DEA joins investigation into Hayden Panettiere’s death

The federal agency is working with Greenville police and the local coroner as the cause of death of the 36-year-old actress remains undetermined

The Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the investigation into the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, according to ABC News. The DEA is working with the Greenville Police Department and the local coroner’s office in South Carolina, according to TMZ.

Panettiere, known for her roles in Heroes and Nashville, died Sunday, Aug. 16, at age 36. She was found in cardiac arrest at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina, and emergency responders were unable to revive her. The official cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation and additional testing.

The actress had recently published her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, released in May. In the book, Panettiere wrote extensively about her struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, traumatic experiences in Hollywood and the pressures of tabloid scrutiny.

Her death has prompted an outpouring of tributes from Hollywood, along with renewed reflection on the particular burden of becoming famous at a young age.

Among those reflecting on Panettiere’s death is Christy Carlson Romano, the former Disney star of Even Stevens and voice of Kim Possible. In an essay for ELLE, Romano drew a comparison between the lasting effects of childhood stardom and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the brain disease associated with repeated head trauma.

Romano argued that former child actors occupy a difficult space that the public and entertainment industry have yet to adequately address: they are children when audiences want to protect them, professionals when the industry wants to profit from them, and then are sometimes dismissed as spoiled celebrities when the consequences of that experience become visible.

She described early fame as being “like CTE,” not as a medical diagnosis but as a way of understanding the cumulative impact of repeated exposure to stress, scrutiny and pressure.

In youth sports, Romano noted, repeated blows to the head are recognized as a potential source of long-term harm, prompting protective equipment, rules and parental oversight. Young performers, she argued, have no comparable safeguards against the psychological pressures that can accompany early fame.

There are no helmets or established protocols, she wrote, to shield child performers from stress, judgment, adult pressure or the loss of privacy. Those repeated psychological impacts, Romano argued, can shape and damage childhood.

Panettiere’s death has left the investigation into the circumstances surrounding her final hours ongoing. The cause of death has not yet been determined.

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