Alan “Skip” Panettiere was only beginning to emerge from the grief of losing his son Jansen in 2023 when his family was struck by another devastating loss: the death of his daughter, actress Hayden Panettiere, at age 36.

Neighbors in the close-knit community of Piermont, New York, said Skip had largely withdrawn following Jansen’s death at 28 from an undiagnosed heart condition in February 2023. More than three years later, people who knew him locally felt he was finally beginning to recover.

Then came the news Sunday that Hayden had died in South Carolina.

One community member said Skip had “seemed like he was starting to come back from it” before his daughter’s death.

Hayden Had Visited Her Father Just a Month Earlier

Skip is a familiar figure around Piermont, a Rockland County village where neighbors and local business owners know him well.

Vittorio Lanni, owner of Trattoria da Vittorio across the street from Skip’s apartment, recalled that Hayden had visited her father in New York only about a month before her death.

“She would dine here and in my other restaurant,” Lanni said.

He described Skip as an active supporter of the local community and someone he regarded as both a customer and a friend.

“Skip is a great customer, a great friend, a great guy,” Lanni said. “He’s someone who really supports the neighborhood. He’s a very nice man.”

Skip confirmed Hayden’s death in a statement Sunday night.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” he said.

He remembered his daughter as “an incredible light and a force of nature” who brought love and joy not only to those who knew her personally but also to the millions who followed her work onscreen.

A Second Loss for the Panettiere Family

Hayden’s death came more than three years after the family lost her younger brother, Jansen Panettiere.

Jansen died in February 2023 at age 28 from an undiagnosed heart condition.

According to people in Piermont, his death had a profound impact on Skip. One acquaintance said he “retreated” following the loss.

Neighbors had only recently begun noticing signs that he was becoming more like himself again when the family was confronted with Hayden’s death.

The actress was found at an Airbnb apartment in Greenville, South Carolina. Reports cited 911 dispatcher audio referring to an “unidentified female” experiencing cardiac arrest and a suspected overdose.

Hayden Had Recently Published a Candid Memoir

Her death came roughly three months after the publication of her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning.

In the book, the former child star addressed some of the most difficult periods of her life, including her struggles with alcohol and opioid addiction, postpartum depression, domestic abuse and the pressures she experienced while growing up in Hollywood.

Panettiere’s career began extraordinarily early.

She appeared in commercials when she was just 11 months old and later took roles on the daytime dramas One Life to Live and Guiding Light.

At age 10, she appeared in Remember the Titans. Her career reached another level when she became widely known for playing Claire Bennet on Heroes, which premiered in 2006.

In 2012, she began another of her best-known roles, playing country singer Juliette Barnes on Nashville.

Panettiere Had Spoken Openly About Addiction

In the years before her death, Panettiere publicly discussed her struggles with drugs and alcohol.

In 2022, she said she had been 15 when she was first offered what she described as “happy pills” before red carpet appearances.

She entered rehab in 2020 and spent eight months receiving treatment for alcohol and drug addiction.

Panettiere also recalled in This Is Me: A Reckoning that doctors had warned her she could be dead within five years if she did not stop drinking.

Her memoir offered a candid account of those struggles after a lifetime spent largely in the public eye.

For her father, however, Hayden’s death represents another deeply personal loss. According to those who know Skip in Piermont, he had only recently appeared to be finding his footing again following Jansen’s death when he was forced to grieve a second child.