Actress Hayden Panettiere died on Sunday at age 36 after being found unresponsive in an armchair at a South Carolina apartment in a suspected overdose.
Her mother, Lesley Vogel, 70, revealed to NBC News on Wednesday that a narcotics investigator has joined the investigation into the star's shock death in Greenville, South Carolina, just five days before her 37th birthday.
"It leads me to believe they have questions, which of course they all do, but they are instigating this," Vogel said, adding that she remains unsure of where things currently stand in the probe.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has reportedly joined the inquiry alongside parallel investigations conducted by the Greenville Police Department and the Greenville County Coroner's Office, TMZ reported on Wednesday.
First responders reported a suspected overdose over dispatch calls and located Narcan, a nasal spray used to reverse opioid overdoses, inside the apartment. The DEA declined to comment to The Daily Mail, while representatives for the police department, Vogel, and Panettiere's on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson have also been approached for comment.
Mother Criticises Boyfriend Present at Scene
Vogel broke her silence on Tuesday, blasting Hickerson, 37, who was revealed in a newly released police report to have been at the Judson Mill Lofts apartment complex when Panettiere was declared dead.
Panettiere and real estate agent Hickerson had flown from Los Angeles to South Carolina, where he is from, one day before her death. The pair shared an on-off relationship from 2018 to 2022 marked by domestic violence incidents and arrests, with Hickerson serving jail time for abusing her, though they had been seen spending time together again in recent months.
"This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson," Vogel told NBC News. "There is a lot of history in the past that Brian has enabled Hayden many times and this is why her father and I had been concerned for a long time about him."
Vogel claimed the pair were still together at the time of Panettiere's death and said she "always knew they were together."
"I think Hayden was an amazingly talented person in so many departments and I think young people who grow up in the entertainment industry, it is a struggle and it’s a very challenging industry and it’s not unusual for them to sadly find the wrong path," Vogel said. "I think it becomes very difficult to be true to yourself, and I think Hayden sadly lost her way, and I wish it were different. I wish she had stayed true to herself because she had many incredible attributes."
Vogel broke down in tears as she addressed the 2023 death of her son Jansen at age 28, saying: "I just feel that she’s with her brother and they’re at peace."
Police Report Details 911 Call
Addressing the timing of the Sunday 911 call reporting her daughter was in "cardiac arrest," Vogel expressed concern because it was "not the typical hour of the day that you are partying, generally speaking."
Vogel last spoke to her daughter in October and noted they had been "texting a bit since then, but not in some time," explaining that "no-contact was a choice I made for very specific reasons and, you know, certainly not for lack of care, concern, love." She noted she had very little information while the investigation was ongoing but would be speaking with a detective.
Hickerson and his brother Zach were inside Panettiere's apartment and witnessed her final moments, according to the Greenville Police Department report. An officer noted Zach was "very emotional" while watching paramedics perform CPR, whereas Hickerson showed no emotion until Panettiere was declared dead.
Hickerson allegedly showed police a "bag of medication" that Panettiere had been taking at the property where she was temporarily staying. Heavily redacted police records show officers arrived at 1:50 p.m. and found emergency personnel performing CPR for "an extended amount of time" on the actress, "who did not seem to have any obvious physical reasons to be unresponsive."
While the coroner's office stated the cause of death remains under investigation, dispatch audio described a "cardiac arrest" and suspected overdose, with sources telling TMZ that Narcan was found on a mattress.
Feud and Memoir Allegations
The tragedy follows public tension between Vogel and Hickerson in May, when Hickerson criticized Vogel to TMZ over claims in Panettiere's forthcoming memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, saying: "I do have some things to say about Hayden's mom: Hayden's mother is, by far, one of the worst people I've ever met in my life. I just can't with her, she's terrible."
In the memoir, Panettiere stated she had been bisexual from "a very, very young age" but was discouraged from coming out by Vogel, who previously managed her, to protect her career. In May, Vogel told The Daily Mail she was skeptical of the timing, stating: "I do not believe it was being hidden, but there is no historic proof that this is the case. I do think the timing of this coming out is very interesting."
Vogel added that her estrangement began around mid-September 2025, stating: "After 20 years of trauma, chaos, addictions [and] accusations, I felt I had no other option but to choose no contact," while expressing "lingering hope that she will find her own path to inner peace."
Panettiere wrote that she was "so scared" of her mother that writing the memoir was her only way of being honest. The book also details her struggles with alcohol and opiate abuse, postpartum depression, and the loss of her brother Jansen, who died unexpectedly from an enlarged heart and aortic valve complications after struggling with crack and heroin abuse.
Panettiere recalled being floored by her brother's substance use, saying: "Of all the people that could have saved him from passing away, it should have been me." Following his death, she found comfort living with her father, Alan Lee "Skip" Panettiere, and stepmother Mekdem in Rockland County, where she was born and raised.
Domestic Abuse History and Custody
Panettiere's relationship with Hickerson was marked by past domestic violence. In her memoir, she alleged he once beat her so severely that she stayed indoors for weeks, calling it a "very dark and complicated time in my life."
Court records show Hickerson was arrested in May 2019 for injuring a spouse or girlfriend, pleading no contest in April 2021 before receiving a 45-day jail sentence and four years probation. Just three days before Panettiere's death, a judge denied Hickerson's request to reduce his past felony charges.
Panettiere filed for a restraining order in July 2020 after their initial split, though the court outcome is unlisted. The Greenville Police Department stated that "the preliminary investigation has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances," and an autopsy revealed "no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death."
Panettiere is survived by her 11-year-old daughter, Kaya, whom she welcomed with her former fiancé, former Ukrainian boxer and government official Wladimir Klitschko. Following a life-threatening birth, Panettiere made the "difficult decision" in 2018 to grant full custody to Klitschko, 50, allowing Kaya to move to Ukraine, stating it would be selfish to pull her daughter from her incredible life there after Panettiere finally got healthy.
Panettiere began her career as a child in soap operas before gaining recognition in the 2000 sports drama Remember the Titans with Denzel Washington and voicing Dot in Pixar's 1998 film A Bug's Life. She starred as cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes and country singer Juliette Barnes for six seasons on Nashville, earning two Golden Globe nominations and landing 11 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. Her film roles include Bring It On: All or Nothing, Raising Helen, and playing Kirby Reed in Scream 4 and Scream VI.
