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TV STAR HAYDEN PANETTIERE: CANCELLATIONS, MYSTERY BAG OF MEDS, LOVE TRIANGLE · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
0:07
Speaker 2: TV and movie star Hayden Panettiere's sudden death. Tonight, cops
0:11
Speaker 2: scrambling to unravel the star's last moments amid cancellations, a
0:17
Speaker 2: mystery bag of meds, a love triangle, and will security
0:22
Speaker 2: cams crack Hayden Panettiere's death? Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace.
0:27
Speaker 2: This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for
0:29
Speaker 2: being with us. You know, Nancy, I'm going to guess
0:39
Speaker 2: that the DEA was not doing a welfare check in
0:42
Speaker 2: West Hollywood.
0:42
Speaker 3: They were swarming her home because there's a supply chain.
0:48
Speaker 4: When she died in Greenville, South Carolina, that there was
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Speaker 4: a bag of medication that she had on her purse.
0:54
Speaker 4: There are signs there that there were stronger drugs at play.
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Speaker 5: Hayden Panettiere was already dead when she was given Narcan.
1:00
Speaker 5: Law enforcement insiders tell me if you are dead... and
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Speaker 5: Narcan is sprayed into your nostrils, it is not absorbed
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Speaker 5: into your bloodstream. Your heart is not beating, and so
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Speaker 5: your blood is not flowing. In fact, they're doing tests
1:17
Speaker 5: right now, and they believe they did swabs of her nose,
1:20
Speaker 5: of her nostril. There will be residue, there will be
1:23
Speaker 5: evidence of Narcan in her nose, but unless it actually
1:26
Speaker 5: gets into your bloodstream, it doesn't work. This is why
1:29
Speaker 5: police law enforcement believe she was already dead.
1:34
Speaker 2: That is Rob Schuder, author of Queen Elizabeth III, The
1:37
Speaker 2: New American House of Windsor. Tonight, as cops scramble to
1:42
Speaker 2: somehow unravel the last moments of TV and movie star
1:46
Speaker 2: Hayden Panettiere's life, we learn so much is swirling, including
1:52
Speaker 2: mystery cancellations, a bag of medications found near the body,
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Speaker 2: and a love triangle. Also, will security cams crack The case,
2:05
Speaker 2: straight out to Dave Matt, Crime Stories investigative reporter. I'm
2:09
Speaker 2: concerned about a so-called love triangle.
2:12
Speaker 6: It looks like at some point while Brian Hickerson and
2:17
Speaker 6: Hayden Panettiere were in their romantic on-again, off-again relationship and
2:21
Speaker 6: Hickerson was sent to jail, for beating Hayden? Well, that's
2:27
Speaker 6: when Brian Hickerson's brother, Zach Hickerson, was seen walking hand
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Speaker 6: in hand with Hayden Panettiere. Now, it's not unlikely that
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Speaker 6: they would be friendly with one another because, well, they're
2:40
Speaker 6: brothers and Brian was tied to Hayden.
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Speaker 2: But you know what, Nancy?
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Speaker 6: The fact that Brian was away and Zach was there
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Speaker 6: comforting Hayden, being with Hayden, there has long been suspected
2:52
Speaker 6: there was romantic involvement. And when you go to what
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Speaker 6: happened the day Hayden died, Zach was there crying, emotional,
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Speaker 6: as the EMS workers were trying to save her life,
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Speaker 6: while Brian was just standing by unemotional. Brian only got
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Speaker 6: upset after she was declared dead. Zach was the one
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Speaker 6: who was begging for help and praying she would survive.
3:16
Speaker 6: So there is a lot here in this triangle, romantic
3:20
Speaker 6: triangle with Hayden and the Hickerson brothers.
3:23
Speaker 2: Dave Mack, let me explain to you what a love
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Speaker 2: triangle is. Friends do not a love triangle make. Straight
3:31
Speaker 2: out to Robert Crispin joining us out of the Fort
3:34
Speaker 2: Lauderdale jurisdiction. He is a private investigator who Crispin Special Investigations,
3:40
Speaker 2: but more important, former Federal Task Force Officer, U.S. Department
3:44
Speaker 2: of Justice, DEA, Homicide Detective. It goes on and on. Crispin,
3:51
Speaker 2: when I heard love triangle, dead body, that means something
3:56
Speaker 2: to me and it means something to you. Why is
4:00
Speaker 2: the brother, Zach, the one that's all broken up, when
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Speaker 2: she's being pronounced dead and they're both there the night
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Speaker 2: she dies?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, the whole situation is a mystery and the whole
4:15
Speaker 3: situation brings an investigator to think there's something more that's
4:18
Speaker 3: going on here, especially when we have all these pills
4:22
Speaker 3: inside there, which is why they brought the DEA in
4:25
Speaker 3: because you want the federal nexus to find out what's
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Speaker 3: going on out in California. Why did they end up
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Speaker 3: here in South Carolina? And let me take you back
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Speaker 3: to Matthew Perry, if you remember. the doctors, the overprescribing,
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Speaker 3: the illegal drugs that were found. The problem here, Nancy,
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Speaker 3: is what's in that bag? And we're soon going to
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Speaker 3: find out what's in the bottles. Do the bottles label
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Speaker 3: match the pills that were inside the bottle? Some people
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Speaker 3: have a lot of explaining to do. The autopsy is
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Speaker 3: going to tell us a lot, but the love triangle
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Speaker 3: throws a serious monkey wrench into all of this.
