Officials in South Carolina announced Wednesday, October 28, that an investigation into actor Hayden Panettiere’s August 16 passing found that her death was accidental. The case is now closed.
“Based on the Medical Examiner’s determination and the findings of the investigation, Hayden Panettiere’s death has been ruled accidental,” officials in Greenville, South Carolina said, the Los Angeles Times.
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The coroner’s office said that paramedics and police found Panettiere in cardiac arrest. Dispatch audio recordings from Broadcastify.com referenced a possible overdose and CPR in progress. Narcan was administered and paramedics tried to resuscitate her, but she was declared dead at 2:31 pm.
Federal authorities investigating the death are looking into whether Panettiere procured nonprescription pills from an area dealer. Multiple people were questioned about the circumstances of her death by Drug Enforcement Administration agents and local investigators.
When Hayden Panettiere’s rep announced her death
Panettiere died at the age of 36 in Greenville, South Carolina, and her rep confirmed her death at the time.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen,” her rep said in a statement.
Panettiere was born in Palisades, New York. While her mother, Lesley Vogel, was a former soap opera actress, her father, Skip Panettiere, worked as a fire department lieutenant. In 2023, Panettiere’s younger brother Jansen died unexpectedly of a heart condition at 28.
Police earlier said that there were not “any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances,” per the BBC. The Greenville County Coroner’s Office revealed that crews treated a woman in “cardiac arrest” and her autopsy showed “no signs of trauma.”
Panettiere left behind her 11-year-old daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, who was born in December 2014 in Hawaii. She shared her daughter with Wladimir Klitschko, the Ukrainian former heavyweight boxing champion.
Panettiere is known for starring in Heroes (2006-10) and Nashville (2012-18). Her early work as a child actor included roles in the 1990s on the soap operas One Life to Live and Guiding Light. She was also a model and a singer, and had released several singles.