Greenville police have closed their investigation into the death of actor Hayden Panettiere, citing a coroner’s ruling that her death was accidental.
Police said Wednesday that the decision to close the case was based on the medical examiner’s determination along with the findings of their own investigation.
Panettiere, known for her roles in “Heroes” and “Nashville,” was pronounced dead on Aug. 16 at age 36 in a Greenville apartment after paramedics found her unresponsive.
A coroner’s report obtained last month by The Associated Press attributed her death to an accidental overdose involving several drugs, including fentanyl. The report noted she had been in rehab just weeks earlier. Her on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, and his brother Zach Hickerson were present at the home at the time.
Questions remain about whether federal authorities are conducting a separate review of the case. Panettiere’s ex-fiance, former boxer Wladimir Klitschko, said in a petition filed last month in a California court that federal law enforcement agents investigating her death, along with an unnamed nonrelative seeking to sell her property, had taken some of her belongings.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Greenville police Sgt. Diana Munoz said she could not comment on whether other agencies were pursuing their own investigation.
Earlier this month, a California court granted Klitschko legal status to protect Panettiere’s property on behalf of the couple’s 11-year-old daughter, who is her sole heir.
Panettiere wrote in a memoir published in May, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” that she struggled with alcohol addiction and postpartum depression following her daughter’s birth in 2014. The girl moved to live with Klitschko full-time at age 2.
Panettiere’s father told investigators that she had been planning to visit her daughter in Ukraine just days after her death.