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Speaker 7: His brother gave us a statement that, He texted Brian
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Speaker 7: and Hayden on that Sunday morning, last Sunday, and didn't
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Speaker 7: get a response, went to this Airbnb where they were,
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Speaker 7: and then found Brian, who had just woken up, and
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Speaker 7: Hayden laying in a bed. And Brian then administered Narcan
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Speaker 7: to her.
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Speaker 2: Okay, right there. So many inconsistencies. That's our friend Harvey
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Speaker 2: Levin over at TMZ. who spoke to Zach. Randy Kessler
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Speaker 2: joining us. He is a veteran defense attorney, trial lawyer,
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Speaker 2: Emory Law School professor, former chair of the American Bar
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Speaker 2: Association Family Law Section, author of Divorce, Protect Yourself, Your Kids,
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Speaker 2: Your Future. Kessler, before you put on your defense hat,
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Speaker 2: let me talk to you about this conundrum. You've got
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Speaker 2: the boyfriend, Brian Hickerson. Hey, let's see a shot of Hickerson,
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Speaker 2: the one where he's hiding under a table. I like
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Speaker 2: that shot. Here he is, Kessler, hiding under a table
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Speaker 2: just before, that's mostly his feet. What is that, Dave Mack? Oh,
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Speaker 2: I see a sheriff on the left. Dave Mack, what
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Speaker 2: am I looking at?
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Speaker 6: Nancy, what we're looking at is Brian Hickerson trying to
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Speaker 6: go unnoticed right before he is arrested. Um, as you
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Speaker 6: can tell, is not doing a great job of going
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Speaker 6: into hiding.
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Speaker 2: There he is in all of his glory, Kessler. That's
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Speaker 2: our friend Harvey Levin over at TMZ. That's the love object,
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Speaker 2: Brian Hick. Let me see, Kessler. Kessler, number one, he's
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Speaker 2: hiding under a table just before his arrest. You see
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Speaker 2: the deputy going, what the hay? That, why is she
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Speaker 2: with him? Okay, look, I know you're a trial lawyer.
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Speaker 2: That's better for Dr. Cheryl Arrett. But why is she
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Speaker 2: with him? He's hiding under a table. Did you see
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Speaker 2: his feet sticking out? Okay, that's a whole other can
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Speaker 2: of worms. To her death. He's there. He's treated her
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Speaker 2: like crap, beaten her repeatedly, and basically said, yeah, everybody
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Speaker 2: does it. Hey, while I'm talking to Kessler, pull that
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Speaker 2: sound up. I want him to see the boyfriend in
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Speaker 2: all of his glory. But the love triangle, the third
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Speaker 2: piece of that triangle, is Zach Hickerson, his brother.
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Speaker 1: Now, Kessler, she's dead.
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Speaker 2: We've got inconsistent statements. At first, Zach Hickerson says he
7:40
Speaker 2: comes in and she's sitting in a chair. Okay? Now,
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Speaker 2: we're hearing that she's lying on the bed beside Brian Hickerson. Kessler,
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Speaker 2: in every murder case I've ever tried, At least the
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Speaker 2: witnesses could agree on where the dead body was when
8:00
Speaker 2: they first saw it. So right there, that's a big
8:04
Speaker 2: red flag that somebody doesn't have their story straight. She
8:09
Speaker 2: can't be dead in a chair and dead on the
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Speaker 2: bed when discovered. So they're both there. They're alive. She's dead.
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Speaker 2: We also have conflicting accounts about who and when Narcan
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Speaker 2: was who gave and when they gave Narcan to her,
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Speaker 2: or if they even did before or after her death.
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Speaker 2: So this stinks to high heaven, Kessler, before you start
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Speaker 2: defending both of them, you're going to have plenty of
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Speaker 2: time to do that. Wouldn't you agree? Something is way
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Speaker 2: off here.
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Speaker 8: Yeah.
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Speaker 9: I mean, I'm trying to figure out what the question
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Speaker 9: is going to be because nothing you've presented means they're
8:51
Speaker 9: guilty of murder, right?
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Speaker 8: People see a murder.
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Speaker 9: They see a death. They see a victim. They see
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Speaker 9: someone that's unconscious on the floor. What does that do
8:59
Speaker 9: to their system? Does everybody remember the same? So their
9:01
Speaker 9: memory was off. You're not guilty of murder.
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Speaker 2: Are you serious?
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Speaker 8: Yes, I'm serious.
9:07
Speaker 2: I just want to make sure. I asked you to
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Speaker 2: hold before you started defending them, but I can see
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Speaker 2: that that's genetically impossible. I'm trying to get to the
9:16
Speaker 2: truth of what happened to Hayden. Okay. Because Hayden, If
9:20
Speaker 2: one of them supplied her a fatal dose of drugs,
9:24
Speaker 2: they are looking at charges just like the ketamine queen
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Speaker 2: that supplied all the ketamine to friend star Matthew Perry,
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Speaker 2: just like his loyal assistant that doped him up that
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Speaker 2: night before he died. They're both charged along with all
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Speaker 2: the doctors that were doping him up. You know, Randy Kessler,
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Speaker 2: I'm going to let Robert Crispin school you. Crispin? When
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Speaker 2: you have a love triangle and one of them, the woman,
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Speaker 2: of course it's the woman, is dead on a bed
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Speaker 2: the following morning. i know no no wonder the cops
10:04
Speaker 2: are scrambling right now they can't even get their story
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Speaker 2: straight where the dead body.
