Law&Crime Sidebar - FRANTIC 911 Call in Hayden Panettiere Death Revealed

Episode Date: October 15, 2026

Chilling new 911 audio captures the frantic moments after actress Hayden Panettiere was found unresponsive inside a South Carolina Airbnb, as ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother Zach desperately attempted CPR to save her life. Now, as investigators probe the circumstances surrounding her fatal accidental overdose, disturbing details emerge about her final moments and the desperate attempts to revive her. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber walks us through the harrowing emergency call and the lingering questions surrounding the actress’s tragic death with former sheriff’s deputy and former SWAT team member Chad Ayers.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Use code SIDEBAR at incogni.com/sidebar for 60% off an annual plan!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Jay Cruz, Christina O'Shea, & Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson, Heather Berzak & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is she breathing? Is she breathing? Hello. No. Okay, we need to start CPR. These are the frantic moments from the reported 911 call after actress Hayden Panettiere was found unresponsive. We have the audio from that dispatch call,

another piece of the puzzle surrounding the beloved star's tragic death, and we're going to bring on an expert to break down what was happening in those moments. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. So we have this newly released 911 dispatch audio that we want to play for you. And it is reportedly in connection with the death of actress Hayden Penitier. We've been covering this since the beginning here on Sidebar. This was back on August 16th out in Greenville, South Carolina, at this Airbnb that she was staying at.

She was apparently found unresponsive by her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother, Zach. We know that it was ultimately determined from the local coroner that Hayden died from. from an accidental overdose, no signs of trauma contributing to her death. The immediate cause of death when you read from one of the report was the toxic effects of fentanyl for ANPP, Al-Prasalam, metacarbomol, and quatyapin. And then we have this 911 call. Actually, to help me explain what happened here, I want to go to the case report from the interview with Brian Hickerson.

Okay, so you go to the report and it says, quote, per redacted, they arrived at Greenville-Spartenburg airport last night from Los Angeles. Per Redacted, he woke up this morning around 10, 10.30, and the decedent was awake in the bathroom putting on her makeup. Per Redacted, they ate cereal together, and afterwards he fell back asleep. Per Redacted, he was woken up this afternoon by his brother, Redacted, knocking on the door. Per Redacted, he got up and let Redacted in. Per Redacted, the decedent, and he had slept on the sofa bed in the living room the night before. Per Redacted, they had planned to stay at this Airbnb, and his brother was to join them today from Nashville.

Per Redacted, Redacted, and he went to wake the decedent so they could. go to lunch. Per Redacted, he found the decedent sitting crisscross applesauce, face down, and unresponsive on the sofa bed. Redacted stated that it is not uncommon for the decedent to fall asleep in that position. Per Redacted, the decedent was purple in color, and he administered a nasal narcan. Per redacted, the deced remained unresponsive, so he administered another Narcan without any changes. Per Redacted, he told Redacted to call 911, and they started CPR. per redacted, they continued compressions and rescue breaths until emergency medical services arrived on scene. That was the report. We had and heard the audio. Now we do. This is the audio that was obtained by ABC and CBS.

It was redistributed by TMZ. To be clear, under South Carolina law, they don't usually allow the release of information in response to FOIA Freedom of Information Act requests that identify individuals by name. But according to ABC News, this audio lines up with the information about Hayden's, incident that was in publicly released information. So that's how we're getting here. That's how they're coming to this. And I'm going to play you this audio. And it begins with Zach. Oh, God. Oh, my God. Do you like CPR? PMF fire. What's the address of your emergency? Walked in after church is a brother and his girlfriend's apartment and he was off and his girl and she's untaught him. Okay. Is she breathing?

No, I don't think so. If there's a defibrillator available, send someone to get it now and tell me when you have it. I don't know. Would an apartment complex have that? Okay, it's okay. How old is she? Are you right by them now? I'm right near them now. Yeah, what? She would be? Please put your phone on speaker so you're...

Is she breathing? Is she breathing? Hold on. No. Okay, we need to start CPR. I'm going to tell you how to do something. CPR, okay? We're going to start with ventilation first. Okay.

I need you to lay her flat on her back and remove anything from under her head. Okay. Not breathing. Need to start CPR. Let's listen to the next part. Have you done that already? Yes. What do we do?

Okay. I need you to. Where? What do we do? I need you to pinch her nose tightly and you're going to cover your mouth with her mouth. And then you're going to. apply two cold breaths into her. You're going to feel the air come in and out of her breath and watch her chest rise as you're doing that, okay?

