Breaking: Coroner Confirms Actress Hayden Panettiere Died After Ingesting Fentanyl

The Greenville County Coroner’s Office has ruled actress Hayden Panettiere’s death an accident caused by the toxic effects of multiple drugs, including fentanyl. A statement released Tuesday said the cause of death was “toxic effects of fentanyl, 4-ANPP, Alprazolam, Methocarbamol, and Quetiapine.” The office said an autopsy found no signs of trauma that contributed to her death.

Alprazolam is commonly known as Xanax. Methocarbamol is a prescription muscle relaxant. Quetiapine is an antipsychotic medication. 4-ANPP is a compound used in the manufacture of fentanyl.

Panettiere, 36, was found unresponsive Aug. 16 at an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina, where she had been staying. Authorities responded to a report of cardiac arrest. Emergency crews performed resuscitation before she was pronounced dead that afternoon. Greenville police said the initial response and investigation found no signs of foul play. The Drug Enforcement Administration also opened an investigation into her death.

Brian Hickerson, described as her on-again, off-again boyfriend, was at the complex when she died. A police report cited by NBC News said he showed authorities a “bag of medication” he said she was taking. Panettiere’s mother later told NBC News the two were still seeing each other when she died.

A lawyer for Hickerson, Sloan Ellis, said in August that police found no signs of foul play and that the death remained under investigation. “Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time,” Ellis said then.

Court records show Hickerson pleaded no contest in 2019 in Los Angeles to injuring a spouse or girlfriend and was sentenced to four years of probation. Panettiere sought a restraining order against him in 2020. The outcome of that request was not clear.

Panettiere began appearing in television commercials as a child. She landed a breakout role on NBC’s “Heroes” and later earned two Golden Globe nominations for playing a country musician on ABC’s “Nashville.”

In her memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” she wrote about addiction, postpartum depression after the 2014 birth of her daughter with boxer Wladimir Klitschko, and her relationship with Hickerson. She checked into rehab and gave Klitschko custody of their child in 2018.

Earlier reporting said she had ingested a single fentanyl-laced pill. The coroner’s findings list fentanyl among several substances found in her system.

A former DEA special agent, Bill Bodner, told NBC News last month that investigators typically reconstruct a victim’s final days through phones, texts, calls, and social media to trace how the drugs were obtained.

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