Hayden Panettiere exchanged frequent messages with an alleged longtime drug supplier in the days leading up to her death, sources familiar with the federal investigation said Tuesday.
The “Heroes” actress, 36, and the dealer she reportedly met in Los Angeles communicated specifically about black-market drug purchases, according to sources who spoke. The pair were in contact through the week before Panettiere flew to South Carolina, where she was found dead August 16 in an Airbnb rental.
“There are a slew of messages about drugs,” one source said. The texts have become central to the ongoing Drug Enforcement Administration probe into her suspected overdose.
Residents near Panettiere’s West Hollywood home said they observed a pattern of brief visits to the actress stretching back to 2021. Two women believed to be in their early 20s and a man in his mid-30s would arrive, hand over bags, and depart without entering.
“Panettiere would answer the door and just grab the bags,” one neighbor source said. The contents were never confirmed.
“They never stayed, they’d just leave,” the source added.
The man reportedly delivered one bag marked with the name “Brian” approximately one week before Panettiere’s death. The label’s significance remains unclear, though her on-again, off-again boyfriend is Brian Hickerson.
Hickerson, who had a tumultuous relationship with the “Nashville” star, has already sat down with DEA officials. What he told investigators has not been disclosed.
Panettiere died after taking a single pill believed to be oxycodone laced with fentanyl, though coroners have not issued an official cause of death. First responders found Narcan, the opioid-overdose reversal medication, at the property.
The case lands amid a devastating national surge in synthetic opioid deaths. The DEA seized more than 47 million fentanyl-laced pills and nearly 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2025 alone.
“Synthetic opioids like fentanyl contribute to nearly 70% of overdose deaths,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states. “Even in small doses, it can be deadly. Over the last few years, nonfatal and fatal overdoses involving fentanyl have continued to rise.”
President Trump addressed the crisis in a December 2025 executive order classifying fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction.”
“No bomb does what this is doing,” he said. The order characterized the largely China-sourced drug as “closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic.”
Panettiere joins a growing roster of public figures lost to contaminated street drugs. Robert De Niro’s grandson, Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, died in July 2023 from fentanyl-laced opioid pills. He was 19.
The DEA has not announced any charges in connection with Panettiere’s death.