Mum Reportedly Catches Bankrupt Brian Hickerson Hiding Hayden Panettiere's Items in Secret Storage Unit

Hayden Panettiere's mother has accused the late actor's on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, of pawning her belongings and stashing others in a secret storage unit in Los Angeles last year, months before she died at an Airbnb in South Carolina at the age of 36.

Panettiere's death in Greenville, South Carolina, was reported last Sunday after she was found unresponsive at a rental property she was sharing with Hickerson.

Police have said there were no signs of foul play, and her death is being investigated as an apparent overdose. The case has already been messy, and the latest claims from her mother, Lesley Vogel, only deepen the unease around Hayden's final year.

In a new interview, Vogel said she flew to Los Angeles in 2025 to visit her daughter, who she described as struggling and in physical pain.

The pair had long had a rocky relationship and were estranged at points before Panettiere's death, but Vogel said she was alarmed by what she found when she got there.

According to Vogel, Hickerson, who filed for bankruptcy in 2022, had quietly pawned some of Panettiere's possessions, including a vintage guitar that held sentimental value.

Another source also confirmed that he had pawned items belonging to the Nashville and Remember the Titans star.

Vogel claimed Panettiere herself was stunned when she learned what had happened. She also alleged that some of Hayden's belongings were discovered in Hickerson's storage unit, which the actor had apparently not known about. The impression is of a woman in freefall, and a partner who, at the very least, was taking control of stuff that was not his.

Hickerson's legal team has refused to be drawn into the detail. His attorney, Sloan Ellis, said that there would be no comment beyond a previous statement issued after Panettiere's death.

In that earlier statement, Ellis said Panettiere's death 'remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,' noting that police had 'confirmed there were no signs of foul play'.

'Out of respect for Hayden's loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time,' the statement added.

Hayden Panettiere, Brian Hickerson and a History of Turmoil

After months of increasingly fraught claims around Panettiere and Hickerson's relationship, which began in 2018 and was, by any reasonable description, toxic. Hickerson was arrested multiple times for domestic violence against her, and Panettiere later wrote about the abuse in her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning.

Neighbours say the violence was not just a private allegation in a book. One West Hollywood neighbour, Mia Terrazas, said that she watched Panettiere being taken out of her Los Angeles apartment on a gurney by firefighters on two occasions during the relationship, on 29 July 2023 and 16 January 2024.

Terrazas said she observed 'bright red spots' and 'bruises' on the actor's body and that Hickerson was present and 'glued to' her both times. 'It appeared that she had been beaten up. It wasn't apparent to me that it could have been anything else,' she said, adding that Panettiere often looked 'battered.'

These are serious allegations, and they sit uneasily beside the more sanitised legal language now surrounding her death. Hickerson has not directly responded to Vogel's criticisms or to the neighbour's account.

Conflicting Stories Around Hayden Panettiere's Final Hours

It can be recalled that Panettiere died at an Airbnb in Greenville, South Carolina, that she was sharing with Hickerson. Local police have said there was no sign of foul play, and the working assumption, according to the reports, is that she suffered an overdose.

Vogel, however, has openly questioned Hickerson's account of what happened that day. She has said she does not accept his version of events, though the exact points of dispute have not been fully set out in public. That alone tells you how strained relations are between Panettiere's family and the man who was with her when she died.

Hickerson has so far let his brother do most of the talking. Zach Hickerson, who was also at the scene. Hickerson administered Narcan to Panettiere and performed CPR when he found her unconscious. Narcan is a medicine used to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, and the outlet reported that it was found at the property.

'There are a lot of assumptions, speculations and accusations currently swirling,' Zach said, insisting that his brother had tried to save Panettiere's life rather than harm her. It is a stark contrast to the picture painted by Vogel and by neighbours in Los Angeles.

Law enforcement in Greenville has not released a full toxicology report or a final cause of death. So, for now, much of the narrative around Panettiere's final hours rests on competing accounts from people who already distrust one another.

What is not in doubt is that Panettiere's final years were marked by chaos, addiction struggles and a relationship that many around her regarded as dangerous. The image of a bankrupt boyfriend pawning a vintage guitar while its owner spiralled is bleak, verging on grotesque, but it fits too neatly with what has already been documented to be dismissed out of hand.

Whether those allegations will form part of any formal inquiry, or simply remain in the sad, contested lore of Panettiere's life, remains to be seen. For now, her belongings, her memory and even the story of how she died are still being fought over.