Tell me when you've done that. Yep, all right, we've done that. Okay, then you're going to apply chest compressions. You're going to place the heel of your hand on the breastbone right between the nipples. Yep. With one hand, and you're going to push your other hand on top of that hand. How much time? Okay, we're going to do this 500 times or until hope.

can arrive, okay? Start counting now. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Okay, I'm going to tell you how to get mouth to mouth. Place your hand on her forehead, your other hand under her neck, then tilt the head back. You're going to pinch her nose, close her mouth completely with your mouth. Okay, then blow two regular breaths into her lungs, about one second each. The chest is rise with each breath. Tell me when you've done that. Yep, one. Now start compressions again. One, two, three, four. I've got everybody coming as quickly as they can, okay? Free then. Can you still hear me? Yeah.

Okay. Have you done the two mouths to mouth press? All right, no. We've got a way to believe it. All right, now let it go out. I have them in the area. They should be approaching shortly. Continue going with that cycle until they take over, okay?

Is it a draw unlocked? One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, three, three. Are they with her now? Yeah, they're here they're. Okay, they're going to check over them.

Just incredibly distressing to hear this. And we know, ultimately, the Heroes of Nashville Star wasn't able to be revived. She died. And I go back to the case report, says, quote, this senior deputy responded to the incident location and met with paramedic redacted to gather the details surrounding this decedent. Her redacted, when he arrived unseen, he was informed that the decedent had a history of drug abuse and the decedent's boyfriend.

had administered to Narcan without success. Per-redacted, they established an IGEL airway, placed an intra-Ossis access in the left tibia, and performed A-C-L-S for approximately 30 minutes without success. Per-redacted, an ultrasound was performed, which showed no cardiac activity, and the decedent was pronounced dead at 1432. So, 232.

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Okay, let me bring on Chad Ayers, a former sheriff's deputy for Greenville, South Carolina, former SWAT. Chad, so good to see you. For anybody who doesn't know, by the way, where this happened, relatively close to you, right? Extremely close. And Jesse, I'm not huge in the TV entertainment world. Not a big movie buff, but obviously this was breaking news that morning. I actually had friends of mine reaching out saying, did you hear what happened? Obviously, I had to look up. But yeah, I mean, it's right down the road from where I live. So it hits close to home. Now, you heard this 911 call from your perspective, your experience, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Oh, crap.

You can hear the panic in the voice. Obviously, for anybody, waking up and discovering someone being unresponsive, not breathing, this can be traumatic for a lot of people. But also, but one thing I will say, Jesse, is you did hear the frustration in his voice of like, hey, I'm trying, I'm doing that. Listen, we always talked about this lot. Everyone responds to stress differently. The way you might respond to discovering this is maybe different the way I do. But it is that panic mode in his voice that I picked up on to start with. How tough is it for a civilian to perform life-saving efforts, compression CPR? You know, I think it's one of these things where really this should be taught in schools. My company actually has a division that teaches CPR AD. And studies

show when people are in sudden cardiac arrest, early CPR and early AED use, if it's done within like the first five minutes, it increases the chances of survival by like upwards of 70%. But for someone, you know, being taught through this while your heart's going a thousand miles a minute can be difficult to do. Obviously, the non-in dispatcher is doing the best job they can to tell them what to do. Think about this. The amount of stress and anxiety that's on this individual can be difficult. But it also sounds like at this point in time, there was nothing really that could have been done to save her as far as I understand. No, I mean, listen, when you, unfortunately, when you discover someone, and, you know, not to be graphic, but if there's

no signs of life, if they've already, they're past that point of return, you know, rigamortis setting in or hold to touch, there's really nothing, you know, you can do at that point. I always am fascinated by these calls to see how the dispatcher is communicating these instructions or relaying information or getting information, that's a very specific skill set. That's a very, very tough job. What is the role of that dispatcher in that moment when you're trying to talk to somebody

and it's not just reporting, hey, I saw a crime, I saw somebody run a redlet. It's, you know, they're like, it's in that moment trying to save somebody's life. What is that training like? Like, what is that role like? What is that experience like to be dispatch and relaying this information to somebody

in real time when you say there's there's so much panic there's so much at stake you know i've often said jesse they are the they're the unseen heroes they're taking these calls every single day and hearing the panic the stress the trauma in these people's voices and honestly these nine-one dispatchers don't get the credit that they deserve so in that situation let me kind of break down how this goes down you call 911 from your phone it's routed straight to the central dispatch center now in a in a in a a county like Greenville, right? You've got Greenville County, but you also have municipalities within that. And some of these municipalities may have another dispatch center themselves. So it's not just one call. That initial dispatcher that's receiving that call is having to do

