Police visited Hayden Panettiere’s boyfriend’s family home in South Carolina three days after the star’s death.
Two police cars were spotted at Brian Hickerson’s grandmother’s home in Greenville, South Carolina, according to pictures obtained by Page Six.
An officer with the Greenville Police Department approached the home, owned by Betty Ellison, and repeatedly knocked on the door. Another officer tried a side door. They received no response, the publication reported.
The officers returned about an hour and a half later to “conduct a welfare check” but left within 10 minutes. Reportedly, Brian’s brother Zack, 38, was home at the time.
The visit comes amid bombshell reports that Brian, 37, was with Panettiere at the time of her death. On August 16, Panettiere was found unresponsive in a rented Airbnb five miles away from Brian’s grandmother’s home.
Panettiere was 36 at the time of her death. The Nashville star is suspected to have died of an overdose.
Zach Hickerson found Panettiere unresponsive in a chair in the Airbnb living room, according to TMZ. His brother was asleep in another room.
According to a report from the Greenville Police Department, published by WYFF News 4, Zack referred to Panettiere as “his brother’s girlfriend” when speaking to the police.
Emergency responders arrived at the residence to find Panettiere in cardiac arrest. They attempted life-saving measures on the actress, but she was pronounced dead at 2:32 p.m.
The police report stated that Zach was “very emotional while EMS were working on Hayden.” Brian, the report noted, “did not become emotional until EMS declared her officially deceased.”
Sources have said that the cardiac arrest was caused by an apparent drug overdose, reported the New York Times. Dispatch audio from the scene, obtained by People, caught officers speaking of an “overdose.”
Brian showed police officers “the bag of medication Hayden is currently on,” but the police report redacted the names of the medications.
On Monday, the Greenville Police Department said that while an investigation is ongoing, there were no initial “signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances.” After a completed autopsy, no signs of trauma were discovered.
Panettiere’s history of drug and alcohol abuse is well documented. The actress detailed her relationship with substances in her memoir, released this past May.
She also outlined her relationship with Brian, her on-and-off boyfriend who was arrested for abusing her during their relationship. In 2021, he was sentenced to 45 days in jail for injuring Panettiere. He had pleaded no contest to the charges.
Brian acknowledged his abuse in an interview with TMZ in May, saying that he did a “terrible thing” to Panettiere. He said his episodes were fueled by “drugs, alcohol.”
Records have shown that Brian has tried twice to get a judge to reduce his past felony convictions. A judge denied him again last week, just days before he and Panettiere flew from Los Angeles to South Carolina.
The nature of Panettiere and Brian’s relationship over the years has been ambiguous. Panettiere has openly spoken about the pain and difficulties she experienced during the relationship, but has also said the two reconnected as friends after Brian sought treatment.
When Panettiere’s brother, Jansen Panettiere, died in 2023 at age 28, Brian was by her side at his funeral.
The pair was last publicly photographed at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2026.
“Hayden and Brian have been on and off for years, but have pretty much always remained in contact,” a source told Us Weekly. “Hayden had a very hard time cutting Brian out of her life. She did it for short periods, but they would eventually reconnect.”
