New Detail Emerges About What Hayden Panettiere Was Taking Before Her Death

The late actress Hayden Panettiere was taking a “bag of medication” at the time of her sudden death on Sunday afternoon.

According to a report from NBC News, Panettiere’s on-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson handed over a bag containing the medications she’d been taking in the days leading up to her death — and although the names of the medications were redacted, The New York Post reported that there were nine drugs listed in the Greenville City Police Department report.

Entertainment site TMZ reported that Panettiere, who died just days before what would have been her 37th birthday, was discovered unresponsive in a chair by Zach Hickerson, Brian’s brother. Brian was reportedly asleep in another room of the Greenville, South Carolina, apartment they’d rented through Airbnb.

Responding officer Matthew Bryan said in his report that he first spoke with Zach — who was clearly distraught while first responders worked on Panettiere — but that Brian did not appear to be visibly upset until the actress was officially declared dead.

Additional reporting said Brian and the “Nashville” actress had been more on-again than off-again of late, but kept their relationship quiet because her publicity team felt his presence would likely hurt her book sales.

Panettiere’s estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, also voiced concern about Hickerson in her first public comments following her daughter’s death: “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.”

Hickerson has not been accused by authorities of involvement in Panettiere’s death.

“I think Hayden was an amazingly talented person in so many departments and I think young people who grow up in the entertainment industry,” Vogel added. “It is a struggle and it’s a very challenging industry and it’s not unusual for them to sadly find the wrong path.”

Hickerson and Panettiere had both expressed anger toward Vogel in the past.

“Hayden’s mother is by far one of the worst people I’ve ever met in my life,” Hickerson told TMZ in May — and Panettiere said on a recent podcast that she’d been broken by her mother’s response when she asked if they could just be mother and daughter instead of manager and actress.

“You owe me,” Vogel reportedly said at the time, and Panettiere told podcast host Jay Shetty that she’d been heartbroken to realize that she’d meant “money.”

The police report indicated that the responding officer was wearing a body cam at the scene, but that footage has not been released.

An autopsy was performed on Monday, and the coroner’s office released a statement saying that “no signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death” — but the investigation is still ongoing. Toxicology reports could take weeks to compile.