The Drug Enforcement Administration is joining the investigation into the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, according to sources familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
The Greenville City Police Department in South Carolina is the lead investigative agency, but the DEA is also assisting.<\/p>\n
ABC News has reached out to representatives of Panettiere for comment.<\/p>\n
Panettiere, known for her roles in “Ice Princess,” “Heroes,” “Nashville” and more, died on Sunday. She was 36.<\/p>\n
The DEA joining the investigation comes one day after Greenville police released a report on details from the scene at the private residence where she was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n
According to the report, an officer arrived at the residence on Easley Bridge Road in Greenville, responding to an EMS assist for an unresponsive individual.<\/p>\n
The officer said that Panettiere was with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother, Zack Hickerson, when she died.<\/p>\n
According to the police report, it is unknown if Panettiere was using drugs or alcohol at the time of her death, although the officer added in the report that Brian Hickerson had shown them the bag of medication that Panettiere was taking.<\/p>\n
Officials arrived on scene to assist in the investigation, and the coroner was also on scene to conduct their investigation.<\/p>\n
Panettiere’s official cause and manner of death “remain pending further investigation and the completion of additional studies,” the coroner’s office said in a press release on Monday.<\/p>\n
Prior to her death, Panettiere had been candid about her struggles from child stardom through adulthood.<\/p>\n
She released a memoir this May titled “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” in which she shared “a rare and intimate glimpse into her life behind closed doors, opening up about postpartum depression, addiction and recovery, trauma, domestic abuse, and loss,” according to a synopsis for her book.<\/p>\n
Everywhere across Hollywood, many have been mourning the actress’ death. Along with “Ice Princess,” “Heroes” and “Nashville,” she also starred in “Remember the Titans,” “Raising Helen,” several “Scream” films and more.<\/p>\n
Panettiere is survived by her daughter Kaya, whom she shared with her ex-fianc\u00e9 Wladimir Klitschko.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 ABC News Internet Ventures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Drug Enforcement Administration is joining the investigation into the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, according to sources…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[347562,88],"class_list":["post-819581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-347562","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819581","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=819581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}