10:08
Speaker 3: Is yeah People don't forget those things of a homicide
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Speaker 3: scene that, oh, they were in the bed.
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Speaker 10: Oh, no, they're in the chair. I don't buy that
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Speaker 10: as an investigator. To me, that's a problem.
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Speaker 3: So that's not a defense to me as an investigator.
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Speaker 8: I'm sorry.
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Speaker 10: I'm moving forward.
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Speaker 3: So this is why the government has been brought into this,
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Speaker 3: because they're going to go on so many different levels
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Speaker 3: that these local and state can't do. DEA has the
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Speaker 3: diversion unit, and the diversion unit investigates doctors, investigates prescriptions. So, yes,
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Speaker 3: DEA is going to have a big hammer in this investigation,
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Speaker 3: and they're going to work it with the locals.
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Speaker 10: This is how these things get solved.
11:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: I want you, Randy Kessler, to see one wheel of
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Speaker 2: that tricycle, the love triangle, in all of his glory.
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Speaker 11: I don't know how people know this after 37 years.
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Speaker 1: Hey, Brian, don't do that.
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Speaker 11: I'm gonna do exactly the opposite. I'm not an astrological guy,
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Speaker 11: but apparently Tauruses are stubborn. But in my defense, don't
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Speaker 11: tell me not to do something because I guarantee you
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Speaker 11: I can do it.
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Speaker 9: Okay?
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Speaker 1: So, yes, I'm going to eat my McDonald's in the driveway.
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Speaker 10: And the neighbors right there.
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Speaker 12: Hey, Betty, Becky, whatever your name is, I'm going to
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Speaker 12: lay right here if that's cool with you.
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Speaker 11: If you bring the trash cans down to the road,
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Speaker 11: I know that I'm being too loud.
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Speaker 3: All right, cool. See you later. I'm going to lay
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Speaker 3: right here.
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Speaker 8: Now I got to go lay on the front porch.
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Speaker 10: Whatever.
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Speaker 2: I don't even know what to say. That's Brian Hickerson,
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Speaker 2: and he actually posted that on his own Insta.
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Speaker 3: Why?
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Speaker 2: I'm going to eat my McDonald's in the driveway. That
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Speaker 2: is who a movie and TV star is with? Him?
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Speaker 2: And that's my witness? I mean, what about it, Kessler?
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Speaker 9: Well, let's go back to talk about the love triangle,
12:33
Speaker 9: because the only legal angle that I see that you've
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Speaker 9: raised is this legal triangle, which makes me think.
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Speaker 2: Oh, dear Lord, you're avoiding the question.
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Speaker 3: Okay, fine.
12:40
Speaker 2: Avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid. What do you want.
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Speaker 3: Me to say?
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Speaker 8: The guy made a stupid video, put it on Instagram.
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Speaker 8: Who hasn't done that, right?
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Speaker 9: But the legal angle, which I think is what you
12:50
Speaker 9: want me to discuss, is if there is a love triangle,
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Speaker 9: somebody could point the finger at the other one because
12:55
Speaker 9: they know.
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Speaker 8: That they're toast. But right now, nobody's toast. There's no evidence.
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Speaker 9: There's no investigation really towards a murder, except for maybe circumstantial.
13:03
Speaker 9: Maybe there were some drugs. If it gets a little
13:05
Speaker 9: bit more serious, then you might see people flipping. But
13:08
Speaker 9: other than that, yeah, he said stupid stuff.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 8: She had bad, bad judgment in who she dated. Does
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Speaker 8: that mean murder?
13:17
Speaker 2: Okay.
13:17
Speaker 3: Yeah.
13:18
Speaker 2: You didn't answer the question, but fine.
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Speaker 12: Fine.
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Speaker 2: Um, you know, to Dr. Cheryl, Eric joining us, licensed
13:25
Speaker 2: clinical forensic psychologist specializing in trauma recovery and She's in trauma.
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Speaker 2: She's trying to recover from trauma from this guy, Brian Hickerson.
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Speaker 2: You can find her at AskDrCheryl.com. Dr. Cheryl, before you
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Speaker 2: give us your valued opinion, just one more tiny peek
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Speaker 2: at part two of the love triangle.
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Speaker 12: So there's a story where I was drunk, right? Hayden
14:02
Speaker 12: was standing across the room and I had a phone
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Speaker 12: in my hand and I said, Hayden, I said, I'll
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Speaker 12: give you 10 seconds to run as fast as you
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Speaker 12: can before I throw it at you.
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Speaker 8: What I did, you know, and I just.
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Speaker 12: Want people to know, I mean, like, people do this
14:27
Speaker 12: all the time, you know? It's like, You think I'm
14:32
Speaker 12: the only one that did that?
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Speaker 7: No.
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Speaker 10: People do that all the time.
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Speaker 13: I had a couple.
