DEA agents are now assisting in the investigation(s) into Hayden Panettiere’s death, TMZ has learned.
News of the agency’s involvement comes mere hours after officers for the Greenville Police Department visited the family home of her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson. Sources tell TMZ that the police department launched a separate and parallel investigation to the one already underway by the coroner’s office, to determine the cause and manner of her death, which was deemed “unexpected” due to her age of 36. The DEA is reportedly helping out with both investigations.
When Panettiere’s mother Lesley Vogel spoke out following her daughter’s death, she was critical of her daughter’s relationship with Hickerson. “This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death, and that was Brian Hickerson,” Vogel said.
Panettiere was found unresponsive in her Greenville, South Carolina home on Sunday (Aug. 16). According to TMZ, Hickerson’s brother Zach found the actress in cardiac arrest in a chair in the living room, while Brian was asleep in a separate bedroom. When paramedics and officers arrived at the residence, life-saving measures were taken, but Panettiere was later pronounced dead.
An “overdose” was mentioned on dispatch audio and Narcan was found on a mattress inside the home, as reported by TMZ.
