Police officers were seen visiting a South Carolina home connected to Hayden Panettiere’s longtime on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson on Wednesday morning, just days after the 36-year-old actress died following a suspected overdose.
Brian, 37, and his brother Zachary Hickerson were both at the scene on Sunday as emergency crews attempted to revive Panettiere at an Airbnb in Greenville, where she had been temporarily staying.
Brian has not been seen publicly since her death. His brother Zachary, meanwhile, has been staying at the home of their grandmother, Betty Ellison, around five miles from the rental property where Panettiere was found unresponsive.
Police conduct welfare check at family home
Two Greenville City Police Department vehicles arrived at the four-bedroom property at around 8.30am on Wednesday.
Two female officers repeatedly knocked on the front door. When nobody answered, they walked around to the rear of the approximately $800,000 home, where the curtains had remained closed throughout the morning.
After spending roughly five minutes knocking and calling through the door, the officers returned to their vehicles and left.
Police visited the property twice within approximately an hour and a half that morning. During their second visit, the officers again went into the backyard before emerging several minutes later.
They declined to say who the welfare check concerned.
A police spokesperson later told PEOPLE that officers had responded to a welfare-check request at a home belonging to Hickerson’s family. Police said the matter was unrelated to the investigation into Panettiere’s death and did not require an incident report.
Zachary, 38, had been seen at the property the previous day. When approached by a reporter, he declined to discuss what had happened and asked for the family’s privacy to be respected.
Both brothers were present when Panettiere was found
Panettiere and Brian reportedly flew from Los Angeles to Greenville on Saturday and were staying at an Airbnb in the Judson Mill Lofts complex.
According to TMZ, Zachary discovered Panettiere unresponsive in a living-room armchair at around 1.30pm on Sunday while Brian was asleep in a bedroom.
Both brothers called 911 after they were unable to wake her.
Emergency medical crews worked on Panettiere for almost an hour before she was pronounced dead in front of the brothers, according to the police report.
The incident summary described Zachary as highly emotional while first responders attempted to save the actress. Brian reportedly remained composed initially and did not become visibly emotional until after she had been pronounced dead following a suspected cardiac arrest.
Brian allegedly showed investigators a bag containing medication Panettiere had been taking at the time.
Audio from the emergency dispatch reportedly referred to a suspected overdose, while sources told TMZ that Narcan, a nasal medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, was found on a mattress at the property.
A coroner’s report said Panettiere had been found unresponsive inside the residence where she was temporarily staying. It also stated that there were no signs of trauma on her body.
Her full cause of death remains pending.
Panettiere had also been linked to Brian’s brother
Panettiere began dating Brian in 2018, but her connection to his older brother Zachary has received renewed attention following her death.
The Daily Mail previously reported that Panettiere was romantically linked to Zachary in 2019, during a period when Brian was facing domestic violence charges involving the actress.
Panettiere and Zachary were photographed walking together in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood in September 2019. A witness at the time said the pair appeared very comfortable together.
It remains unclear when that reported relationship ended.
Panettiere and Brian’s turbulent history
Panettiere’s years-long relationship with Brian was marked by multiple domestic violence incidents and legal proceedings.
Brian was arrested several times on domestic violence charges during their relationship.
In July 2020, he was charged with four felony counts of domestic assault, one misdemeanor battery charge, two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one felony count of dissuading a witness from prosecuting a crime.
The charges covered alleged incidents occurring between May 2019 and July 2020.
In April 2021, Brian accepted a plea agreement and pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend. The remaining six charges were dismissed.
He received a sentence of 45 days in jail, four years of probation, $500 in fines and mandatory domestic violence classes.
Brian surrendered the following month and ultimately spent 13 days behind bars.
His probation conditions also required him to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at least once per week and complete anger-management sessions.
Panettiere filed for a restraining order against him in July 2020 after their relationship appeared to have ended. The outcome of that request is not stated in the court records cited.
Panettiere described relationship as a dark period
In her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere made serious allegations about the abuse she said she experienced during her relationship with Brian.
She alleged that on one occasion he beat her so badly that she remained inside her home for weeks to prevent her injuries from being seen publicly.
Panettiere said she had previously tried to keep the alleged abuse from police because she feared it becoming public. She described the relationship as a very dark and complicated period of her life.
Court records also show that Brian was arrested in May 2019 and charged with one count of injuring a spouse or girlfriend.
Despite their turbulent history and another alleged domestic violence incident in 2020, the pair later reconciled.
They largely kept their relationship out of public view and reportedly laughed off suggestions that they had separated.
Their most recent public appearance together came in March, when they were photographed at an airport in Los Angeles. Panettiere was using crutches at the time and said she was suffering from pinched nerves in her lower back.
Brian recently sought to clear his criminal record
About a month before Panettiere’s death, Brian filed a petition with Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking to have his criminal record involving the actress expunged.
According to a minute order filed on August 13 and reviewed by the Daily Mail, Judge Olivia Rosales denied his request three days before Panettiere died.
Brian has not publicly commented on her death.
Panettiere’s mother speaks out
Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, broke her silence on Tuesday and discussed the family’s feelings about Brian.
Speaking to NBC News, Vogel said the family had been trying for some time to remove Brian from Panettiere’s life and noted that he was with her around the time of her death.
She also reflected on the pressures her daughter had experienced growing up in the entertainment industry, describing Panettiere as enormously talented while acknowledging the challenges faced by young performers.
Panettiere previously discussed giving up custody of her daughter
In one of her final interviews, Panettiere also spoke about the painful decision to give up custody of her daughter Kaya while struggling with substance addiction.
In 2018, she signed over custody to Kaya’s father, former boxer Wladimir Klitschko, who was living in another country at the time.
Panettiere said the decision was neither easy nor something she had wanted to make.
Following her death, Klitschko paid tribute to his former fiancée on Instagram.
He said he was deeply saddened by Panettiere’s death and described her as an important part of his life and, most importantly, the mother of their daughter.
Klitschko also said he would always speak respectfully about Panettiere to Kaya and make sure their daughter remembered who her mother was.
Brian Hickerson has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
The official cause of Panettiere’s death remains pending.