Details have emerged about the final hours of actress Hayden Panettiere, who died at 36 on Sunday 16 August at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina, where she had been temporarily staying. The Greenville County Coroner's office said emergency services responded to a 911 call from an acquaintance reporting a cardiac arrest, and Panettiere was found unresponsive; resuscitation attempts, including advanced cardiac life support, were unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead roughly 30 minutes after crews arrived. An autopsy found no signs of trauma, foul play or suspicious circumstances, though the official cause and manner of death remain pending further testing.

Panettiere, known for Heroes and Nashville, was remembered by her father, Skip Panettiere, as "an incredible light and a force of nature". Actor Justin Chatwin, her co-star in her final film Sleepwalker, recalled that she had seemed to be struggling and lonely during filming in late 2025, while noting his own 15 years of sobriety gave him insight into addiction in Hollywood. Panettiere had previously spoken publicly about an abusive past relationship and about postpartum depression and addiction struggles, which led her in 2018 to give ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko full custody of their daughter, Kaya, now 11.