Officials in South Carolina said Tuesday that actor Hayden Panettiere’s death was caused by a mixture of fentanyl, antipsychotic and anti-anxiety drugs and muscle relaxants.
The Greenville County Coroner’s Office ruled that Panettiere’s death was an accident, and authorities said there were no signs of trauma.
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Panettiere’s death
Panettiere, who starred in “Heroes” and “Nashville,” was pronounced dead after an acquaintance found her unresponsive in her Greenville apartment. She was 36.
The police department said officers and EMS personnel responded to a 911 call about an unconscious woman around 1:51 p.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 16. Emergency workers tried to resuscitate the woman, later identified as Panettiere, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Panettiere’s boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, and his brother, Zach Hickerson, were at the apartment and called 911. A report states Brian also showed officers a bag containing Panettiere’s medications.
In the wake of her death, the Greenville Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration launched investigations into her death.
What’s next?
With the coroner’s determination, investigators may still look into the days leading up to Pannettiere’s death and investigate where the drugs came from.
“Once there’s a timeline of what she was doing before her death, it becomes easier to kind of find where that drug distribution took place that killed her,” Bill Bodner, a 32-year veteran of the DEA’s field office in Los Angeles, told NBC.
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