several things at this time. They're having to put in the computer, the address, where this is at, what's going on at the same time as giving these instructions of these CPR instructions. So it's really important for a dispatcher, and you turn it on the call to remain calm. And also So there's times to be firm of saying, hey, listen, I'm going to talk you through this. But listen, I give them all the credit. A good thing that's happened now is after these critical situations, they have now included not just law enforcement and the first responders who respond to some of these tragedies to go get counseling and help.

They are now extending that to dispatchers because a lot of times the phone line gets hung up and when first responders get there. And a lot of times they don't fully know the outcome and the ending of this. And so they're caught there, unless they call, you know, an officer on scene to find out, they're caught in limbo of wondering what happened. So I think it's important, you know, for those dispatchers to get the therapy that they need as well, because it's traumatic for them. And you think about the response time and how quickly those first responders can get there.

There was also this detail that was in the reports about the administration of Narcan by, I believe it was Brian Hickerson, and what that does to the body and how that, that affects the chest compressions and CPR. In your experience, dealing with these kinds of fatal overdoses from drugs and the administration of Narcan, how does that complicate life-saving efforts? Well, obviously, in Greenville County, all deputies carry Narcan, our first responders keep it on them. And we're even seeing now where users are keeping it.

Narcan is a great drug to help block those receptors is what it's doing. For your viewers, a lot of people don't understand, like on overdoses with fentanyl heroin, what happens is the body just forgets to breathe. And so the overdose happens when the body just stops breathing. That's why these types of drugs are even used in operating rooms for sedation. But in an operating room in a controlled environment, you have machines there, ventilators, things to help you breathe. But you do see if the Narcan is delivered in enough time and a quick enough time,

it blocks those receptors. and you see people come back to life relatively quickly. Causes a really bad headache is what users have told me after they come out. But as far as me, I get there and there's signs of drug use or someone tells me, hey, listen, they were using illegal narcotics. I'm going to administer that Narcan as quickly as I can. The ones here that Granville County uses is a nasal spray. They spray it up into the nose.

There's different ways to deliver this Narcan. But immediately, though, as soon as that's done, we have to start those chest compressions. We've got to keep the blood circulating through the body. So even if you don't know, even if you haven't been formally trained, listen, get online, take a free class to learn CPR. But what we have to do is we have to start the compressions as quickly as possible. That's the most important part is keeping the blood flow to the brain. Now, according to sources that are familiar with this investigation, familiar with this case, it is still being reported that the Greenville City Police Department, the drug enforcement

agency, so the DEA, they have joining together in this investigation. The idea is potentially to see if Hayden had obtained non-prescription pills from a Los Angeles dealer before her trip because she had traveled from Los Angeles. What do you think is happening behind the scenes right now? What do you think is happening with that investigation, particularly coordinating with the feds? Yeah, I think first of all, her phone has already been dumped, I would assume, and they're looking at any type of digital communications he's had with anybody in the Los Angeles area. I'm sure her boyfriend, the boyfriend's brother, search warrants would probably obtain for their phones as well to see, was this something that was purchased and she traveled with to South Carolina? What do they have

a dealer here in the upstate of South Carolina that they reached out to? I can tell you in South Carolina, the attorney general is not playing around. He is going after the people who are providing this poison and killing, you know, South Carolinians on a daily basis. So I think the digital footprint and everyone she's communicating with is what's happening right now and starting to build cases using other technology that I don't want to go into to figure out. Let me follow up on that for a second. How big of an issue is it in South Carolina, whether it's fentanyl, what have you, and what's the ability to track the source, the source of those pills, the source of drugs,

going to the dealers, going to the suppliers. if you can tell us a little bit more about the South Carolina element of it or Greenville aspect. Yeah, I mean, listen, here, I can't give you an exact number, but I do know that it is a lot. We have a, and this South Carolina and small little Greenville County, that's not really small anymore. We do. We have a major heroin problem. All of this started, though, Jesse, if we think about it, if we track this back, this started with the opioid, the pill epidemic. where doctors, you know, back in the day, these pain management doctors were just stroking strips left and right. So what happened was people got hooked on opioids on prescription pills, price of pills that got expensive.

