DEA has joined Hayden Panettiere death investigation, sources say

The Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the multi-agency investigation into the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, according to TMZ and ABC News, both citing unnamed sources. Panettiere was found unresponsive at a Greenville, South Carolina, apartment on Aug. 16 and pronounced dead at 36. The DEA said it does not confirm or comment on active investigations.

It leads me to believe they have questions, which of course they all do.

TMZ reported the DEA's involvement on Aug. 19, citing sources with direct knowledge of the probe, and said federal agents are assisting the parallel death investigations already run by Greenville police and the county coroner. ABC News reported the same, also citing sources. Panettiere's mother, Lesley Vogel, told NBC News that day that police had informed her a narcotics investigator had joined the case.

A widening investigation

The agency enforces the country's controlled-substance laws. Law enforcement officials are not satisfied that Panettiere's death resulted from an overdose of prescribed medications, TMZ reported, and are trying to determine whether other factors, including potential criminal conduct, were involved. Greenville police have not said that publicly. Their only statement, issued Aug. 17, is that the preliminary investigation found no signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances.

At autopsy, no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death.

An autopsy completed Aug. 17 found no signs of trauma that would have contributed to the death, the coroner's office said, and the official cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation and additional studies. First responders initiated advanced cardiac life support after the emergency call, but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. The coroner's office has said toxicology results could take about eight weeks.

Narcan, an over-the-counter treatment for opioid overdose, was found in the apartment, TMZ reported, though there is no confirmation it was administered to Panettiere. When paramedics reached the residence after the 911 call, they were heard telling a dispatcher about a possible overdose while CPR was underway. Panettiere was in cardiac arrest when responders arrived.

Who was present

Panettiere's on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, 37, and his brother Zach were both at the residence when she died, according to a police report. The couple had flown from Los Angeles to South Carolina the day before. The report says the two men called 911 after finding her unresponsive, and TMZ, citing sources, reported that Zach found her. Resuscitation efforts failed, and the coroner's office said she was pronounced dead at 2:32 p.m. on Aug. 16.

The report describes the responding officer speaking with both brothers while paramedics worked on Panettiere. Zach Hickerson referred to her as his brother's girlfriend and was very emotional at the scene, the officer wrote. Brian Hickerson did not become emotional until she was formally declared dead, and he showed the officer a bag of medication she was on. The list of medications is redacted in the public records.

Officers went to the Hickerson family home on the morning of Aug. 19, TMZ reported. City officials said the visit was a welfare check unrelated to the death investigation, and that it did not require an incident report. Hickerson and Panettiere began dating in 2018 in a relationship marked by turbulence: he was arrested in 2019 and pleaded no contest in 2021 to two felony domestic violence counts, drawing 45 days in jail and four years' probation. A law enforcement source told TMZ the review was prompted by the circumstances, including that Panettiere was only 36 and her death was unexpected.

Authorities have not said either man caused Panettiere's death, and no foul play has been formally reported.

A family divided

Vogel, who is estranged from her daughter, has been the most vocal member of the family since Panettiere's death. In her first phone interview since the death, she told NBC News she does not know where the investigation stands but plans to speak directly with lead detectives, and she has questioned why the emergency call came in the early afternoon on a Sunday. Greenville police say officers and paramedics responded at 1:51 p.m.

not the typical hour of the day that you are partying, generally speaking.

An earlier statement from Vogel drew criticism. She said young people who grow up in the entertainment industry face a struggle and that 'it's not unusual for them to sadly find the wrong path,' and she said Hickerson had enabled her daughter many times. On CBS Mornings, anchor Gayle King criticized the remarks on air, saying they left her thinking 'Thanks, Mom, for nothing.' Panettiere had written about their complicated relationship in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, published earlier in 2026.

Panettiere's father, Skip Panettiere, issued a more conventional statement, calling his daughter 'an incredible light and a force of nature' and asking for privacy as the family processes the loss. Panettiere, who would have turned 37 on Aug. 21, is survived by her daughter, Kaya, whom she shared with the former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Echoes of the Perry case

Investigators are weighing Panettiere's death against the Matthew Perry case, TMZ noted. Perry died in 2023 from a ketamine overdose, and the DEA's subsequent months-long investigation secured five convictions, including two doctors and a dealer known as the Ketamine Queen. Officials have not said whether any medication reached Panettiere improperly, and no one has been accused of wrongdoing in her death.

What investigators still don't know

The cause of Hayden Panettiere's death remains undetermined days after she was found unresponsive in Greenville. The 36-year-old actress, best known for the NBC series Heroes and the drama Nashville, died Aug. 16 with her boyfriend and his brother present, and the multi-agency inquiry into how she died is still in its early stages.

Panettiere had been open about battling opioid and alcohol addiction, which she first discussed publicly in 2022. A source told TMZ she had complained of back pain over the past year, and she was seen using crutches in March; her representative said at the time that she was managing a temporary nerve condition. It is not known whether she had taken drugs or was drinking when she died, and the coroner's office has not released any preliminary findings.

The coroner's office said Panettiere had been temporarily staying at the residence where she was found, rather than living there permanently. Her body was released to her family on the evening of Aug. 18 and sent to a mortuary. She was last seen publicly with Hickerson in March 2026, and her representative, who confirmed the death, described the investigation as ongoing.

What comes next

Toxicology testing will likely determine the direction of the case. The coroner's office has said those results could take about eight weeks, leaving the official cause and manner of death open until the analysis is finished. Until then, the DEA, the narcotics investigator, Greenville police and the coroner's office are each running parallel lines of inquiry.

The publicly released incident report was heavily redacted, and the list of medications shown to officers at the scene is obscured. No charges have been filed, and none of the agencies involved has publicly named a suspect or characterized the death as a crime. NewsNation reported that officers are investigating the possibility of an overdose.

The DEA has not confirmed that it is involved at all, saying only that it does not comment on active investigations.

Greenville police and the county coroner opened parallel investigations on the day Panettiere died, when Violent Crimes Unit detectives went to the scene and a search warrant was executed at the apartment. Neither has said when it expects to reach a conclusion.

For now, the family is left waiting on the toxicology results. Vogel said she intends to press lead detectives for answers, while Skip Panettiere has asked the public to give the family space to grieve. No timetable has been set for when the cause of death will be released. Help with substance use is available from SAMHSA on 1-800-662-4357, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline is on 1-800-799-7233.