Police Spotted Outside Brian Hickerson’s Family Home Days After Hayden Panettiere’s Death

Police showed up outside a South Carolina home tied to Brian Hickerson‘s family just days after his on-off girlfriend Hayden Panettiere was found dead nearby.

Page Six reported on Wednesday, August 19, that two Greenville Police Department cars arrived at a property owned by Hickerson’s grandmother, Betty Ellison, at 8:20 a.m. on Wednesday.

An officer knocked repeatedly on the front door without getting a response, while a second officer tried the side door with the same result. The officers left after about three minutes, as per the outlet.

Both Brian, 37, and his brother, Zach Hickerson, 38, had reportedly been at the property the day before.

The motive behind the police visit has not been revealed. But as In Touch previously reported, Brian has been at the center of the investigation into Panettiere’s death, since he was with her during her final moments.

TMZ reported on August 18 that the Nashville actress was found unresponsive Sunday at an Airbnb where she’d been staying, after Zach reportedly entered the unit and found her in a chair in the living room.

After the 911 call, first responders attempted to revive Panettiere, 36, but she was declared deceased after resuscitation efforts failed.

Brian, who has struggled with addiction in the past, was reportedly asleep in the bedroom at the time. He later showed officers a bag of medication Panettiere had allegedly been taking, as per the outlet.

As In Touch previously reported, Hickerson has since retained a lawyer and stopped cooperating with police as they examine his phone and computer.

“They want the phone because it doesn’t forget,” a source told Rob Shuter‘s Naughty But Nice Substack published on Wednesday, August 19. “It can help establish who he was talking to, where he was and what was happening before Hayden was found.”

The source added that Hickerson is “no longer just answering questions” and that his lawyer is “going to control what he says and when he says it.”

A separate source cautioned that police have not “concluded he did anything wrong,” adding, “Police are looking closely at the boyfriend because he was part of Hayden’s final hours.”

Panettiere and Hickerson had a turbulent, on-and-off relationship that spanned several years. Their relationship later became deeply troubled in 2020 when Brian made headlines after being charged with multiple felony counts stemming from alleged abuse, according to a New York Times report.

He ultimately pleaded no contest to two counts of injuring a spouse or partner and served a brief jail sentence. He was also ordered to complete four years of probation, anger management classes, and AA meetings.

Hayden’s death was announced on August 16 by her father, Skip Panettiere.

An autopsy has since been completed. The Greenville County coroner’s office confirmed there were no signs of trauma contributing to her death, as per a report in NBC Los Angeles.

A cause has not been publicly released.