Hayden Panettiere‘s neighbor in West Hollywood recalls calling 911 at least half a dozen times to report disturbances at the actress’s apartment.
Following the star’s death at age 36 on Sunday in Greenville, South Carolina, Mia Terrazzas spoke with Inside Edition on Wednesday about her experience living next to Panettiere and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson. When asked if she noticed any signs of domestic violence, Terrazzas said, “Oh, absolutely.”
“I saw her leaving on a gurney. Brian was right next to her, and I asked her if she was OK, and it looked to me that she had suffered some type of trauma that looked to be battering,” she claimed. “It was clear she was terrified.”
Terrazzas also shared that notices were posted around the property by the Homeowners Association last year, warning residents to call 911 if Hickerson was spotted. However, the signs were removed a week later.
Panettiere, best known for her roles in Heroes, Nashville and the Scream franchise, had detailed physical abuse by Hickerson in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, released earlier this year. He was also sentenced to 45 days in jail in 2021 after pleading no contest to two felony counts of injuring the actress.
“This predator was in our community. He never stopped living at her place. There were times he ripped apart her bathroom, where he just took a sledgehammer at five in the morning,” Terrazzas alleged.
Amid the investigation into Panettiere’s death, a police report said Hickerson and his brother were at the South Carolina townhouse when the actress was pronounced dead by authorities. Hickerson was later visited by police for a welfare check in the days after her death, according to a redacted police report.
The Greenville County Coroner’s Office said that Panettiere’s cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation, and that there were no obvious signs of trauma. However, officials were reportedly heard discussing an “overdose” and “cardiac arrest” on the 911 call at the time of her death. Sources also told ABC News on Wednesday that the Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the death investigation.
Earlier this week, Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, also broke her silence on her daughter’s death, criticizing Hickerson, saying, “This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death and that was Brian Hickerson.”
Filmmaker Griff Furst, who worked with the actress on his 2025 film A Breed Apart, also shared on Instagram Tuesday that when Hickerson would visit Panettiere on set, “it was pretty clear that she wasn’t OK and the energy in her room was pretty dark.”
