Police Conduct Welfare Check at South Carolina Home Tied to Hayden Panettiere’s Boyfriend Days After Actress’s Tragic Death
Law enforcement officers moved quickly in Greenville, South Carolina.
Two Greenville City Police Department vehicles arrived at a four-bedroom home around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The property is linked to Brian Hickerson, the longtime on-again, off-again boyfriend of actress Hayden Panettiere, and his brother Zachary Hickerson.
Officers were there to conduct a welfare check.
This came just days after the 36-year-old “Heroes” star was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead following a suspected overdose.
Two female officers repeatedly knocked on the front door of the roughly $800,000 home.
No one answered.
They walked around to the back of the property where curtains remained drawn.
After checking the area, the officers returned to their vehicles and left.
Police returned to the same house a second time within about 90 minutes.
Officers again went around to the backyard before emerging several minutes later.
They declined to say who the welfare check involved.
Zachary Hickerson, 38, had been seen at the property a day earlier.
When approached by a reporter, he refused to discuss Panettiere’s death.
“No comment, bro, and with no offense to you and what you’re trying to do, this is private property,” he said.
“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.”
Brian Hickerson, 37, has not been seen publicly since the actress’s death.
Panettiere had traveled from Los Angeles to Greenville with Brian one day before she died.
She was temporarily staying at an Airbnb inside the Judson Mill Lofts complex.
According to reports, Zachary found Panettiere unresponsive in a living room chair around 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
Brian was asleep in a bedroom at the time.
Both brothers called 911 after they could not wake her.
Emergency medical crews worked for nearly an hour trying to revive the actress.
She was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene.
An incident summary noted that Zachary was “very emotional” while first responders worked on Panettiere.
Brian reportedly did not become “visibly emotional” until after she had been pronounced dead.
He also allegedly showed investigators a bag of medication that Panettiere had been taking.
Emergency dispatch audio described the incident as a suspected overdose.
Narcan, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, was reportedly found on a mattress inside the property.
Authorities have not yet determined the official cause of death.
A preliminary coroner’s report stated Panettiere was found unresponsive inside the residence where she had been temporarily staying.
No signs of trauma were discovered that contributed to her death.
The Greenville Police Department has said the preliminary investigation found no indication of foul play or suspicious circumstances.
The investigation remains open while officials await additional testing.
Panettiere’s relationship with Brian Hickerson dated back to 2018.
It was repeatedly marked by serious allegations of domestic violence.
Brian was arrested multiple times during their years together.
In July 2020, prosecutors charged him with four felony counts of domestic assault, two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, one felony count of dissuading a witness, and one misdemeanor battery count.
The charges covered alleged incidents between May 2019 and July 2020.
In April 2021, Brian accepted a plea deal and pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend.
The remaining charges were dismissed.
He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, four years of probation, $500 in fines, and mandatory domestic violence classes.
He ultimately served 13 days behind bars after surrendering the following month.
Panettiere later wrote about the relationship in her memoir.
She described it as a “very dark and complicated time in my life.”
The actress alleged that Brian once beat her so badly that she stayed inside her home for weeks to hide her injuries from the public.
She also filed for a restraining order against him in 2020.
Despite that history, Panettiere and Brian later rekindled their relationship.
They had been seen together publicly as recently as March.
Reports also indicated that Brian petitioned a Los Angeles court to clear domestic abuse convictions from his record roughly a month before Panettiere’s death.
A judge denied that request on August 13, just three days before the actress died.
Adding another layer, Panettiere was reportedly romantically linked to Zachary Hickerson in 2019 while Brian was facing domestic violence charges.
The two were photographed together in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood at the time.
A witness described them as looking “very comfortable. Like a real couple.”
It remains unclear when that reported relationship ended.
Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, spoke out after her daughter’s death.
She made clear the family had long been troubled by Brian’s presence in her life.
“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.”
Vogel also reflected on the pressures her daughter faced after growing up in the entertainment industry.
“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.”
Panettiere had previously been open about her struggles with addiction.
She also spoke about the painful decision to give custody of her daughter, Kaya, to former fiancé and Ukrainian boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko.
“It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, nor was it a decision I even wanted to make.”
Klitschko paid tribute to Panettiere after her death.
He remembered her as an important part of his life and the mother of their daughter.
“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.
“To our daughter Kaya, I will always speak of her mother with respect and make sure she remembers the person she was.”
Brian Hickerson has not publicly commented on Panettiere’s death.
For now, the police activity at the home connected to the Hickerson family adds another unanswered question to a case that remains under investigation.
Authorities continue working to determine exactly what led to the actress’s death.
In cases like this, law enforcement’s careful approach and commitment to gathering facts matter.
The public deserves clear answers, and the family deserves the truth.
Benjamin Harris is a RapidReports front page contributor and editor,proud father of four.
