DEA joins investigation into Hayden Panettiere’s death: Sources

GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA: The investigation into Hayden Panettiere’s death has taken a new turn, with the Drug Enforcement Administration joining local authorities in the probe.

Panettiere, 36, died Sunday night, and her official cause of death has not yet been determined. 

The DEA is now working with the Greenville Police Department and the local coroner’s office as authorities continue looking into what happened.

DEA joins South Carolina authorities in Hayden Panettiere death probe

The Drug Enforcement Administration has entered a joint investigation with South Carolina’s Greenville Police Department and the local coroner’s office, according to reports cited in the information available.

The move comes as authorities have yet to announce an official cause of death for Panettiere, who died Sunday night at the age of 36.

The investigation is also drawing attention because Panettiere had spoken openly about difficult periods in her life. In her 2026 memoir, 'This Is Me: A Reckoning', she detailed her years-long struggles with addiction.

However, no official cause of death has been determined, and the ongoing investigation remains focused on establishing what happened.

Hayden Panettiere remembered by ‘Heroes’ co-star Jack Coleman

As the investigation continues, Panettiere’s former colleagues have been remembering the actor and the person they knew away from the headlines.

Jack Coleman, who played her father on ‘Heroes’, shared an emotional tribute on Wednesday.

“I’m heartbroken. I couldn’t begin to put my thoughts into words until now, and they will be inadequate,” Coleman wrote.

He recalled meeting Panettiere when she joined the show 20 years ago, remembering how she introduced herself by shouting “daddy” and throwing her arms around him.

“From that day on, she called me daddio,” Coleman wrote, adding that she was also known to him as “Haydini, because she was a magician.”

Christy Carlson Romano reflects on Hayden Panettiere and childhood fame

Christy Carlson Romano also remembered Panettiere on Wednesday in an essay for Elle.

Romano, known for ‘Even Stevens and Kim Possible’, reflected more widely on the pressures faced by actors who grow up in the public eye.

She compared the lasting impact of childhood fame to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, while stressing that she was not making a medical diagnosis.

“The former child actor exists in a category the world does not know how to hold,” Romano wrote.

She described the difficult position child stars can find themselves in, writing that they can be treated as children when the public wants to protect them, professionals when the industry wants to profit from them and celebrities when they later struggle with the effects of that experience.

Romano added that “early fame is like CTE,” clarifying that she meant it as “a way of thinking about repeated impact.”