Harrowing Hayden Panettiere Death Scene, $500K Ring Missing

Nancy Grace (0:00)

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Tonight, TV and movie star Hayden Panettiere's harrowing death scene revealed, including some very inconsistent facts. This as over $500,000 worth of jewelry and money missing. I repeat, $500,000 in jewelry and money, including a 500 grand sparkling diamond ring just gone. Wow. I wonder if anybody haunt that. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us.

Dave Mack (0:57)

Hayden Panettiere died from the toxic effects of multiple drugs, fentanyl being number one, also Xanax, a muscle relaxant and Seroquel. Her death has officially been ruled an accident.

SPEAKER_3 (1:12)

Her boyfriend, Brian, is a very, very shady character and has been in and out of her life. Hayden had her demons and she let these people in.

Brian Hickerson (1:21)

Hayden Panettiere is the sweetest thing in the world.

It's not about who you spend Saturday night with, it's who you spend all day Sunday with. Hayden Panettiere is the Sunday girl. I mean, it was, who wants to read something about themselves like that, right? But you got to be vulnerable and I did it, I did it.

Hayden Panettiere (1:55)

I realized that I was more afraid of being alone than being abused. And in order to be around that kind of behavior, it took me dulling my senses and numbing myself with substances in order to silence that rational voice in my head that was telling me exactly what was going on and the many reasons why I needed to get myself out of this toxic relationship and as far away from this person as possible.

Nancy Grace (2:22)

It actually hurts to see TV and movie star Hayden Panettiere, a mother of a little girl, struggling describing in her own words about getting out of a toxic relationship, trying to escape the life that she was living. You heard Hickerson talking, the on-off again boyfriend to our friend Harvey Levin at TMZ. He finished that sound bite with, I did it. Did what? I'm curious. Did what exactly? That was also Hayden herself speaking on the Jay Shetty podcast tonight.

The harrowing death scene revealed in formal police and law enforcement documents when police arrive, when first responders arrive. This is what they saw. What does it mean? As claims swirling over $500,000 of cash and jewelry missing? Straight out to Crime Stories, investigative reporter Dave Mack. Dave, first we hear that Hayden Panettiere was asleep on the bed and that Hickerson woke up and went, What? She's dead. Okay. Then we hear Hayden Panettiere is dead in a chair.

But I noticed in official documents, it stated that Hayden Panettiere was lying on a rug in front of a sofa.

That may not mean a lot to some people, but in a death investigation, that's a very critical inconsistency, Dave Mack. What did you learn?

Dave Mack (4:04)

Nancy, in digging into this, we found out that the initial reporting, August 18th, okay, we're talking about Zach Hickerson is saying, or an insider, somebody with inside information, according to TMZ, tells them that Hayden Panettiere was found sitting in a chair, that Brian Hickerson was asleep in a different bedroom, and he was awoken by Zach, his brother, knocking on the front door of their Airbnb. Now, this initial story that came out right after she passed away, Nancy, substantially changed. There's a big difference between what was said right away from an inside source, and what we were being told was the reality. That story changed from her being found sitting in a chair, to now we find that Hayden Panettiere was found on the floor, in front of the sofa bed, on a small little rug. She's purple, she's crisscross applesauce with her head on the floor.

And according to the most recent report that Zach Hickerson is banging on the door to wake them up, Brian Hickerson wakes up...

Nancy Grace (5:19)

You're telling me that an official report said she's crisscross applesauce.

Dave Mack (5:25)

Absolutely, Nancy. It's shocking. But that was the description in the official report that Hayden Panettiere... That was a way that she sat and fell asleep, according to Brian Hickerson. Not an uncommon thing for her to do.

Nancy Grace (5:40)

Dave Mack... Let me understand this. Okay, so she's no longer... First of all, he wakes up to knocking at the door. That's not what we were told earlier. We were earlier told he woke up and looked over, and Hayden Panettiere is dead. Okay, then we hear she's dead in a chair or unconscious.

Then we hear now that she's on a rug. But you said a knock at the door, and you said she was found lying on a rug. But how can she be lying on the rug if she's crisscross applesauce? I haven't heard that since my children were in pre-K. But I take that to mean she had been sitting with her legs crossed, okay, and fell over.