Police did Hayden Panettiere welfare check week before she died, report says

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News on Oct 1, 2026

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The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reportedly performed a welfare check on Hayden Panettiere a week before she was found dead in South Carolina.

Police received a 10 p.m. call from a Panettiere acquaintance concerned that the 36-year-old actor wasn’t returning phone calls to her West Hollywood apartment. The “Heroes” star wasn’t mentioned by name, but US Weekly confirmed she was the person sheriff’s deputies went to visit.

When police arrived, a man believed to have been her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, reportedly told them that Panettiere “did not feel good” and had been sick all day.

US Weekly’s source also claims that Panettiere had been hospitalized the week before her death and was being cared for by Hickerson upon her return. He’s said to have been managing her phone.

There was no follow-up to the visit from Los Angeles police, who’d reportedly responded to the actor’s California home for two incidents in 2025.

Panettiere died in a South Carolina apartment on Aug. 16. Investigators said she was discovered by Hickerson’s brother. Hickerson was asleep in a bedroom in that unit at the time. A coroner’s report determined that Panettiere’s, who struggled with addiction, died from an accidental overdose involving fentanyl.

Former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has petitioned a California court for legal guardianship over the 11-year-old daughter the couple had together. He reportedly expressed concern that items from Panettiere’s estate that should become Kaya Klitschko’s inheritance could go missing during the course of the investigation.