Police were seen arriving Wednesday morning at a South Carolina residence connected to Brian Hickerson, the longtime on-and-off boyfriend of Hayden Panettiere, following reports of a suspected overdose involving the actress days earlier.
Brian, 37, and his brother Zachary were reportedly at the scene Sunday when emergency crews attempted to revive Panettiere, 36, at an Airbnb in Greenville where she had been staying.
Brian has not been spotted publicly since the incident. Zachary, meanwhile, has been staying at the home of his grandmother, Betty Ellison, roughly five miles from the rental property where the emergency unfolded.
At about 8:30 a.m., two Greenville City Police Department vehicles pulled up outside the four-bedroom home, where two female officers approached the front entrance and knocked several times as part of a welfare check.
After receiving no response, the officers moved around to the rear of the $800,000 property, where the curtains appeared to have remained drawn throughout the morning.
The officers spent about five minutes knocking and calling through the door before returning to their patrol cars and leaving the area.
Hayden Panettiere had traveled from Los Angeles to South Carolina with boyfriend Brian Hickerson one day before the reported incident.
Two Greenville police officers were photographed arriving Wednesday morning at a Greenville, South Carolina, home linked to Brian and Zach Hickerson for a welfare check.
Police made two separate calls to the house within an hour and half on Wednesday morning, Our News Outlet can reveal.
The two female officers walked round to the back yard on their second visit.
They emerged minutes later, refusing to comment or confirm who the welfare check was for.
It comes as Zach Hickerson, 38, was spotted at the house a day earlier.
‘No comment, bro, and with no offense to you and what you’re trying to do, this is private property,’ he told our reporter.
‘Please respect our privacy. I’m not going to answer anything that you ask me. I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t mind just leaving us alone.’
An officer was seen knocking on the door of the four-bedroom home repeatedly but received no response from anyone inside
The officers spent several minutes knocking and calling through the door of the $800,000 property before walking around the back
The police officers eventually got back into their vehicles and drove away
Brian’s years-long relationship with Panettiere was tumultuous and marred by bouts of domestic violence.
But less well known was Panettiere’s relationship with his brother.
The Daily Mail revealed this week that the Heroes actress was also romantically linked to Zach in 2019, when Brian was facing domestic violence charges for attacking her.
The two were photographed strolling in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood in September that year, with a witness saying: ‘They looked very comfortable. Like a real couple.’
It is unclear when that relationship ended.
Brian and Panettiere, who was based in LA, flew to Greenville Saturday and were reportedly staying at an Airbnb in the swish Judson Mill Lofts complex.
Zach, a pastor and founder of an independent church in Nashville, was spotted a day earlier – dressed entirely in black with dark circles visible under his eyes, suggesting a sleepless night
He declined to comment when approached by Our News Outlet
Zach found Panettiere unresponsive on a living room armchair around 1.30pm, while Brian was asleep in a bedroom, according to TMZ.
That might explain why the elder brother cut such a haunted figure when Our News Outlet approached him for comment at his home in Greenville, South Carolina.
The pastor and former healthcare exec was dressed entirely in black with dark circles visible under his eyes, suggesting a sleepless night.
Both Zach and Brian called 911 when they failed to wake Hayden up.
EMS teams ‘worked on her’ for nearly an hour before she was formally declared dead in front of the brothers, according to the police report.
According to the incident summary, Zach was ‘very emotional’ as first responders tried to save mom-of-one Panettiere’s life.
Both Brian and Zach Hickerson were at the apartment where she died, Our News Outlet learned
Brian (left in his mugshot and right with Panettiere) served time for domestic abuse
Despite her brief dalliance with Zach in 2019, Panettiere later rekindled her relationship with Brian
Brian was stoic and did not become ‘visibly emotional’ until after Panettiere was pronounced dead from a suspected cardiac arrest.
He allegedly showed police a ‘bag of medication’ that the actress had been taking at the time of her death, kept inside the apartment complex where she was temporarily staying.
A dispatcher in audio of the emergency call could be heard saying Panettiere had suffered a suspected overdose, and sources told TMZ that Narcan – a nasal medication used to treat an opioid overdose – was also found on a mattress at the property.