So the next best thing is to go to the heroin or fentanyl. It's cheaper. It's easily accessible. And that's why we see such this young generation that was dabbling in oxycodone, oxy pills going into this. Listen, I've got very close friends that I grew up with who battled this horrible disease, this addiction. We do. We have a major problem in South Carolina, just like we have all across the country on this. Just going full circle, talking about the effects of fentanyl, talking about the effects of a toxic combination, a cocktail here. You mentioned that if life-saving efforts are done immediately, it could have beneficial effects.

Have you seen cases before where someone has an overdose, let's say, again, fentanyl or a toxic combination? Within minutes, CPR, chest compressions are done, and someone is saved, and they're okay. in the end? Have you seen that? Absolutely. Absolutely. I can specifically remember probably two or three days before I retired from law enforcement pulling up to a hotel room and thank God there was a fire department right across the street from this hotel. They were able to get there. The person had overdosed. They gave them fentanyl. They were doing chest compressions. And very quickly, this person came to. The frustrating part, I think, for first responders is on that day, they came to, the person refused to go to the hospital, which they can do.

they can sign and say, I'm not going, I'm fine. Narcan was delivered. Four hours later, Jesse, EMS was back for the same person who had overdosed again, brought them back a second time in the same day. So again, it's a horrible drug. People are so addicted. They feel like they cannot live without this thing. So people, listen, people are being Narcan one, two, upwards of three times a day with this stuff.

So it is. We've got a serious problem. It's awful. So chat airs, always good seeing you. Thank you for coming on. I know I do, and I know my audience really appreciates your perspective and expertise as we try to navigate this new audio and this new development. Thank you so much, sir. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Jesse. Now, before we wrap things up, I actually spoke to forensic death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan on a previous episode of Sidebar about the cause of death here, what we should be thinking about. Take a listen. What do you make of that combination? toxic stew i mean that that's what it comes down to and then you you add the factor of fentanyl into it because it only takes the way i generally describe it to people the lethal level of fentanyl and lord knows we've covered enough of these cases over the last few years involving fentanyl if folks will just imagine in their mind what a grain of salt looks like two to three grains of salts is a lethal

level when it comes to fennel. It's that toxic. And that's, you have to factor in the reality that this is a drug that is manufactured in some clandestine lab. And let me give you one of the big indicators here. And if we could just go back for a second on your list that you talked about, the 4ANPP. That is actually a precursor to fentanyl. So without. the 4ANPP, you're not going to have fentanyl because that's one of the precursors, the building blocks, if you will, into fentanyl. So that derivative that you see there is indicative. So anybody that's investigating this case, whether it's the locals or the feds,

that's kind of the signature that they're looking at. Hayden was on several medications here. One in particular, the quint of pain, I never can pronounce it myself, but the quintipatine, That's actually Syracool. Where we heard about Syracool recently? Well, the Clancy case. That is something that played prominently. Is that antipsychotic medication? Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's generally, and it's a central nervous system, depressant as well. And it's something that over the years has been administered to treat schizophrenia.

You know, it's an antipsychotic. Or bipolar disorder or depressive? There's a whole litany of these things. And that drug in and of itself is very, very powerful. Then you think about the riboxin that's in her system as well. That has sedative effect as well. What you're seeing along here with all of these drugs, that's why I call it a toxic stew,

is it's constantly depressing the respiratory system. And that's kind of how this works. You begin to get into things like Xanax, which people are generally pretty familiar with. It's an anti-anxiety medication again. gives you this kind of placid feeling if you're ramped up. And then you have fentanyl on top of it. So all of this is working in her little body to really compromise her ability to uptake oxygen.

Because at the end of the day, when you have this kind of toxicity and these drug levels in her system, you're compromising the lungs. and, you know, I don't want to step on the through line here, but, you know, one of the things that I've noticed is that when she was initially found, she was found sitting, they're staying upright but face down, which is kind of a curious thing. You know, she's cross-legged on this sofa bed at this Airbnb there, you know, in Greenville. Yeah. And she's, I think personally, and I've seen this with heroin ODs over the course of my career,

I'm not to say that there's heroin involved here. What I'm saying is with opiates. It has this sedative effect. It's almost like anesthesia, right? And you have no control over the position that you're going to be in. I've had people that have had opiates on board that have died on the toilet, you know, leaning forward, caught between walls. And if you want more details from Joseph, we have that episode up on Law and Crimes YouTube channel.

It's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Jesse Weber. We'll speak to you next time.