Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
A black market prescription oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl has reportedly been blamed for the death of Heroes star Hayden Panettiere.
TMZ made the report citing multiple law enforcement sources who told the entertainment news site that the troubled 36-year-old actor was being illegally provided with a number of prescription medications, including the powerful painkiller oxycodone, by her “long time drug dealer”, in Los Angeles.
The site reported that while she had consumed several drugs provided by the dealer on a flight from the Californian capital to South Carolina on the day before she died, authorities have directly linked her death to an oxycodone pill which they believe was laced with fentanyl which she took the following morning.
The site also added that the US Drug Enforcement Administration has launched an investigation in order to trace the fatal medication back to Panettiere’s dealer.
The reports remain unconfirmed pending the toxicology results of the troubled star’s death on August 16.
However, there were reports in the weeks after her death that Patnettiere was struggling with “pain” before her passing.
Her estranged mother Lesley Vogel told The New York Times that her daughter was fighting against a largely unknown condition that was causing her agony.
Citing their brief time together in 2025, Vogel told the Times: “She was in pain. She was afraid. She couldn’t physically function properly.”
Vogel said Panettiere was suffering “pins in needles” in her lower extremities that made it difficult for her to walk and she went to a number of doctors and tried massage and acupuncture treatments in a bid to ease her suffering.
She also claimed the actor wondered whether the mysterious condition was linked to injuries she suffered while working in Hollywood as a child.
The Nashville actor — who was mother to 11-year-old daughter Kaya with former partner Wladimir Klitschko — died at an apartment in South Carolina.
The Greenville County Coroner’s Office confirmed in August that an autopsy had been completed and that no signs of trauma that could have contributed to her death were detected.
“The cause and manner of death remain pending further investigation and the completion of additional studies. This investigation remains active and ongoing,” the statement read.
“No further details are available for release at this time.”
A former child actor on a number of TV shows and ads, Panettiere was made famous by Heroes, the hit sci-fi series in which she played indestructible cheerleader Claire Bennet.
She was also nominated for two Golden Globes for her work in Nashville, which ran from 2012 to 2018, in which she played ambitious country music star Juliette Barnes.