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Speaker 12: Opportunities to apologize for it and reflect on it. So,
14:47
Speaker 12: I don't know. You'd have to ask her what she
14:50
Speaker 12: thinks about it. But, you know, you never lay hands
14:55
Speaker 12: on a woman, bottom line.
14:59
Speaker 2: That is the second component of the love triangle. That's
15:02
Speaker 2: Brian Hickerson, movie star Hayden Panettiere's love object. That's from
15:07
Speaker 2: our friends at TMZ. Okay, Dr. Cheryl Errett. I don't
15:12
Speaker 2: understand it. I don't know why she's with him. But
15:16
Speaker 2: I'm more concerned about the fact that tonight, cops are
15:20
Speaker 2: scrambling to unravel a so-called love triangle where both the
15:24
Speaker 2: men were in the home And she ends up dead
15:28
Speaker 2: and they can't get their story straight about where the
15:30
Speaker 2: dead body is.
15:34
Speaker 14: Well, what I see, Nancy, in that video that you
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Speaker 14: just showed is denial, minimization and blame, which is classic
15:43
Speaker 14: for domestic abusers. And we know that Brian Hickerson has
15:47
Speaker 14: multiple felony convictions and charges and convictions for abusing Hayden Panettiere.
15:55
Speaker 14: And as we know, domestic abusers can be really, really
15:58
Speaker 14: hard to get away from. They love bomb. They don't
16:03
Speaker 14: lead with the abuse. They can be really charming and wonderful.
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Speaker 14: And then when they start abusing, the most dangerous time
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Speaker 14: to get away from them is when a woman tries to.
16:15
Speaker 2: Leave.
16:15
Speaker 14: She was doing with him, I think that there's a
16:18
Speaker 14: lot of evidence that he was doing things to make
16:21
Speaker 14: it very, very difficult for her to get away. There
16:24
Speaker 14: were notifications that he shouldn't be allowed on the property.
16:28
Speaker 14: He shouldn't be allowed in places where she was. She
16:32
Speaker 14: had restraining orders. There's some indication that he may have
16:37
Speaker 14: put pressure on her not to testify about his violence
16:41
Speaker 14: against her. And when I look at these clips, he
16:45
Speaker 14: is denying and minimizing his violence against her. And to me,
16:49
Speaker 14: that's a really big red flag.
16:52
Speaker 2: I mean, Vanessa Walsh joining us. She is the star
16:54
Speaker 2: of Unmasked True Crime, and we first spotted her as
16:59
Speaker 2: she was investigating the disappearance, a.k.a. death, of Lynette Hooker. Vanessa,
17:06
Speaker 2: thank you for being with us tonight. I'll ask the
17:09
Speaker 2: age-old question before I get to the relevant facts regarding
17:12
Speaker 2: Hayden's death. What was she doing with him?
17:15
Speaker 4: That's a great question, Nancy. I think one of my
17:19
Speaker 4: biggest questions is, especially over that time period, the last
17:22
Speaker 4: three months of her life. Because we know when she
17:25
Speaker 4: went on her book tour in May, that she had
17:27
Speaker 4: hired extra private security to keep him away from her.
17:30
Speaker 4: She had told Barnes & Noble not to let him in.
17:34
Speaker 4: She had asked her friends and family for support and
17:36
Speaker 4: said that she needed backup in keeping him out of
17:38
Speaker 4: her life. And then we know that three months later,
17:41
Speaker 4: they're traveling to South Carolina together. And then the next
17:45
Speaker 4: day she's found dead in the Airbnb with them. So
17:48
Speaker 4: I think the biggest question is what was going on
17:51
Speaker 4: in her life those last three months that brought Brian
17:54
Speaker 4: back into it.
17:58
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting, Vanessa Walsh, and we saw this
18:01
Speaker 2: with Matthew Perry, his most trusted confidants, the people closest
18:06
Speaker 2: to him, were killing him. His assistant, his loyal assistant,
18:11
Speaker 2: the ketamine queen, his own doctors. He's dead now. Never
18:16
Speaker 2: to return because of friends. And no matter how many
18:22
Speaker 2: times he goes to rehab, they get back into his life. Tonight,
18:27
Speaker 2: no one has been named a suspect. No one has
18:29
Speaker 2: been named a person of interest. Before we go to
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Speaker 2: our renowned medical examiner joining us tonight, Dr. Kendall Crowns,
18:36
Speaker 2: I want him to hear this.
18:38
Speaker 14: Aiden was potentially the victim of a drug overdose.
18:41
Speaker 15: Where did the drugs come from? Even if it's not
18:43
Speaker 15: a nefarious intention, there are laws out there where if
18:46
Speaker 15: you're supplying the drugs and they end up killing someone,
18:48
Speaker 15: you could be held criminally responsible. And so this, yeah,
18:52
Speaker 15: it's looking like an overdose, but there's more to the
18:54
Speaker 15: story that needs to be investigated now. Ultimately, the DA's
18:58
Speaker 15: office and law enforcement may decide that they don't have
19:01
Speaker 15: all those answers and there's not enough to charge and
19:03
Speaker 15: that could come from a higher up.
