Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Harrowing Hayden Panettiere Death Scene, $500K Ring Missing

Transcript

Harrowing Hayden Panettiere Death Scene, $500K Ring Missing · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Tonight, TV and movie star Hayden Panettiere's harrowing death scene revealed,
0:07
Speaker 1: including some very inconsistent facts. This as over $ 500, 000 worth
0:14
Speaker 1: of jewelry and money missing. Repeat, $ 500, 000 in jewelry and money,
0:17
Speaker 1: including a $ 500, 000 death. sparkling diamond ring.
0:32
Speaker 2: Just gone. Wow. I wonder if anybody hopped that. Good evening.
0:39
Speaker 2: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to
0:41
Speaker 2: thank you for being with us.
0:50
Speaker 3: Peyton Panettiere died from the toxic effects of multiple drugs.
0:56
Speaker 3: Fentanyl being number one. Also, Xanax, a muscle relaxant, and Sarequil.
1:03
Speaker 3: Her death has officially been ruled an accident.
1:05
Speaker 4: Her boyfriend, Brian, is a very, very shady character and
1:09
Speaker 4: has been in and out of her life.
1:10
Speaker 5: Hayden had her demons, and she let these people in.
1:15
Speaker 6: Hayden Bannatary is the sweetest thing in the world. It's
1:23
Speaker 6: not about who you spend Saturday night with. It's who
1:27
Speaker 6: you spend all day Sunday with.
1:29
Speaker 1: I mean, Aiden.
1:30
Speaker 6: Panettiere is a Sunday girl. I mean, it was, uh.
1:37
Speaker 6: Who wants to read something about themselves like that, right? But,
1:42
Speaker 6: you know, you gotta be vulnerable. And, uh, you know,
1:46
Speaker 6: I did it.
1:47
Speaker 2: I did it.
1:49
Speaker 8: I realized that I was more afraid of being alone...
1:52
Speaker 8: them being abused. And in order to be around that
1:55
Speaker 8: kind of behavior, it took me dulling my senses and
1:59
Speaker 8: numbing myself with substances in order to silence that rational
2:03
Speaker 8: voice in my head that was telling me exactly what
2:06
Speaker 8: was going on and the many reasons why I needed
2:10
Speaker 8: to get myself out of this toxic relationship and as
2:13
Speaker 8: far away from this person as possible.
2:16
Speaker 1: It actually hurts to see TV and movie star Hayden Panettiere,
2:21
Speaker 1: a mother of a little girl, struggling, describing in her
2:25
Speaker 1: own words about getting out of a toxic relationship, trying
2:28
Speaker 1: to escape the life that she was living. You heard
2:34
Speaker 1: Hickerson talking, the on-off-again boyfriend, to our friend Harvey Levin
2:39
Speaker 1: at TMZ. He finished that soundbite with, I did it.
2:42
Speaker 2: Did what? I'm curious.
2:44
Speaker 1: Did what exactly? That was also Hayden herself speaking on
2:49
Speaker 1: the Jay Shetty podcast tonight. The harrowing death scene revealed
2:55
Speaker 1: in formal police and law enforcement documents. When police arrive,
2:59
Speaker 1: when first responders arrive, this is what they saw. What
3:05
Speaker 1: does it mean? As claims swirling over $ 500, 000 of cash
3:12
Speaker 1: and jewelry missing? Straight out to Crime Stories investigative reporter
3:17
Speaker 1: Dave Mack. Dave, first we hear that Hayden Panettiere was
3:23
Speaker 1: asleep on the bed and that Hickerson woke up and went, what?
3:27
Speaker 2: She's dead. Okay.
3:30
Speaker 1: Then we hear Hayden Panettiere is dead in a chair.
3:35
Speaker 2: But I noticed in official.
3:37
Speaker 1: Documents, it stated that Hayden Panettiere was lying on a
3:43
Speaker 1: rug in front of a sofa. That may not mean
3:48
Speaker 1: a lot to some people, but in a death investigation,
3:51
Speaker 1: that's a very critical inconsistency. Dave, Matt, what did you learn?
