The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has joined the investigation into the recent death of actress Hayden Panettiere, who died of an apparent overdose on Sunday afternoon.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the DEA — which often works with local law enforcement to investigate drug-related incidents — would be assisting the Greenville Police Department in the same way that they had assisted the Los Angeles Police in investigating the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry.
The “Heroes” star was found unresponsive in a South Carolina Airbnb rental. First responders indicated immediately that she had suffered a cardiac arrest believed to be linked to an overdose. Her on-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson provided investigators with a “bag of medication” that she had been taking leading up to her death.
In years past, Panettiere had been open about her struggles with addiction and alcohol abuse — issues she said were exacerbated by postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter Kaya and old injuries that occasionally flared up — and recent reporting suggests that those struggles were far from behind her.
Page Six reported that in May, while promoting her memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” Panettiere attempted to have nitrous oxide delivered to her hotel.
According to an unnamed source, hotel security “stopped a [delivery service] order to her hotel room, which was several industrial grade nitrous oxide cans that she was planning on huffing.”
“She had alcohol and whippets delivered. They wouldn’t allow it up to her room,” another source claimed.
Panettiere’s friend and rep Kasey Kitchen denied the claims, saying, “She was in Nashville for a short amount of time and slept for most of it. She also had private security with her.”
But entertainment site TMZ also reported that her team and “A Breed Apart” director Griff Furst had discussed staging an intervention for the actress as recently as 2025.
Furst said that while they were filming, it was clear that Panettiere was “fighting to stay sober” — and that he’d agreed when her team approached him about a possible intervention. He also made it clear that he was not impressed by the “dark energy” surrounding Panettiere’s on-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, who had visited the set with her. He said that she “deserved better company” — and added that despite his willingness to help, he did not believe an intervention ever took place.
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