Hayden Panettiere’s neighbour describes horrific scene inside apartment block after she had apparent overdose
Warning: This article contains discussion of drug addiction which some readers may find distressing.
More details on Hayden Panettiere's tragic death have emerged, with one of her neighbours sharing what he knows about the moments before she passed away.
The 36-year-old actress, best known for her roles in Nashville and Heroes, was sadly confirmed to have died on Sunday (16 August), with tributes flooding in for the former child star.
Panettiere had struggled with postpartum depression and addiction in recent years, handing over custody of her daughter Kaya to her ex-partner Wladimir Klitschko, while she also opened up on some disturbing allegations from her time as a child star in the last few months.
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While an autopsy has been completed, we are still waiting for an official cause of death for the South Carolina-born star, although first responders have suggested that she was in cardiac arrest when they found her at her Greenville address.
This is seemingly backed up by the claims of one of Panettiere's neighbours, who suggests that he heard discussion of someone collapsing in his building on the day of her sudden passing.
Micah Lee, who also lives in the Judson Mill Lofts complex, told WYFF: "The halls are pretty hollow, so noise echoes throughout. And I had just heard about someone collapsing. And then afterwards there was talk about cardiac arrest. I can't confirm any of that. That's just what I've heard."
Other residents gathered in the corridor of the building as they learned the news of Panettiere's collapse, and were later left shocked as they most likely witnessed her body being carried away.
The 911 audio also saw one of the dispatchers describe Panettiere as being in cardiac arrest before a male dispatcher suggested that she had suffered an overdose. She was pronounced dead at the scene, less than an hour after the emergency call was made.
"At autopsy, no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death,” Ellis said in a statement, per PEOPLE. “The cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation and the completion of additional studies. This investigation remains active and ongoing. No further details are available for release at this time.”
The statement also added details from first responders, after a 911 call was answered at roughly 1:51pm local time in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday.
“First responders and Emergency Medical Services arrived on scene and located a female in cardiac arrest. EMS personnel initiated advanced cardiac life support measures; however, resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, and the individual was pronounced deceased at 2:32 PM," it said.
A statement from her father, Skip, read: "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."
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.
2023
Panettiere returns to acting, reprising her role as Kirby Reed in Scream VI.
In the same year, her brother Jansen dies aged 28 from an enlarged heart.
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 about 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.”
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Topics: Hayden Panettiere
James Moorhouse