Hayden Panettiere’s neighbor is speaking out about two gurney incidents she witnessed at the actress’s West Hollywood apartment.
Mia Terrazas, 61, who lived one door down from Panettiere at The Hancock Condominiums, said in an exclusive interview that she saw the “Nashville” star, 36, removed from her unit on a gurney by firefighters on July 29, 2023, and again on January 16, 2024. Terrazas’s daughter, Vileena Koneru, who lived with her mother at the time, told the outlet she observed the same.
Terrazas claimed she observed “bright red spots” and “bruises” on Panettiere during both incidents, and that Hickerson, 37, was present and “glued to” her each time. “It appeared that she had been beaten up. It wasn’t apparent to me that it could have been anything else,” Terrazas said. She added that Panettiere allegedly often looked “battered.”
During the 2023 incident, Terrazas said she asked Panettiere while she was on the gurney whether she was OK. The actress allegedly replied, “Yes,” Koneru told the outlet she was present for the 2024 incident as well. She and Terrazas said they tried to raise “concerns” with the responding firefighters both times.
Terrazas also claimed to the outlet that she often heard “muffled arguments” coming from Panettiere’s nearby unit, adding, “You can tell somebody’s arguing just by the tonality. … It was very hostile.” She further claimed she once heard the actress “screaming” at Hickerson in the elevator, “Just leave me alone! Just stop!”
In addition to the gurney incidents, Terrazas told Inside Edition she called 911 at least half a dozen times over disturbances at Panettiere’s apartment. “This predator was in our community,” she told the program. “He never stopped living at her place. There were times where he ripped apart her bathroom, where he just took a sledgehammer at like 5 in the morning.”
Terrazas became emotional when telling Page Six that Panettiere “seemed like a different person” when she was around Hickerson, lamenting that the actress was “very subdued” in his presence. “She was just so lovely … and just seeing her and passing frequently and, you know, the little chats that I had with her — she made such an impression, and she was such a bright light,” Terrazas shared as she started to cry. “Just as a human being. Never mind the talent; she was a human being, you know? And she deserved so much better. I felt everybody just used her up, and she just deserved better. … I just wish I could have done more. I just can’t believe I’ll never see her again.”
Terrazas said she was “terrified” of Hickerson given both his well-documented history of domestic violence and the time he allegedly “followed” her down the stairs in her building. “I’m 61. I’m moving really slow down those stairs, and he’s just right behind me. Didn’t pass me up or anything. And I thought, ‘Is that to intimidate me?'” she wondered.
In the viral moment that preceded this neighbor’s account, Panettiere died on August 16 at an Airbnb in Greenville, South Carolina, where she had traveled with Hickerson the day before. She was 36. According to Greenville Police Department dispatch audio, her death was suspected to be an “overdose.” Hickerson showed responding officers a “bag of medication” she had allegedly been taking. His brother Zach Hickerson, 38, who was also on the scene, said that Brian administered Narcan after finding Panettiere “unresponsive” in a chair, and that the brothers “jointly performed CPR” until emergency personnel arrived. First responders’ resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, and she was pronounced dead within 45 minutes, per the Greenville County Coroner’s Office. The autopsy found “no signs of trauma,” and the investigation remains active pending toxicology results.
Terrazas said she saw Hickerson at the apartment complex during the active protective order period, so she called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department “quite a few times” to report it. She claimed deputies “removed” Hickerson from the property at least once but that she saw him back there the next day. The sheriff’s department allegedly explained to her that he and Panettiere kept coming back together despite deputies’ efforts to separate them. “I understood their point,” Terrazas acknowledged. “I just kept calling because I was hoping I would get a different answer.”
In August 2025, the building’s homeowners association posted flyers warning residents of Hickerson “trespassing” on the property and encouraged them to call 911 if they saw him. Terrazas said the notices “mysteriously” came down after about a week, and when she tried reposting them, the HOA allegedly explained that “Brian’s no longer a threat” because he’s going to “drug rehab.” Hickerson claimed he checked himself into a treatment program sometime in 2022, but Page Six was unable to locate records of a 2025 rehab stay.
While Terrazas “never saw them actually doing any type of drugs,” she said it was “pretty apparent sometimes.” “Brian always seemed to be high or disconnected. He just kind of had this odd, flat effect, I guess I could describe it as,” Terrazas claimed. “Hayden sometimes would seem out of it.”
Hickerson’s attorney declined to comment on the neighbor’s claims when reached by Page Six. The attorney did release a statement on Hickerson’s behalf on August 20, telling the outlet, “Hayden’s death remains under investigation, and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed. As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play. Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.”
Panettiere’s rep said, “While an investigation is ongoing and further developments are coming to light, we are confident that justice will soon be served.”
In May of this year, Panettiere spoke publicly about her on-off relationship with Hickerson in her memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” and its accompanying press tour. She explained that every time she “found the strength to get away from [her] abusers,” they would “always find their way back into [her] life,” She said Hickerson would become violent when under the influence, sober up and apologize, leaving her in a “dizzying cycle” because being “alone” admittedly scared her more than “tolerat[ing] abuse.” Hickerson broadly confessed in a subsequent TMZ interview that he was abusive toward her, struggled with addiction and regretted how he treated her.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the investigation into Panettiere’s death.