Boyfriend's brother details final moments before Panettiere found unresponsive

On a Sunday morning in August, Zach Hickerson went to church, then tried to meet up with his brother Brian and Brian's girlfriend, actress Hayden Panettiere, for lunch and indoor golf. When he couldn't reach either of them by phone, he drove to the Airbnb where they were staying. He knew the building code but not the apartment code, so he knocked loudly. The sound woke Brian from a nap the two had been taking together on a pullout couch in the living room.

When Zach and Brian tried to wake Panettiere for their planned outing, they realized she was unconscious. What happened next unfolded with the urgency of a medical emergency: Zach immediately called 911. Brian administered Narcan. The two brothers performed CPR together while the dispatcher remained on the line, continuing their efforts until firefighters and paramedics arrived. Despite every intervention the emergency responders could attempt, Panettiere could not be revived. She was 36 years old.

In the days following her death on August 16, questions began to accumulate—not just about what had happened, but about who had been present when it did. Panettiere's mother, Lesley Vogel, broke her silence with a statement that reframed the tragedy as something darker. She described her daughter as having become involved with "the wrong person," someone she characterized as toxic, and said the family had tried unsuccessfully to remove this person from Hayden's life. She named Brian Hickerson directly, saying he had been with her daughter at the moment of her death.

Brian's history with the law added weight to her concerns. He had faced domestic violence charges in connection with Panettiere, charges that had resulted in a conviction. The police report from the day of her death noted that Zach appeared visibly emotional as paramedics worked to save his friend—someone he said he had loved and cared for over the previous eight years. Brian, by contrast, did not show emotion until Panettiere was pronounced dead.

Zach released a lengthy statement to a media outlet, pushing back against what he called speculation and sensationalism. He walked through his morning methodically: church, messages exchanged with Brian, the plan for lunch, the unanswered calls, the drive to the apartment, the knock on the door, the discovery, the 911 call, the CPR. He asked for the speculation to stop, for Panettiere's loved ones to be allowed to grieve without misinformation clouding the facts. Brian's own statement, delivered through his lawyer, was far more sparse. He acknowledged that the death remained under investigation, noted that police had found no signs of foul play, and declined to comment further.

But the investigation itself began to signal that questions remained. The Drug Enforcement Administration was contacted and became involved in the case—a detail that suggested authorities were looking into circumstances beyond what a simple medical emergency might explain. Vogel, speaking to reporters, said the DEA's involvement led her to believe answers were still being sought. She continued to speak publicly about her belief that Brian Hickerson bore responsibility for her daughter's death, even as the official investigation proceeded.

Wladimir Klitschko, Panettiere's former fiancé and the father of her daughter, released a statement on what would have been her 37th birthday, five days after her death. He thanked everyone who had reached out with support and asked people to think about love, to reach out to friends, to forgive, to be kind. "Love is a superpower," he wrote. "Use it." The words hung in the space between grief and the unanswered questions that continued to define the case.