3:58
Speaker 3: Nancy, in digging into this, we found out that the
4:00
Speaker 3: initial reporting, August 18th, okay, we're talking about Zach Hickerson
4:07
Speaker 3: is saying, or an insider, somebody with inside information, according
4:12
Speaker 3: to TMZ, tells them that Hayden Panettiere was found sitting
4:17
Speaker 3: in a chair, that Brian Hickerson was asleep in a
4:22
Speaker 3: different bedroom and he was awoken by Zach, his brother,
4:27
Speaker 3: knocking on the front door of their Airbnb. Now, this
4:31
Speaker 3: initial story that came out right after she passed away, Nancy,
4:36
Speaker 3: substantially changed. There's a big difference between what was said
4:39
Speaker 3: right away from an inside source and what we're being
4:42
Speaker 3: told was the reality. That story changed from her being
4:46
Speaker 3: found sitting in a chair to now we find That
4:50
Speaker 3: Hayden Panettiere was found on the floor in front of
4:55
Speaker 3: the sofa bed on a small little rug. She's purple.
5:00
Speaker 3: She's crisscross applesauce with her head on the floor. And
5:04
Speaker 3: according to the most recent report that Zach Hickerson is
5:08
Speaker 3: banging on the door to wake them up. Brian Hickerson
5:12
Speaker 3: wakes up.
5:13
Speaker 1: You're telling me that an official report said she's crisscross applesauce.
5:19
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Nancy.
5:20
Speaker 3: It's shocking. But that was the description in the official
5:23
Speaker 3: report that Hayden Panettiere, that was a way that she
5:27
Speaker 3: sat and fell asleep, according to Brian Hickerson. Not an
5:30
Speaker 3: uncommon thing for her to do.
5:33
Speaker 2: Dave Mack, let me understand this. Okay.
5:35
Speaker 1: So she's no longer, first of all, he wakes up
5:40
Speaker 1: to knocking at the door. That's not what we were
5:42
Speaker 1: told earlier. We were earlier told he woke up and
5:44
Speaker 1: looked over and Hayden Panettiere is dead.
5:46
Speaker 3: Okay. Okay.
5:47
Speaker 2: Then we hear she's dead in a chair or unconscious.
5:52
Speaker 2: Then we hear.
5:53
Speaker 1: Now that she's on a rug, but you said a
5:57
Speaker 1: knock at the door and you said she was found
6:03
Speaker 1: lying on a rug. But how can that, how can
6:05
Speaker 1: she be lying on the rug if she's crisscross applesauce?
6:09
Speaker 1: I haven't heard that since my children were in pre-K,
6:13
Speaker 1: but I take that to mean she had been sitting
6:15
Speaker 1: with her legs crossed.
6:16
Speaker 3: Okay.
6:17
Speaker 6: Okay.
6:18
Speaker 2: And fell over. Because how else could they tell she
6:21
Speaker 2: was sitting crisscross applesauce?
6:22
Speaker 1: Because the reason I'm asking, Dave, is because if I
6:26
Speaker 1: found a body like that, that would be my description.
6:30
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be I woke up and she was dead
6:32
Speaker 1: on the pillow beside me. It wouldn't be she was
6:34
Speaker 1: dead sitting in a chair. It would be it looked
6:36
Speaker 1: as if she had been sitting with her legs crossed
6:38
Speaker 1: and fell over. That's what I would say. So tell
6:41
Speaker 1: me again, because this is a serious inconsistency.
6:46
Speaker 9: Yes, it is.
6:47
Speaker 3: There are a number of inconsistencies in this right off
6:50
Speaker 3: the bat. But that crisscross applesauce thing has hit me
6:53
Speaker 3: as well. I haven't heard that since my children were small.
6:56
Speaker 3: But according to Brian Hickerson, Hayden Panettiere would sit crisscross
7:01
Speaker 3: applesauce on the floor and she would or on the
7:04
Speaker 3: bed and lean forward and go to sleep. That was
7:08
Speaker 3: a normal thing for her, according to Brian Hickerson. And
7:11
Speaker 3: that was the description that was given to the investigators
7:15
Speaker 3: that that's how she was found. Nancy, there are multiple
7:19
Speaker 3: things wrong with the initial reporting from the Hickerson brothers.
