The Greenville County Coroner’s Office in South Carolina completed an autopsy determining that actress Hayden Panettiere’s death last month was accidental. The 36-year-old was found unresponsive at a South Carolina residence and emergency responders attempted resuscitation efforts that proved unsuccessful.
The coroner’s findings indicated that Panettiere died from the combined toxic effects of multiple substances in her system. These included fentanyl, a synthetic opioid; Xanax; methocarbamol, a prescription muscle relaxant; and quetiapine, an antipsychotic medication used to treat certain mental health conditions. No signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to her death.
Panettiere had been a cast member on the television series Heroes and Nashville and had publicly discussed her long-standing struggles with substance abuse. She released a memoir just months before her death in which she extensively detailed her experiences with addiction and postpartum depression. In interviews, she described being introduced to drugs around age 16 during a professional event and noted that her substance use progressively escalated over time.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency was reportedly assisting the local police department’s investigation into her death. According to police reports, Panettiere’s ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother were present when emergency services arrived. Hickerson has previously admitted to abusing Panettiere.
Panettiere’s brother Jansen died at age 28 from a heart condition, and Panettiere disclosed in her memoir that he had also struggled with substance abuse, using heroin and cocaine before his death. Fentanyl, the primary drug identified in the autopsy, has been linked to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths across the United States in recent years.
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