19:05
Speaker 2: That is YouTube at Crime Weekly. To Dr. Kendall Crowns
19:10
Speaker 2: joining us. the chief medical examiner of Tarrant County, that's
19:15
Speaker 2: Fort Worth, the star of a hit podcast, Mayhem in
19:18
Speaker 2: the Morgue. He is an esteemed lecturer at the Burnett
19:21
Speaker 2: School of Medicine at TCU. I know it is not
19:27
Speaker 2: your province to determine who's responsible for a potential drug overdose,
19:35
Speaker 2: but we've seen it over and over and over, Dr.
19:38
Speaker 2: Kendall Crowns. suppliers such as, again, in the Matthew Perry case,
19:43
Speaker 2: in the Michael Jackson case, I could go on, and
19:47
Speaker 2: in the Nicole Smith case, there's just so many, that
19:51
Speaker 2: the supplier is held responsible for the OD. I'd like
19:58
Speaker 2: you to explain what happens when someone is force-fed, when
20:04
Speaker 2: someone is injected, an overdose. Probably of fentanyl-related narcotics?
20:15
Speaker 13: So when someone is injected with fentanyl, whether it's forcefully
20:21
Speaker 13: or whether it's intentionally, they do it on their own.
20:25
Speaker 13: Once the fentanyl gets into your bloodstream, it instantly interacts
20:29
Speaker 13: with the brain, the receptors in the brain that creates
20:32
Speaker 13: this feeling of euphoria, this calmness, things like that. But
20:37
Speaker 13: if you get too much of it in your system,
20:40
Speaker 13: then it causes your brain to not realize that you're
20:43
Speaker 13: not getting enough oxygen and basically, which is called respiratory depression,
20:47
Speaker 13: and the person eventually becomes more and more sleepy until
20:52
Speaker 13: they pass out, they go into a coma, and then
20:55
Speaker 13: they eventually die from the lack of oxygen getting to
20:58
Speaker 13: their brain. The difference between being forcefully given it is
21:03
Speaker 13: someone might have to hold you down to do it,
21:06
Speaker 13: so you might see bruising on the arms. But often
21:09
Speaker 13: in these situations, sometimes the individual can't find the vein
21:13
Speaker 13: to inject the drug into. So they ask someone to
21:16
Speaker 13: do it for them and that person helps them. So
21:20
Speaker 13: it's still kind of a willful act and there's no
21:22
Speaker 13: fighting to get the drug in. And you won't necessarily
21:26
Speaker 13: see any injuries on the body, whether she was forcefully
21:29
Speaker 13: injected or did it herself. Now, if someone's trying to
21:34
Speaker 13: force you to eat a drug, they would have to
21:36
Speaker 13: cause you to swallow it, much like you do with
21:38
Speaker 13: your dog. When you give your dog medication, you would
21:41
Speaker 13: have to hold their mouth shut and then make them
21:44
Speaker 13: swallow the medication. You would see injuries in that regards.
21:48
Speaker 13: If you were holding their mouth shut, there might be
21:50
Speaker 13: bruising around the lips, around the neck, or something along
21:53
Speaker 13: those lines.
21:55
Speaker 2: When you say bruising around the lips or the neck,
21:59
Speaker 2: Where would you expect to find bruising and would you
22:03
Speaker 2: find it inside the mouth? And if so, where?
22:07
Speaker 13: So if you're trying to keep their mouth closed so
22:10
Speaker 13: they swallow something, you're correct. It would be on the
22:13
Speaker 13: inner mucosa of the lips and along the jawline as
22:16
Speaker 13: the tissue is being pressed hard against the teeth. You're
22:20
Speaker 13: going to get bruising from that. Also, if there's a
22:23
Speaker 13: struggle on the outside of the face, you'll see bruising
22:26
Speaker 13: along the chin line, along the cheek, lips as well.
22:30
Speaker 5: Dr.
22:31
Speaker 2: Kendall-Crowns, would there be any way that police on the scene,
22:37
Speaker 2: when they first see Hayden Panettiere's body, unless they looked
22:42
Speaker 2: in her mouth, and even when you refer to it
22:47
Speaker 2: as mucosa, I believe, but I'm talking about the lip,
22:52
Speaker 2: next to the tooth, you have to pull the lip
22:56
Speaker 2: up as I'm demonstrating to look inside to see if
23:00
Speaker 2: there is bruising there up in the inside of the
23:03
Speaker 2: lip and on the gum. And you have to look
23:06
Speaker 2: all the way around the gums, not just the lips,
23:09
Speaker 2: just not the interior of the mouth, around both sets
23:11
Speaker 2: of gums to see if there's bruising there and in
23:14
Speaker 2: the nooks and crannies of the mouth, such as down
23:17
Speaker 2: the mouth and down here where someone would clench her
23:22
Speaker 2: chin and face.
23:23
Speaker 13: That's correct. I mean, typically the law enforcement would not
23:27
Speaker 13: do a oral cavity examination of that nature that you're describing.
23:31
Speaker 13: That's more something that would be done at an autopsy.
23:34
Speaker 13: The one thing you have to remember too is often
23:37
Speaker 13: because EMS responds or emergency medical services responds, they will
23:41
Speaker 13: attempt to resuscitate the individual and place an endotracheal tube
23:45
Speaker 13: in the mouth as well, which is a breathing tube.
23:48
Speaker 13: and that can be taped in place. So you even
23:50
Speaker 13: in that situation would be unable to evaluate the oral
23:53
Speaker 13: cavity for any potential injuries that you're describing.
