Police Investigate Brian Hickerson Days After Panettiere's Death.
Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach were inside the Greenville, South Carolina apartment complex when Hayden Panettiere went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 2:32 p.m. on August 16.
- Hickerson showed the responding officer a bag of medication Panettiere was taking.
- 911 dispatch audio referenced a possible overdose and cardiac arrest, per Newsweek.
- An autopsy completed Monday found no signs of trauma contributing to her death.
- Panettiere and Hickerson flew together from Los Angeles to South Carolina on August 15.
Why it matters: Hickerson's presence revives public attention on a relationship marked by documented violence. Between 2019 and 2020, he was arrested multiple times on domestic violence charges involving Panettiere.
- In April 2021, he was sentenced to 45 days in jail after pleading no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or cohabitant.
- A source told TMZ that Panettiere's team advised her to distance herself from Hickerson publicly, even though they remained privately together.
How 30 sources split on this story
Where they split: Whether Hickerson and Panettiere were in an active romantic relationship at the time of her death — or had separated, as her representatives said in March — is disputed between her team's public statements and accounts from sources close to Hickerson.
Center coverage, 9 sources: The center leads with Hickerson's presence at the death scene and the claim, sourced to people close to him, that the couple's relationship was more continuous and private than publicly known.
Left coverage, 11 sources: The left focuses on verified police documentation — the incident report, the coroner's statement, and the pending investigation — keeping Hickerson's role limited to what officers recorded at the scene.
Right coverage, 10 sources: The right frames the story through the full arc of a violent relationship, detailing each arrest and conviction and placing Hickerson's presence at the scene within that pattern.
What’s next: The Greenville County Coroner's Office says cause of death is pending further investigation.
- Body camera footage from responding officer Matthew Bryan has not been publicly released.
- What was the official cause of death, and will toxicology results change how authorities characterize the circumstances?
- Will Greenville police release the body camera footage from the responding officer?
- What is the legal status of Panettiere's daughter Kaya, 11, who lives primarily in Ukraine with Wladimir Klitschko?
