{"id":818740,"date":"2026-08-19T12:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/818740\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T12:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:16:09","slug":"what-we-know-about-hayden-panettieres-sudden-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/818740\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about Hayden Panettiere\u2019s sudden death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By all accounts, Hayden Panettiere\u2019s new life<\/a> was just getting started.\n <\/p>\n

\n The actress who shot to fame playing an indestructible cheerleader in the NBC show \u201cHeroes\u201d was far more vulnerable in real life. Mental health challenges, postpartum depression<\/a> and addiction<\/a> plagued her young adult years and temporarily halted the career that began when she was less than a year old.\n <\/p>\n

\n But this year, Panettiere addressed her struggles in a memoir<\/a> and spoke publicly<\/a> about losing her brother<\/a>. And her career was making a comeback, with her latest film released in January.\n <\/p>\n

\n So when the 36-year-old was pronounced dead in a South Carolina apartment on Sunday, shock and grief stretched around the world<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Here\u2019s what we know \u2013 and don\u2019t know \u2013 about Panettiere\u2019s death.\n <\/p>\n

\n Medics responded to a 911 call about a \u201creported cardiac arrest\u201d around 1:51 p.m. Sunday at a residence in Greenville, the county coroner\u2019s office said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The report came from the Judson Mill Lofts on Easley Bridge Road, Greenville police said. The coroner\u2019s office said Panettiere, a California resident, \u201chad been temporarily staying\u201d at the apartment complex, but authorities did not say who lived at the residence.\n <\/p>\n

\n First responders arrived and found Panettiere in cardiac arrest, the coroner\u2019s office said. Dispatch audio obtained from Broadcastify.com<\/a> references a possible overdose and CPR in progress, though authorities have not addressed whether an overdose actually took place.\n <\/p>\n

\n Medics tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate Panettiere, who was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:32 p.m., the coroner\u2019s office said.\n <\/p>\n

Panettiere\u2019s reported boyfriend and his brother called 911, police say<\/p>\n

\n A Greenville police officer arrived at the scene and interviewed brothers Brian and Zach Hickerson, who said they called 911, a police report states.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI spoke with Zach Hickerson first, he advised this was his brother\u2019s girlfriend,\u201d the officer wrote in the report.\n <\/p>\n

\n Brian Hickerson showed the officer a bag of Panettiere\u2019s medications, the report said. But many details of the police report are redacted, including a list of Panettiere\u2019s medications.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN has reached out to Brian and Zach Hickerson for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n An autopsy performed Monday revealed no signs of trauma that would have contributed to her death, the coroner\u2019s office said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The official cause and manner of death have not been determined, pending the results of additional testing. Toxicology tests, which are standard in many death investigations, can take weeks to complete.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a candid memoir published less than three months before her death, Panettiere detailed the evolution of a once-exciting, new relationship that quickly escalated into years of domestic violence by a man she referred to only as \u201cBrian.\u201d The actress wrote about heated, many times drunken, arguments ending with him slapping and hitting her between screams: \u201cOne night he busts up my face so badly I don\u2019t leave the house for weeks.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou never forget the first time someone slaps you,\u201d she wrote. \u201cNor do you forget the last.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n According to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County Clerk\u2019s Office, in 2019, a Brian Hickerson was convicted of two felony charges of \u201cInjuring a Spouse, Cohabitant, Fiance\u2019s, Boyfriend, Girlfriend or Child\u2019s Parent,\u201d and sentenced to four years of formal probation.\n <\/p>\n

\n Panettiere also wrote about at least three different instances where \u201cBrian\u201d was arrested after he\u2019d hit her during a fight, including on Valentine\u2019s Day in 2020 while the couple was on vacation in Wyoming.\n <\/p>\n

\n In May 2026, Brian Hickerson did an interview with TMZ<\/a>, saying he had read Panettiere\u2019s then-new book, acknowledging that he \u201chad a lot to drink and I got physical with (Panettiere) and I got arrested,\u201d on February 14, 2020. He called the parts of the book detailing domestic violence \u201cmy chapter. Everybody should read it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Lisa Respers France and Sara Smart contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By all accounts, Hayden Panettiere\u2019s new life was just getting started. The actress who shot to fame playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-818740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}