Brian Hickerson Breaks His Silence on Hayden Panettiere’s Death — Through a Lawyer With DEA Ties

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By TRH World Desk

The statement says almost nothing. That may be the point — and the choice of attorney says more than the words themselves.

New Delhi, August 21, 2026 — Four days after Hayden Panettiere’s death, her on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson has issued his first public comments — not directly, but through his attorney, in a carefully worded statement that confirms little beyond what police have already made public.

Hickerson’s attorney, Sloan Ellis of the Ellis Hinton law firm, said, per media reports: “Hayden’s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed.”

The attorney also stated that police confirmed there were no signs of foul play at the scene. He added that “there will be no further comment out of respect for Panettiere’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation.”

The statement by the attorney seemed to have made no expression of grief, no denial, no accounting of what happened inside the Greenville, South Carolina apartment where Panettiere was found unresponsive on August 16. Just confirmation that an investigation is underway and a request that it be allowed to run its course.

Ellis is a former federal prosecutor who has worked directly with the DEA and FBI on past cases. Retaining a lawyer with that specific background, rather than a general entertainment attorney, is the kind of choice that tends to read as deliberate positioning for what could be a federally-adjacent inquiry, regardless of what it ultimately turns up.

Fox News reported that Hickerson’s brother, Zach Hickerson, confirmed to police that Brian was in a relationship with Panettiere at the time of her death. Both brothers were at the apartment. A redacted Greenville Police Department report described by Yahoo indicates Zach Hickerson was visibly emotional as paramedics worked on Panettiere, while Brian reportedly did not become emotional until she was declared dead. Fox News separately reported that the Greenville Police Department told the outlet it is not participating in media interviews about the case.

Hickerson’s silence — and now his carefully lawyered non-statement — arrives against the backdrop of a relationship that was public and troubled for most of its run. Fox News’s prior reporting recounts that Hickerson was first charged with domestic violence against Panettiere in 2019, then arrested again in 2020 on eight felony counts, before pleading no contest in 2021 to two felony charges and serving jail time. Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, told NBC News earlier this week that the family had wanted him out of her daughter’s life for years and that he was present when she died — comments that make Ellis’s carefully bounded statement read, to some observers, less like restraint and more like necessity.