Drug Paraphernalia and Birthday Plans: New Details Emerge About Hayden Panettiere’s Death

Hayden Panettiere was found with drug paraphernalia when she was found unresponsive last month at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina. As The New York Times reports, a newly released coroner’s report detailed what was found by her body and that she had recently completed time in rehab.

On Tuesday, the coroner’s office said she died from the toxic effects of fentanyl and other drugs, and ruled her death was an accident. Along with fentanyl, the coroner found traces of Alprazolam (more commonly known as Xanax), the muscle relaxant Methocarbamol, and Quetiapine, which is mainly used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but can be used to treat depression.

The new report obtained by the Times on Wednesday said that on Aug. 16, a senior deputy coroner on the scene at the apartment — where Panettiere, her on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson, and his brother Zach Hickerson were — found “a small, clear plastic bag with blue tablets that appeared to be pills and a cut straw, which later tested positive for fentanyl,” and “also found multiple prescription bottles on a kitchen table; a small lunch box with glass vials, prefilled and empty syringes in the refrigerator; and a small, clear plastic bag containing an unidentified white powdery substance inside a gray sunglass case.”

The report stated a man at the apartment said he saw Panettiere applying makeup at around 10 a.m. and they both ate bowls of cereal before he went back to sleep. She was found later that afternoon sitting with her legs crossed, face down, and unresponsive on a sofa bed. Per the report, Brian Hickerson said he saw she was turning purple, so he administered two doses of nasal Narcan, which works to reverse opioid overdose, and then called 911. Panettiere was pronounced dead at the scene 30 minutes after EMTs tried to resuscitate her.

A man at the scene told the investigator that Panettiere had a history of drug, alcohol, and nitrous oxide abuse, and said she had recently been in a drug rehab facility, according to the report, which added that one man in the apartment said he was not aware of whether she had used drugs that day or the day before.

The report included that the investigator was told Panettiere planned to spend what would’ve been her 37th birthday, Aug. 21, in Greenville. And then afterward, hoped to travel to the Ukraine to visit her daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, her only child with Ukrainian champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko.

Panettiere was known for her broad-ranging film and television roles in Remember the Titans, Raising Helen, Scream 4, Ice Princess, and I Love You, Beth Cooper. Her breakout role came by way of Heroes, where she portrayed cheerleader Claire Bennett. She followed that role with her portrayal of Juliette Barnes in the series Nashville from 2012 to 2018.

During that time period, Panettiere acknowledged that she struggled with postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter in 2014. She later revealed that she suffered from severe postpartum depression, substance abuse, and anxiety.

In her 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, she admitted to drinking heavily in order to cope. She recalled waking up shaking and said she would need either a bottle of alcohol to get through the day or opioids to help her to not drink. She wrote that a doctor told her she’d “be dead within five years” if she didn’t stop drinking. “The first thing I’d thought of when I woke up was alcohol,” she wrote. “Not my child, not my job, and not the rest of my life. I needed a drink to function — at 6 a.m.”