Police share new details about Hayden Panettiere's death in statement
Police have now released new details surrounding the tragic death of award-winning actress Hayden Panettiere after an emergency 911 call was made.
The US actress, famed for her appearances in the likes of Scream and Heroes, has died aged 36, her representatives confirmed.
In a heartbreaking statement, reps said her family would remember her as an 'incredible light' who brought 'immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her'.
It had been reported that police were called to a property in South Carolina on Sunday (16 August) where Hayden was pronounced dead. Details around the circumstances of her sudden death have not been revealed.
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Sources have claimed Panettiere had travelled to Greenville from Los Angeles the day before. Police had been called to the incident at around 1.50pm on Sunday, it was confirmed.
'No indicated signs of foul play', police say
According to NBC News, Police in Greenville have announced that a 'acquaintance' of the actress placed a 911 call and emergency services raced to the scene but were unable to save her.
A statement from the Greenville Police Department said: "[Officers] accompanied by EMS personnel, responded to a report of an unresponsive female at around 1:50 p.m. Sunday.
"Upon arrival, medical assistance was administered; however, the individual, later identified as Hayden Panettiere, was pronounced deceased at the scene.
"The case is under investigation by the Greenville Police Department in conjunction with the Greenville County Coroner's Office. The preliminary investigation has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances. An acquaintance of Ms. Panettiere placed the 911 call."
Hayden's representative Kasey Kitchen also confirmed officials are looking into what happened. Kitchen told NBC News: "There's an investigation ongoing. We should know more tomorrow."
Reaction to Panettiere's sudden death
In a statement, Panettiere's father Skip asked for privacy to grieve their 'unimaginable loss'.
He said: “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.”
The mother-of-one appeared on screen for the first time at just 11 months old in a commercial. From there, she began acting in 1994 after securing a role on the soap One Life to Live at just four years old, before moving to rival soap Guiding Light in 1996, where she remained until 2000.
At just nine years old she made her feature film debut, as the narrator and voice of Princess Dot in A Bug's Life, for which she nominated for a Young Artist Award and Grammy Award, and later lent her voice to video game Until Dawn.
However, she’s perhaps best-known for the role of Claire Bennet, a high school cheerleader with healing powers, on the hit NBC series Heroes.
She later played Juliette Barnes on the musical drama Nashville, earning herself several award nominations and appearing in six seasons of the popular show.
Panettiere also made several appearances on the big screen, with roles in Scream 4, Remember the Titans, and Raising Helen.
A timeline of Hayden Panettiere’s troubled Hollywood career
August 1989
Hayden Panettiere is born to firefighter Skip Panettiere and Lesley Vogel, who would go on to be Hayden’s manager.
1990
Panettiere appears in a commercial at 11 months old, later landing recurring roles in soap operas as a child actor.
2004/2005
Aged 15, Panettiere said someone on her team started offering her ‘happy pills’. She later tells People: “They were to make me peppy during interviews.
"I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing, or what door that would open for me when it came to my addiction.”
2006
Aged 17, Panettiere lands one of the defining roles of her career as Claire Bennett in Heroes.
2007-2009
Panettiere later reveals several disturbing incidents that happened during this period in her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning.
Aged 18, she claims she was led onto a yacht by ‘somebody that I had grown to trust and see as a protector’ and placed into bed next to an ‘undressed man who was very famous’.
In 2008, she alleged a network executive kissed her on the lips at a party.
Aged 19, she said a ‘well-respected, award-winning actor’ tricked her into looking at his testicles through an unzipped fly.
In 2007, she also starts dating Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia - she is 18 and he is 30. They split in 2009.
2009
Panettiere starts dating Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko.
Meanwhile, her father Skip is handed two years of informal probation after pleading ‘no contest’ to spousal battery.
2013
Panettiere and Klitschko get engaged.
December 2014
Panettiere and Klitschko’s daughter Kaya is born. Panettiere endures an incredibly difficult pregnancy, haemorrhaging during her c-section and being forced to undergo a three-hour surgery.
2015
Panettiere begins suffering severe post-partum depression. She later tells Jay Shetty on his On Purpose podcast: “I knew something was terribly, terribly wrong. I wasn't connecting with [Kaya] the way I should be.”
She uses alcohol to manage her mental health struggles and enters treatment when Kaya is four months old.
She later says she became dependent on medication to sleep, and then turned to drinking vodka.
2018
Klitschko presents Panettiere with custody papers asking for full custody of Kaya. After initially fighting back, she eventually accepts and Kaya goes to live with Klitschko in Ukraine.
She writes in her memoir: “Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life”
Meanwhile, her long-running role in TV show Nashville comes to an end and she doesn’t have any more TV or film roles for five years.
In the same year, she starts dating actor Brian Hickerson.
2020
Panettiere spends an eight month stint in rehab.
She experiences brutal alcohol withdrawal symptoms including insomnia and intense headaches.
Meanwhile, her now-ex Hickerson is charged with felony assault.
2021
Hickerson pleads no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse/cohabitant/girlfriend/child's parent and is sentenced to 45 days in jail and four years probation.
2022
Panettiere returns to acting, reprising her role as Kirby Reed in Scream VI.
May 2026
Panettiere releases her memoir in which she makes disturbing allegations against film stars and industry execs from when she was a teenager.
She also opens up on her experience of postpartum depression and comes out as bisexual.
August 2026
Panettiere tragically dies. Police say: “The preliminary investigation has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances.”
Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, US News, Celebrity News
James Holt