GREENVILLE: Actor Hayden Panettiere died from an unintended overdose of a number of medication, together with fentanyl, a coroner in South Carolina mentioned Tuesday (Sep 22).
Panettiere, 36, was found unresponsive in an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, on Aug 16. Her on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach Hickerson have been on the residence.
In keeping with a press release from the Greenville County Coroner’s Workplace, a mixture of fentanyl and its chemical byproduct, in addition to the anti-anxiety treatment alprazolam, a muscle relaxer and a drug used to deal with main melancholy and different critical psychological well being issues, was present in Panettiere’s system.
The workplace didn’t embody additional particulars from the post-mortem report in its preliminary launch.
Requested for touch upon the coroner’s report, Kasey Kitchen, a publicist for the household, advised The Related Press that “the investigation continues to be ongoing and the case is advanced.”
Greenville Police confirmed Tuesday that their investigation into Panettiere’s demise is continuous.
Paramedics responded to Panettiere’s house final month after a 911 name and carried out CPR and different superior resuscitation efforts for greater than 40 minutes earlier than she was declared lifeless. An post-mortem discovered no indicators of trauma that might have contributed to her demise, Greenville County Coroner Mike Ellis mentioned in a press release.
The police report launched after her demise listed medicines Panettiere was taking, however the drug names have been redacted.
PANETTIERE’S EARLY FAME BROUGHT SUCCESS AND STRUGGLE
Panettiere soared to fame within the TV exhibits “Heroes” and “Nashville.” In her memoir “This Is Me,” launched in Could, Panettiere described lifelong scars from her early fame and acknowledged being hooked on alcohol and enduring postpartum melancholy after the start of her daughter, Kaya, with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.
She additionally endured household struggles and tragedy. Her mother and father’ marriage was strained and finally ended. Her youthful brother, Jansen Panettiere, who was additionally an actor, died of a coronary heart situation in 2023, at age 28.
Panettiere additionally talked about her lengthy relationship with Brian Hickerson and allegations that the aspiring actor bodily abused her.
He was charged in 2020 with a number of counts of felony abuse, and he pleaded no contest to 2 counts of injuring a partner or accomplice and served a short while in jail because of the case. He was sentenced to 4 years of probation and anger administration and Alcoholics Nameless periods.
Hickerson accomplished the phrases and not too long ago requested a choose to scale back his conviction to misdemeanours; that request was denied.
Panettiere was one among two kids born to Skip Panettiere, a former New York Metropolis fireplace captain, and Lesley Vogel, a former cleaning soap opera star. She acted in commercials and cleaning soap operas, together with because the ever-troubled Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Mild. In This Is Me, she wrote that the traumas her character endured, from being kidnapped to killing her mom’s boyfriend, led her to affiliate “disaster with adoration.”
She then performed a cheerleader with supernatural powers in “Heroes,” which propelled her to fame in 2006.
By 2015, Panettiere was enjoying a brash nation upstart reverse Connie Britton on “Nashville,” which aired on ABC for 4 seasons earlier than being cancelled and revived on CMT. She did her personal singing within the present, which scored some hits on nation charts, spawned US excursions and earned Panettiere two supporting actress Golden Globe nominations.
However she additionally mentioned she was in a horrible cycle of utilizing alcohol and medicines to battle melancholy and nervousness and needed to discover a manner out of the darkness. She entered rehab whereas filming the present.
“I used to be the one who put myself within the first therapy centre. I used to be drowning,” she mentioned in a 2023 interview with Ladies’s Well being journal.
