South Carolina police close investigation into Hayden Panettiere’s overdose death

Police in South Carolina have closed their investigation into the death of actor Hayden Panettiere, confirming that the 36-year-old’s fatal overdose was accidental. The Greenville Police Department said its decision was based on the medical examiner’s determination and the findings of the local investigation. The department announced the conclusion in a statement on Wednesday, according to ABC News Australia and the BBC.

Panettiere was found unresponsive in an apartment in Greenville on 16 August. Emergency crews treated a woman in cardiac arrest, and she was later pronounced dead. The coroner’s report released last month said her death resulted from the toxic effects of fentanyl, Xanax and several other drugs.

The Greenville County Coroner’s Office also identified methocarbamol, a prescription muscle relaxant, and quetiapine, an antipsychotic medication, among the substances in her system. The autopsy found no signs of trauma that contributed to her death, the BBC reported. Police records said Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, and his brother, Zack or Zach Hickerson, were present when emergency services arrived.

The reports do not say that either man was accused in connection with her death. Hickerson had previously admitted abusing Panettiere, according to the BBC. The conclusion of the local inquiry may not settle every question about the case.

ABC News Australia reported that it remained unclear whether federal authorities were continuing a separate examination. The US Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly joined the local investigation, but neither the DEA nor Greenville police clarified what the federal agency was examining. Panettiere’s former fiancé, the retired boxer Wladimir Klitschko, said in a petition to a California court that federal law-enforcement agents had taken some of her property while investigating her death.

He also alleged that an unnamed non-relative was seeking to sell property. The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to ABC News Australia. A California court this month granted Klitschko legal status to protect Panettiere’s estate.

Their 11-year-old daughter is her sole heir. Panettiere had acknowledged addiction to alcohol and postpartum depression in her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” published in May. Her father told investigators that she had planned to visit her daughter in Ukraine days after her death.