23:57
Speaker 2: To defense attorney Randy Kessler, there's no way the cops
24:00
Speaker 2: could know when they first get there and go, oh,
24:03
Speaker 2: no evidence of foul play, this is an OD. The
24:07
Speaker 2: signs can be very subtle, and this takes a lot
24:11
Speaker 2: of investigation, like in the Matthew Perry case. When they
24:15
Speaker 2: first arrived there, Randy, Matthew Perry had been submerged in
24:19
Speaker 2: the hot tub, so it looked like a drowning death.
24:21
Speaker 2: That's not at all what had happened. He had OD'd,
24:25
Speaker 2: thanks to the ketamine queen and his loyal assistant, both
24:29
Speaker 2: of whom have pled guilty. There's the hot tub where
24:31
Speaker 2: Perry was found, overlooking Hollywood. So, you can't just blurt
24:37
Speaker 2: out no evidence of foul play, especially with all of
24:40
Speaker 2: this swirling, and I'm still hung up on the fact
24:43
Speaker 2: that They can't state where they found her dead body.
24:50
Speaker 2: One says sitting in a chair. One says he wakes
24:52
Speaker 2: up and she's dead right beside me. It doesn't really
24:57
Speaker 2: seem that worried about it. The other one starts crying.
25:01
Speaker 2: One is completely stoic during resuscitation attempts by EMTs. The
25:06
Speaker 2: other breaks down in tears. I mean, there's just. Too
25:10
Speaker 2: much going on to blurt out no foul play. I
25:14
Speaker 2: am not buying that, Kessler.
25:17
Speaker 8: It's great for the defense, right? It's great for a
25:19
Speaker 8: defense lawyer.
25:19
Speaker 9: It's great for a public figure who's worried about public opinion.
25:23
Speaker 9: Why wouldn't the police, if they're going to say anything,
25:25
Speaker 9: why not say there's no obvious evidence? There's no clear evidence,
25:28
Speaker 9: but we're continuing to investigate.
25:29
Speaker 2: Well, why say anything at all?
25:31
Speaker 10: Agreed.
25:32
Speaker 2: Kessler, do you remember my former boss, Louis Slayton, At
25:38
Speaker 2: the time, the longest serving district attorney in the country.
25:41
Speaker 2: He was like a grandfather to me. Rule one, don't talk.
25:45
Speaker 2: Is it that hard to just keep your lips together?
25:48
Speaker 2: Is it that hard? Why did they have to say anything?
25:52
Speaker 9: Well, you know, most police officers, most law enforcement officers
25:55
Speaker 9: don't deal with things like this every day. This is
25:57
Speaker 9: a unique occurrence. Yes, they should be trained. They should
25:59
Speaker 9: be ready for it. But it's not something they do
26:01
Speaker 9: every day, morning, noon and night.
26:03
Speaker 8: This comes up.
26:03
Speaker 9: This is very rare. And they did something that was improper.
26:07
Speaker 9: It's not malpractice. They're not going to lose their job
26:11
Speaker 9: for it. But yeah, they were not trained well enough.
26:13
Speaker 9: They didn't follow their training, and they made a mistake.
26:16
Speaker 9: It doesn't mean that there's not going to.
26:17
Speaker 2: Be a conviction. I think it's an innocent mistake, but
26:19
Speaker 2: that type of innocent mistake, Kessler, can come back on
26:22
Speaker 2: the prosecutor and hit you like a monkey wrench in
26:25
Speaker 2: the neck in the middle of trial, like a boomerang
26:28
Speaker 2: that finds you no matter where you are. Because it
26:31
Speaker 2: will come up, well, isn't it true that Officer Randy
26:33
Speaker 2: Kessler said no foul play, but now you want to
26:36
Speaker 2: tell the jury there is foul play? Yeah, that's what happens.
26:39
Speaker 2: That is exactly what happens. So, Crispin, you're a beat cop.
26:43
Speaker 2: You're in homicide. Why blurt out on the scene, no
26:45
Speaker 2: foul play? You've got a love triangle. You've got confusion
26:49
Speaker 2: about where the dead body is. Too many problems here.
26:53
Speaker 3: It wouldn't be the first time that law enforcement has
26:55
Speaker 3: said things they probably shouldn't have in the beginning of
26:58
Speaker 3: an investigation, and hence... the no foul play turns into
27:02
Speaker 3: a homicide or a murder investigation in the blink of
27:05
Speaker 3: an eye. So obviously that's a black eye in law enforcement.
27:10
Speaker 3: They'll deal with that down the road. This is a
27:13
Speaker 3: serious situation where somehow these drugs got into her body,
27:18
Speaker 3: whether they supplied them or she took them herself is
27:22
Speaker 3: yet to be determined.
27:23
Speaker 10: But I will tell you this, she's.
27:25
Speaker 3: Had such a problem in the past with opiate addiction
27:28
Speaker 3: that This boyfriend should have been all over her to
27:31
Speaker 3: keep her straight, not let her out of his side.
27:35
Speaker 3: Just never leave her. Stay all over her if she's
27:39
Speaker 3: going to have a relapse. I'm guessing or I'm surmising
27:42
Speaker 3: that we're probably going to find out that these pills.
27:46
Speaker 10: Were brought from L.A.
