” if she did not stop. “The first thing I’d thought of when I woke up was alcohol,” she wrote. “Not my child, not my job, and not the rest of my life. I needed a drink to function — at 6 a.m.”
