The Greenville County Coroner’s Office pronounced Panettiere dead at 2:32 p.m. Its preliminary examination found no contributing trauma, but the cause and manner of death remain undetermined while officials await toxicology results and additional studies.
That distinction matters. Dispatch language is not a final medical conclusion, however confidently it may sound in a recording. Police also initially reported no evidence of foul play, but that finding did not determine what killed Panettiere or how she may have obtained any substance involved.
TMZ reported that Narcan was found at the property. The medication, also known as naloxone, can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. Its presence does not prove that Panettiere took an opioid, identify a particular drug or establish who supplied it. Toxicology, rather inconveniently for instant conclusions, still has work to do.
What Brian and Zach Hickerson told authorities
Brian Hickerson and his brother, real estate agent Zach Hickerson, were both at the Greenville Airbnb when Panettiere died. Their presence and role in contacting emergency responders have been corroborated by reports from the Associated Press, CBS News and ABC News.
Zach told TMZ that he woke from a nap and found Panettiere unconscious. According to his account, Brian administered Narcan while Zach called emergency services, and the brothers then performed CPR. TMZ also reported that Brian showed police a bag containing Panettiere’s medications.
Zach described Panettiere as “one of my dearest and closest friends” and asked the public to stop speculating about the circumstances.
Brian has not addressed the case directly. His attorney, Sloan Ellis, said last month that the investigation should be allowed to proceed before conclusions are drawn.
“Hayden’s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,” Ellis said, adding that police had found no signs of foul play.
Brian was photographed outside his Los Angeles home and visiting a liquor store on September 10, wearing a gray hoodie, baseball cap and sunglasses. The photographs generated attention but supplied no evidence about Panettiere’s death, which is the less glamorous problem with photographs of someone buying something entirely legal.
Why investigators may be tracing a supply chain
The DEA’s involvement suggests investigators are looking beyond the final hours inside the Airbnb. If toxicology identifies an illegally obtained substance, agents could try to reconstruct where it came from by examining medications, communications, payments and contacts with possible suppliers.
TMZ says authorities are narrowing their attention to a potential dealer, but no law enforcement agency has publicly confirmed that claim. Officials also have not disclosed whether they recovered illegal drugs from the property.
Federal prosecutors have increasingly pursued suppliers in high-profile fatal overdose cases. The investigation into actor Matthew Perry’s death produced five convictions, and the United States Department of Justice said one North Hollywood dealer who sold the ketamine that killed Perry received a 15-year federal prison sentence.
That case shows the sort of supply-chain investigation federal agents can build when the evidence supports it. It does not mean Panettiere’s case involves the same drug, circumstances or criminal conduct.
Panettiere’s mother disputes the timeline
Panettiere’s estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, has publicly questioned Brian’s account. She told the Daily Mail that his version contained “holes” and suggested investigators could find discrepancies in the timeline.
Vogel said she did not believe Brian simply happened to have two bottles of Narcan with him. She speculated that he may have left to purchase it after Panettiere became unresponsive, though no authority has publicly supported that allegation.
“I don’t know how you can take a nap near someone who’s dying and not realize something’s wrong,” Vogel said.
For now, the sharpest claims remain claims. The coroner has not released a final cause of death, and authorities have not named a supplier or accused Brian, Zach or anyone else of a crime. The toxicology report will determine whether the federal inquiry has a prosecutable drug trail or merely a large amount of public suspicion looking for somewhere to land.