27:48
Speaker 3: And they were utilized inside that apartment in South Carolina. Yes,
27:53
Speaker 3: it's tough to bring pills on a plane, but sometimes
27:56
Speaker 3: things get through, Nancy.
27:58
Speaker 10: It is what it is. TSA does a fantastic job.
28:00
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to ask you. Many people
28:03
Speaker 2: believe she could not have brought these pills on a plane.
28:07
Speaker 2: What do you think about that?
28:08
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, those pills could have been in somebody
28:10
Speaker 3: else's name. They could have been in Brian or Zach's name.
28:14
Speaker 3: They could have had a bottle from a doctor for
28:17
Speaker 3: a fake injury.
28:18
Speaker 2: It was in a bag. It was a bag of
28:21
Speaker 2: mystery meds that nobody's claiming. I mean, it's sitting right there.
28:26
Speaker 2: The cops find it. But everybody says, not mine. It's
28:29
Speaker 2: got to be somebody's.
28:31
Speaker 10: You're right.
28:31
Speaker 3: It's not unusual to bring drugs to a house and
28:34
Speaker 3: take them out of the pill bottles and start putting
28:37
Speaker 3: them into a bag and mixing this stuff.
28:39
Speaker 10: And it's just a recipe for disaster.
28:42
Speaker 3: And the next thing you know, people just start taking
28:45
Speaker 3: the stuff like it's candy, especially if you're addicted to
28:47
Speaker 3: these opiates.
28:48
Speaker 10: It's a death sentence.
28:50
Speaker 2: Back to Vanessa Walsh, star of Unmasked True Crime. We
28:56
Speaker 2: know about last-minute cancellations that Hayden Panettiere, some argue under
29:06
Speaker 2: the influence of Hickerson, was missing important appearances, paying appearances.
29:15
Speaker 2: What was happening in her life?
29:19
Speaker 4: Well, there was one cancellation that she had July 11th
29:23
Speaker 4: and 12th. She was supposed to be at the Creep
29:26
Speaker 4: IE Aftermath in California, and it was being promoted as
29:30
Speaker 4: a rare scream for reunion, but she did cancel that
29:33
Speaker 4: at the last minute. Organizers initially just called it an emergency,
29:37
Speaker 4: and her rep later said that there was a family emergency.
29:39
Speaker 4: and they didn't release any other details, though, really around that.
29:44
Speaker 4: But it does just add more fuel to the fire
29:48
Speaker 4: that she had a lot of turmoil in her life those.
29:51
Speaker 8: Last several months.
29:59
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
30:06
Speaker 2: Tonight we learned that surveillance camera inquiries surrounding the death
30:12
Speaker 2: of Hayden Panettiere are ongoing. Police scrambling, reviewing apartment complex
30:18
Speaker 2: footage and prior reports of unauthorized cameras placed in her home. What?
30:30
Speaker 2: What is that, Kessler? Unauthorized cameras placed in her home?
30:36
Speaker 9: That sounds like a controlling kind of personality that she's
30:40
Speaker 9: involved with. It might have been a boyfriend who doesn't
30:41
Speaker 9: want to, wants to catch her cheating. Maybe it feeds
30:44
Speaker 9: into your theory of the love triangle. You know, he
30:46
Speaker 9: wants to see if she's cheating with somebody else. People
30:50
Speaker 9: put in cameras for all sorts of reasons, right? Maybe
30:52
Speaker 9: they want to prevent criminals from taking stuff they They're
30:56
Speaker 9: nanny cams. You want to see what the nanny's doing
30:57
Speaker 9: with your child. You want to see if someone's stealing
30:59
Speaker 9: from you.
30:59
Speaker 8: She's a celebrity. All sorts of reasons. But yeah, that's suspicious.
31:03
Speaker 8: That's interesting.
31:04
Speaker 9: The question's going to be, what's on them? The next
31:07
Speaker 9: question's going to be, is it admissible if they were unauthorized?
31:10
Speaker 9: If she didn't approve of it, they're probably not coming
31:12
Speaker 9: in anyway. But definitely raises some red flags, like you've
31:15
Speaker 9: been saying. Another red flag.
31:17
Speaker 2: To Vanessa Walsh, star of Unmasked True Crime. Vanessa, unauthorized
31:23
Speaker 2: security cams in Florida? Hayden's home? Gee, I wonder who
31:27
Speaker 2: put those up. But there's more regarding the security cam evidence.
31:33
Speaker 2: Tell me.
31:34
Speaker 4: So allegedly, Brian needed a place to stay earlier in 2026,
31:38
Speaker 4: and he did stay temporarily at Hayden's apartment. And a
31:42
Speaker 4: source close to her says that Hayden did discover that
31:46
Speaker 4: he had apparently installed cameras inside her home, and they
31:50
Speaker 4: described that as him surveilling her. So that's when Hayden
31:54
Speaker 4: reportedly brought in the private security to remove him and
31:57
Speaker 4: keep him away from her.
32:00
Speaker 2: Okay. Stop everything. Did you say Hickerson is the one
32:08
Speaker 2: that reportedly installed secret cameras in Hayden Panettiere's home? Hickerson,
32:15
Speaker 2: the Brian Hickerson. Yes, that's correct.
32:19
Speaker 4: And apparently Hayden was very disturbed by this discovery. And
32:23
Speaker 4: at that point, she decided that she needed to try
32:26
Speaker 4: to get away from him again and hired the security.
