Hayden Panettiere’s BF Brian Hickerson Talks to DEA in Death Investigation

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

An all-new season of the Hulu Original Series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus.

SPEAKER_2 (0:07)

Four years ago, we were just making TikToks, but it feels like there are no friendships left in MomTalk.

SPEAKER_3 (0:12)

You act like you're better than everyone, you're not.

SPEAKER_2 (0:14)

I can't trust anyone in this group.

Branson Quirk (0:16)

She's just dead to me. There's so much the public doesn't know.

SPEAKER_1 (0:20)

Watch the new season of the Hulu Original Series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus, for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

SPEAKER_5 (0:30)

Your favorite friend group is back. FX's Adults follows five roommates living in New York, leaning on each other to navigate love, work, friendship, and family. While tackling pressing questions of your 20s like, what if the person who inherited your fake ID is cooler than you ever were? Why does being around your family make you regress into your worst self? How do you tell your roommates that you have other friends?

FX's Adults, all episodes now streaming on Hulu.

Branson Quirk (1:08)

Welcome to the TMZ Podcast. I'm Branson Quirk.

Tony Smith (1:11)

And I'm Tony Smith.

Branson Quirk (1:11)

It's a tough day today. It is 9-11. It's always so hard because you start seeing and being reminded of a lot of the events that took place that day.

And we are going to talk a little bit about 9-11 in today's podcast. We're going to get to one of our documentaries that we did here at TMZ. And last night was especially hard for me because, and I was telling you this this morning, how I was seeing all of the voicemails that people who passed away that day were leaving their loved ones. So then people on the plane, people in the towers. And it's like some of these people knew that they were going to die. Like, and that was the hardest part, listening to some of these voicemails.

Tony Smith (1:51)

Yeah, I could never listen to any. I couldn't listen to those voicemails. It's just horrifying.

Branson Quirk (1:57)

Right, and it's so hard every year. And it's the 25th.

Tony Smith (1:59)

It is the 25th anniversary.

Branson Quirk (2:01)

Yeah, 25 years. So I know a lot of the local police departments, my town in Gilroy specifically, they do a ceremony for it. It's like, it's so, you know, groundbreaking what happened, that like it affects the whole country. It's not just like New York, you know what I mean?

Tony Smith (2:17)

Yeah, it's a very somber day, but we're here to give you guys some news as well.

Branson Quirk (2:22)

We also have some updates for you, most notably in the Hayden Panettiere investigation into her death, her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson. A lot of the focus has been on him, how she got these drugs, what happened, what led to this alleged overdose. And he is now speaking with the DEA. So we'll give you the details about that. And then we're also going to talk about President Trump, who snapped at an ABC News report.

Tony Smith (2:45)

I mean, is anything new with this guy?

Branson Quirk (2:47)

It's not surprising.

Tony Smith (2:48)

Not surprising in the least. We'll play the spot and we'll react to it.

Branson Quirk (2:52)

Right. Absolutely. Okay. Well, let's get started. So Hayden Panettiere, obviously, we know that she died of a suspected overdose tragically. And very suddenly, she was in North Carolina. She was at home with her boyfriend and his brother, Brian and Zach Hickerson. So a lot of the focus, like I said, has been on Brian and how she, what led to this and everything. Well, the DEA is involved. We knew that. But now Brian Hickerson has confirmed, we've confirmed that he is speaking with the DEA as federal and local authorities continue investigating the actresses suspected overdose death. My bad, by the way, I said North Carolina. I meant South Carolina, Greenville.

So sources with direct knowledge of the investigation tell TMZ that investigators are making progress currently. The main focus of the investigation is determining who may have sold Hayden drugs that investigators believe could have contributed to her death. We also reported that local and federal investigators believe someone sold Hayden drugs that might have caused her death. You've seen body cam of different drugs and we don't know what drugs they are, if they are drugs. But we don't know, but you've seen body cams where those drugs are incredibly dangerous. So things like fentanyl just even dropping on an officer's face can take somebody out.