Hayden Panettiere’s Death Ruled Accidental According to Reports

The investigation into Hayden Panettiere’s death has concluded after finding that an accidental overdose caused her passing.

The Greenville Police Department confirmed to reporters that the actor’s death on Aug. 16 is not being treated as suspicious.

“Based on the Medical Examiner’s determination and the findings of the investigation, Hayden Panettiere’s death has been ruled accidental,” a statement provided to Entertainment Weekly reads. “The Greenville Police Department has concluded its investigation.”

That decision follows a coroner’s report seen last month by the Associated Press, which stated that her death resulted from an accidental overdose of several drugs, including fentanyl, following a stay in rehab.

The former Nashville and Heroes star was found in cardiac arrest at a residence in South Carolina at age 36. “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen,” her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement.

Panettiere shared an 11-year-old daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko, with her ex-fiancé, former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko. In 2018, she agreed to give full custody of Kaya to Klitschko amid her struggles with postpartum depression and addiction.

According to the AP, it remains unclear whether federal authorities will separately continue examining the case. In a petition last month to a California court, Klitschko noted that federal law enforcement agents had taken some of her items for their own probe. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration did not immediately respond to emailed requests from the news agency.

Although she was best known for her television work, which began with a commercial shoot for a Playskool toy train at 11 months old in 1990, Panettiere also established a music footprint through her run on Nashville from 2012 to 2018.

She played ambitious country-pop singer Juliette Barnes on Nashville alongside Connie Britton, and her vocals anchored the series’ Billboard-charting companion soundtrack albums on Big Machine Records. She also recorded songs for family films and teen-pop compilations as a teenager. After taking on the role of Claire Bennet in NBC’s modern superhero saga Heroes, she signed to Hollywood Records and released the 2008 single “Wake Up Call.” Panettiere cracked Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart in 2012 with the Nashville track “Undermine,” a collaboration with Charles Esten that peaked at No. 58.