32:29
Speaker 2: Okay, to you, Dave Mack, what can you tell me
32:32
Speaker 2: about surveillance cams potentially cracking this case?
32:36
Speaker 6: Well, Nancy, you know, one of the things you said
32:38
Speaker 6: early in the show was that Hayden Panettiere was not
32:43
Speaker 6: people in Judson Mills and Greenville, South Carolina. She never
32:46
Speaker 6: left the apartment. They never saw her, didn't know she
32:48
Speaker 6: was there. Well, these cameras are going to show who
32:52
Speaker 6: was going in and out of the apartment where Hayden
32:55
Speaker 6: Panettiere died, which means we will actually be able to see,
32:59
Speaker 6: did Brian Hickerson leave the apartment to go get the Narcan?
33:06
Speaker 6: When did Zach actually arrive? We'll be able to find
33:08
Speaker 6: out all of these things that happened before the 911 call.
33:12
Speaker 6: This could be explosive as it comes to the investigation, Nancy.
33:16
Speaker 2: And back to Dr. Kendall Crowns joining us, Chief Medical Examiner,
33:20
Speaker 2: Tarrant County.
33:23
Speaker 1: Dr.
33:23
Speaker 2: Crowns, I find it very difficult to understand why we
33:28
Speaker 2: don't have a COD cause of death yet.
33:35
Speaker 13: It's because of the nature of what has happened. It's
33:37
Speaker 13: a potential drug overdose, which means you have to do
33:41
Speaker 13: the toxicologic testing of her bodily fluids to determine what
33:45
Speaker 13: her drug level were. And this can take up to
33:48
Speaker 13: six to eight weeks, depending on what she has in
33:51
Speaker 13: her system. If it's just alcohol, it'll come back faster.
33:55
Speaker 13: If it's a complex fentanyl, amphetamine, opioid, ketamine combination, who knows?
34:01
Speaker 13: It can take eight weeks. It could even take longer.
34:04
Speaker 13: And without these drug levels, the medical examiner can't determine
34:08
Speaker 13: the exact cause of death until he or she has
34:13
Speaker 13: those levels back. And that's what we're waiting on. Now,
34:16
Speaker 13: if there were signs that she had been strangled or
34:19
Speaker 13: something along those lines, they could determine cause of death
34:23
Speaker 13: right then and there without the drug levels. But with
34:26
Speaker 13: the potential of it being an overdose, it's going to
34:30
Speaker 13: be a while before we have an official answer.
34:33
Speaker 2: Robert Crispin joining us, former Federal Task Force officer now
34:37
Speaker 2: running Crispin Special Investigations. We know the feds are involved
34:41
Speaker 2: in this. The Feds swarmed the DEA, swarmed her home.
34:49
Speaker 2: What would you be doing? I mean, you're a former DEA.
34:53
Speaker 2: What would you be doing in this investigation right now, tonight?
34:59
Speaker 10: I'd be looking all over her electronics. I'd be all
35:02
Speaker 10: over her house to find out, are there.
35:04
Speaker 3: Any empty pill bottles, empty baggies?
35:07
Speaker 10: I'd be interviewing people.
35:09
Speaker 3: I'd be finding out and interviewing people at the apartment complex.
35:14
Speaker 10: Was there somebody who showed up in a car? Neighbors
35:16
Speaker 10: see things. They just think it's normal.
35:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, somebody showed up, went into the apartment with a
35:20
Speaker 3: black bag. I want to know who these people are.
35:23
Speaker 3: I want to start identifying people that were going to
35:25
Speaker 3: that apartment. There's been reports that they never came out
35:28
Speaker 3: of the apartment. That could be an extended high. People
35:32
Speaker 3: go on binders when they start doing drugs. This could
35:35
Speaker 3: be a reason. Well, how did those drugs.
35:37
Speaker 10: Get into there? These video cameras are going to be
35:39
Speaker 10: very important.
35:40
Speaker 3: If those cameras were blacked out by tape, That's another
35:44
Speaker 3: serious issue, but what did we see before that? What
35:48
Speaker 3: did the camera show down the street? What did the
35:50
Speaker 3: camera show at the entrance of this place that weren't
35:53
Speaker 3: taped over? There's a lot going on on this, and
35:57
Speaker 3: I would like Brian and Zach's phone and do a
36:01
Speaker 3: dump on all of their digital information. I'd be subpoenaing
36:04
Speaker 3: their iCloud yesterday.
36:06
Speaker 2: If you know or even think you know anything regarding
36:09
Speaker 2: the death of TV and movie star Hayden Panettiere, please
36:13
Speaker 2: dial 864-232-7463. If you know or think you know someone
36:23
Speaker 2: with substance issues, call or dial very simply 988. Tonight,
36:31
Speaker 2: we remember an American hero, Trooper Michael Diego, Florida Highway Patrol,
36:35
Speaker 2: just 28, killed in the line of duty, leaving behind
36:39
Speaker 2: a grieving fiancé, Grace. American hero, Trooper Michael Diego. Thank
36:47
Speaker 2: you to our guests, but especially to you for being
36:49
Speaker 2: with us. Nancy Grace signing off for tonight, but I'll
36:51
Speaker 2: see you tomorrow night. And until then, good night, friend.