{"id":346458,"date":"2026-09-14T16:42:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T16:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346458\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T16:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T16:42:33","slug":"hayden-panettiere-died-after-taking-just-one-pill-laced-with-fentanyl-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346458\/","title":{"rendered":"Hayden Panettiere died after taking just one pill laced with fentanyl: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hayden Panettiere died after taking just one pill that is believed to have been oxycodone laced with fentanyl, it was reported Monday as cops are said to be \u201czeroing in\u201d on her alleged dealer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actress appears to have met with her \u201clong-term drug dealer\u201d in Los Angeles before flying to South Carolina, where she died of a suspected overdose on Aug. 16, just before her 37th birthday, multiple law enforcement sources connected to the case told TMZ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mom appears to have taken one pill the day she died, but it was fatal because it was laced with fentanyl, the sources said of the opioid 50 times stronger than heroin.<\/p>\n

Hayden Panettiere died after taking a pill authorities believe was oxycodone laced with fentanyl.<\/p>\n

Panettiere died from a suspected overdose but the authorities have not released her exact cause of death. They warned toxicology results could take up to 12 weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The development comes amid reports that the authorities were \u201czeroing in on a potential drug dealer\u201d in the case.<\/p>\n

Drug Enforcement Administration officials in Los Angeles and South Carolina are investigating, according to TMZ.<\/p>\n

Panettiere\u2019s abusive on-off ex, Brian Hickerson<\/a> \u2014 who was with her on the flight and the South Carolina apartment where she died \u2014 has already met with DEA officials<\/a>, according to reports.<\/p>\n

Hayden Panettiere and her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, are seen at LAX in Los Angeles, California, in March. LionsShareNews \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not known what Hickerson revealed to law enforcement officials but he previously told police Panettiere had a \u201cbag of medication\u201d<\/a> with her.<\/p>\n

The drugs Panettiere was reportedly taking were redacted in the Greenville City Police, although there were nine different types.<\/p>\n

Panettiere<\/a>, who was best known for her roles in \u201cHeroes\u201d and \u201cNashville,\u201d had been open about her battles with addiction in her memoir, \u201cThis is Me: A Reckoning,\u201d which was published just three months before her death.<\/p>\n

She was found dead in a South Carolina apartment. Robin Rayne for NY Post<\/p>\n

She spoke candidly about her battles with alcohol, opioid addiction, and postpartum depression.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Panettiere revealed she was just 15 when someone on her team offered her what she described as \u201chappy pills\u201d before going onto the red carpet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were to make me peppy during interviews,\u201d she told People magazine<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing, or what door that would open for me when it came to my addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actress Hayden Panettiere attends the Time Warner Cable Studios and Revolt Bring the Music Revolution event on Saturday, February 1, 2014, in New York City. Eugene Gologursky<\/p>\n

Her addiction battle spiralled after appearing on Heroes as a 16-year-old actress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut things kept getting out of control [off set],\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn\u2019t live without.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panettiere turned to booze<\/a> as she battled postpartum depression after giving birth to her daughter, Kaya, in 2014. She shared her daughter with the former heavyweight boxer, Wladimir Klitschko<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hayden Panettiere appears on \u201cTamron Hall\u201d on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. Disney via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The actress developed jaundice \u2013 a condition in which the skin and whites of the eyes turn yellow due to poor liver function.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctors told me my liver was going to give out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA doctor told me that if I didn\u2019t stop drinking, I\u2019d be dead within five years,\u201d she revealed in her book<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hayden Panettiere died after taking just one pill that is believed to have been oxycodone laced with fentanyl,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1015,7317,157,121655,9,11,10,58],"class_list":["post-346458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-deaths","tag-drugs","tag-entertainment","tag-hayden-panettiere","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}