Hayden Panettiere’s on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother were inside her apartment when the actress suffered a suspected fatal heart attack on Sunday, police say.
Hickerson and his brother Zach witnessed her final moments in the Judson Mill Lofts apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina, according to a newly released report from the Greenville Police Department.
An officer at the scene said Zach was ‘very emotional’ by her sudden death, but said Brian did not show any emotion until EMS declared his 36-year-old partner dead.
Brian Hickerson allegedly then showed police a ‘bag of medication’ that Panettiere had been taking at the time of her death, kept inside the apartment complex where she was temporarily staying.
The Greenville County Coroner’s Office has said Panettiere’s cause of death remains under investigation, however audio of the 911 call from her apartment showed a dispatcher described it as a ‘cardiac arrest.’
A dispatcher could be heard in the audio saying that Panettiere had suffered a suspected overdose, and sources told TMZ that Narcan – a nasal medication used to treat an opioid overdose – was also found on a mattress at the property.
An autopsy report completed on Monday found ‘no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death.’
Panettiere first began dating Hickerson in 2018, however their on-off relationship became tumultuous as he was arrested several times on domestic violence charges.
Hayden Panettiere’s on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother were in the South Carolina apartment where the actress suffered a fatal heart attack on Sunday, police say
Panettiere first began dating Hickerson in 2018, however their on-off relationship became tumultuous as he was arrested several times on domestic violence charges
The Heroes star’s on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson was in the apartment where she died alongside his brother Zach (seen together)
Panettiere had spoken of her troubled childhood in the spotlight in recent months, and revealed intimate details of her relationship with Hickerson in her memoir published three months before her death.
In her memoir, titled ‘This Is Me: A Reckoning’, Panettiere alleged that Hickerson once beat her so severely that she had to remain in her house for weeks to keep her injuries from the public.
She said she tried to keep the alleged abuse from the police because she feared the public would find out, and described her relationship as a ‘very dark and complicated time in my life.’
Hickerson was arrested in May 2019, and court records show he was charged with one count of injuring a spouse or girlfriend, reports NBC News.
He pleaded no contest to the allegations in April 2021, and he was sentenced to four years’ probation.
Panettiere’s relationship with Hickerson appeared to end in 2020, and in July of that year she filed for a restraining order against him. The outcome of her request is not stated on court records.
The actress had not revealed that she was seeing Hickerson again, and it is unclear why he and his brother was in the South Carolina apartment where she died.
The Greenville Police Department said in a statement that ‘the preliminary investigation has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances.’
