Overview
- Panettiere was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead in a Greenville short-term rental on August 16, and the coroner ordered toxicology tests that are still pending.
- Brian Hickerson, who was at the scene, has met with Drug Enforcement Administration agents as investigators press to identify who may have supplied any drugs linked to her death.
- Emergency dispatch recordings and first-responder notes described a suspected overdose, Narcan was located at the apartment, and friends and family attempted resuscitation on site.
- Authorities collected evidence including a bag of medications, security-camera footage of people entering and leaving the building, and executed a search warrant while no arrests have been announced.
- Investigators say forensic results will drive the case next and federal focus on suppliers follows precedents in celebrity overdose probes where dealers were later prosecuted.