A coroner’s report said ‘Panettiere was found unresponsive inside the residence, where she had been temporarily staying’ and had no signs of trauma to her body. A full cause of death remains pending.
Panettiere first began dating the younger Hickerson in 2018, however their on-off relationship became tumultuous as he was arrested several times on domestic violence charges.
But since then, and despite another alleged domestic violence incident in 2020, Brian and Panettiere had been going strong, with the pair laughing at reports that they had split – despite keeping their love low-key.
The Daily Mail can reveal Panettiere had traveled from Los Angeles to Greenville, South Carolina, with Brian, who is from the area, the day before her death. She was staying at the swanky Judson Mill apartment complex
Panettiere was found unresponsive at the loft apartment on Sunday. Above is an interior shot of one of the luxury units
The duo’s last public sighting was as recently as March, when they were pictured at an LA airport together.
At the time, Panettiere was using crutches to walk, insisting she was dealing with pinched nerves in her lower back.
Panettiere is said to have kept their apparent reconciliation under wraps.
Panettiere’s mother broke her silence on her daughter’s death Tuesday and admitted the family had long wanted Brian out of the actress’s life.
Lesley Vogel told NBC News: ‘This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson.’
‘I think Hayden was an amazingly talented person in so many departments and I think young people who grow up in the entertainment industry – it is a struggle and it’s a very challenging industry and it’s not unusual for them to sadly find the wrong path.’
The Daily Mail has also since learned that Brian had filed a petition with the Los Angeles County Superior Court to expunge his criminal record of domestic abuse charges involving the actress, about a month before her untimely death.
According to a minute order filed on August 13 and reviewed by Our News Outlet, Judge Olivia Rosales denied the request just three days before Panettiere’s tragic passing.
Brian was charged in July 2020 with four domestic assault felonies, one misdemeanor count of battery, two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one felony count of dissuading a witness from prosecuting a crime.
The charges covered the period from May 2019 to July 2020.
In April 2021, he accepted a plea deal, pleading no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend.
The remaining six counts were dismissed.
He was sentenced to 45 days in jail and four years’ probation, plus $500 in fines and mandatory domestic violence classes. In May 2021, he surrendered to serve his sentence, spending 13 days behind bars.
Under his probation terms, Brian was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings ‘at the minimum rate of one per week,’ according to court records; he also had to complete a series of anger management sessions.
In her memoir, titled This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere alleged that Brian once beat her so severely that she had to remain in her house for weeks to keep her injuries from the public.
She said she tried to keep the alleged abuse from the police because she feared the public would find out, and described her relationship as a ‘very dark and complicated time in my life.’
In one incident, Brian was arrested in May 2019, and court records show he was charged with one count of injuring a spouse or girlfriend.
Panettiere’s relationship with Brian appeared to end in 2020, and in July of that year she filed for a restraining order against him. The outcome of her request is not stated in court records.
Panettiere died aged 36 on Sunday after suffering a suspected cardiac arrest
Panettiere, who leaves behind 11-year-old daughter Kaya, has previously spoken out about her difficult decision to give her ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko custody of their child
Panettiere also spoke about giving up custody of her daughter while struggling with addiction in one of her final interviews before her death.
While battling substance addiction issues, in 2018 the actress made the decision to sign over custody of her daughter to Klitschko, who was not living in the same country as Panettiere at the time.
She said, ‘It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, nor was it a decision I even wanted to make.’
Brian is yet to comment on Panettiere’s death but Wladimir Klitschko – the actress’s former fiancé and the father of her daughter Kaya – paid an emotional tribute to his ex on Instagram early Tuesday morning.
‘The announcement of Hayden’s tragic death saddens me deeply. She left this world far too soon. Hayden was, although no longer my partner, an important part of my life and the mother of our daughter, Kaya,’ he wrote.
Klitschko continued: ‘To our daughter Kaya, I will always speak of her mother with respect and make sure she remembers the person she was.’
Brian Hickerson did not respond when Our News Outlet repeatedly reached out for comment.
