DEA Joins Investigation Into Hayden Panettiere’s Death

Getty/Teton County Sheriff’s Office The Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the investigation into Hayden Panettiere’s death, according to new reports.

Sources familiar with the investigation say the DEA will assist the Greenville City Police Department, which is leading the investigation, the New York Times and ABC News reported Panettiere, known for her roles in Heroes , Nashville , and Ice Princess , was found dead at age 36 in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday.

The actress was days away from her 37th birthday.

She is suspected to have died of an overdose, according to several reports and dispatch audio obtained by People.

Panettiere had a history of substance abuse and had undergone treatment at a rehabilitation center for eight months in 2021.

“As I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn’t live without,” she told People in 2022.

As a result of her dependence on alcohol and opioids , and struggle with postpartum depression, Panettiere decided to relinquish custody of her daughter, Kaya, to her ex-partner Wladimir Klitschko in 2018.

Panettiere divulged her experience with addiction in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning , which was published in May.

She recalled being given a “happy pill” as a 16-year-old, years into her career as a young TV actress, by a member of her team.

Panettiere said the pill became a “gateway drug” to her subsequent addictions.

At one point in her addiction, she recalled, a “doctor told me that if I didn’t stop drinking, I’d be dead within five years.” She also dove into the other harrowing life experiences that textured both her personal life and career, including the death of her brother Jansen, who died in 2023 at age 28, and her abusive relationship with partner Brian Hickerson .

Hickerson has been at the center of headlines and speculation since Panettiere’s death.

He was with the star when she died .

Hickerson, Panettiere’s on-again-off-again partner who admitted injuring the star in the past, has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case.