No Evidence of Foul Play in Hayden Panettiere’s Death, Police Say

A preliminary investigation into the death of Hayden Panettiere, an actress known for her work in the TV shows “Nashville” and “Heroes,” did not produce evidence of “foul play or suspicious cirblockstances,” the Greenville, S.C., Police Department said in a statement on Monday.

Panettiere was 36 when she died on Sunday in Greenville.

The statement said that a fuller investigation was continuing, but it did disclose that an acquaintance of Panettiere’s called 911 just before 2 p.m. on Sunday. When officers and emergency personnel arrived — to the Judson Mill Lofts, an apartment complex west of downtown Greenville — they found an unresponsive female.

The authorities tried to resuscitate the woman, who was later identified as Panettiere, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The police have not disclosed the identity of the 911 caller.

Panettiere first appeared onscreen as a toddler, acting in a commercial when she 11 months old. Her breakout role came in 2000, when she played a coach’s daughter in the Denzel Washington-led “Remember the Titans.”

She went on to find acclaim in a pair of TV series: as a high school cheerleader with a supernatural gift to regrow her body parts in “Heroes” (from 2006 to 2010) and as a rising music star in “Nashville” (which ran from 2012 to 2018). Panettiere also appeared in two sequels of the “Scream” horror movies.

It was little secret that Panettiere had struggled with mental health issues and drug and alcohol abuse. She told The New York Times in 2023 that at one point in her life she would regularly wake up shaking. When she was not drinking alcohol, she said, she was taking opioids in hopes of not drinking.

Panettiere also said that she had suffered from body dysmorphia as a result of invasive tabloid press coverage when she was a teenager.