Newly released police records are shedding light on the circumstances surrounding the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, revealing that her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, and his brother Zach Hickerson were at the South Carolina apartment where the actress died.
The police report released Tuesday states that the responding officer with the Greenville Police Department was met by the brothers, who watched as paramedics performed life-saving measures on her.
The police report states that Brian Hickerson did not become visibly emotional until paramedics officially declared Panettiere deceased. Zach Hickerson, meanwhile, appeared “very emotional” while emergency personnel were attempting to revive Panettiere, the officer wrote.
Brian Hickerson ultimately showed police a bag containing medication that he claimed Panettiere had been taking. The specific medications were redacted from the report.
After she was declared dead, the responding officer spoke to Brian Hickerson more, but details of their conversation were not disclosed.
Panettiere, 36, was declared dead at 2:31 p.m. despite efforts to save her. The actress was temporarily staying at the Judson Mills Lofts in Greeneville at the time of her death on Sunday afternoon.
“The patient did not seem to have any obvious physical reasons to be unresponsive,” the officer wrote in the incident report.
Panettiere and Brian Hickerson had been involved in a yearslong relationship that had been tainted with allegations that he physically abused her.
Brian Hickerson, a 37-year-old aspiring actor, had been charged in 2020 with multiple counts of felony abuse. He pleaded no contest to two counts of injuring a spouse or partner and served brief jail time. He was sentenced to four years of probation, anger management and Alcoholics Anonymous sessions.
Panettiere herself opened up about their relationship in her memoir "This Is Me."
“I wanted Brian to be in jail just long enough to scare him, but not long enough where’d he become a worse person,” she wrote. “I needed him to admit his wrongs and change because of them, but I didn’t want to traumatize him in an irreversible way.”
Authorities have said there were no initial indications of foul play or suspicious circumstances. An autopsy has been completed, but the official cause and manner of death remain pending while investigators await toxicology results, which the coroner's office said could take as long as eight weeks.
Panettiere would have turned 37 on Friday.