7:22
Speaker 3: And remember, those are the two people who found Hayden Panettiere,
7:26
Speaker 3: Brian Hickerson and his brother, Zach.
7:29
Speaker 2: Okay, wait a minute.
7:31
Speaker 1: Dave Mack, everybody on the panel, stop. I want you
7:36
Speaker 1: to listen to Brian Hickerson. Now, this is the witness
7:40
Speaker 1: we're supposed to believe about how Hayden Panettiere is found dead.
7:46
Speaker 2: I think it speaks for itself.
7:48
Speaker 6: I mean, I, you know, I got arrested for, you know,
7:53
Speaker 6: abusing her and I wouldn't blame her friends for being
7:57
Speaker 6: pissed off at me.
7:58
Speaker 2: I had a.
7:59
Speaker 6: Lot to drink and I got physical with her and
8:06
Speaker 6: I got arrested, spent the night in jail. And, you know,
8:11
Speaker 6: that's just what happens when you lay hands on women.
8:17
Speaker 6: So there's a story where I was drunk, right? Hayden
8:28
Speaker 6: was standing across the room and I had a phone
8:34
Speaker 6: in my hand and I said, Hayden, I said, I'll
8:37
Speaker 6: give you 10 seconds to run as fast as you
8:41
Speaker 6: can before I throw it at you.
8:44
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to believe him? That's from our friend Harvey
8:48
Speaker 1: Levin over at TMZ. Mark asked her, I've got a
8:51
Speaker 1: lot more foundation to lay before I come to you.
8:54
Speaker 2: But I have to come now.
8:56
Speaker 1: Okay, what that means in the law is before you
9:00
Speaker 1: can enter, let's just pretend this is a murder weapon.
9:03
Speaker 1: Before I can introduce this in front of a jury
9:06
Speaker 1: and hand it to them or talk about it, I
9:09
Speaker 1: have to get it introduced.
9:10
Speaker 2: I have to lay a foundation.
9:12
Speaker 1: I was going to lay a foundation about how crucial
9:17
Speaker 1: these inconsistent statements are. You were just hearing Hickerson, the
9:24
Speaker 1: on and off again boyfriend. Mark Astor is former prosecutor,
9:27
Speaker 1: now renowned criminal defense attorney at Astor Simovich Law, and
9:33
Speaker 1: he's a star of The Journey by Mark Astor. You
9:36
Speaker 1: can find him at mentalhealthaddictionlawfirm.com. Okay, that's my witness. I mean, look,
9:46
Speaker 1: I have put witnesses that were addicts, that were alcoholics,
9:50
Speaker 1: that were dope dealers, that had convictions, that were strippers,
9:55
Speaker 1: that were sex workers, that were nuns and priests and virgins,
9:58
Speaker 1: you name it, have been on the stand but this
10:02
Speaker 1: guy has a serious credibility problem but he's all we've
10:06
Speaker 1: got in our line of business i don't know if
10:08
Speaker 1: you ever told this before he started trying cases you
10:10
Speaker 1: got to take your witnesses as you find them you
10:14
Speaker 1: can't rehab them This guy, how can I get a
10:18
Speaker 1: clear story about how she was found dead, which is
10:21
Speaker 1: very important?
10:23
Speaker 2: And why would the story keep changing, Aster?
10:27
Speaker 4: Listen, I'm with you, Nancy. I spent many years as
10:30
Speaker 4: a domestic violence prosecutor. His credibility is somewhat suspect. But
10:35
Speaker 4: here's the question I would have for you. Where's the
10:37
Speaker 4: connection between her death and his statements? How are his
10:41
Speaker 4: statements even relevant at this point? I mean, if you
10:43
Speaker 4: can show me causation between the fentanyl that's in her system,
10:46
Speaker 4: I'd be like, yeah, let's prosecute him. We could prosecute
10:48
Speaker 4: him under South Carolina law. We could potentially prosecute him
10:51
Speaker 4: under California law. And we could even potentially prosecute him
10:54
Speaker 4: under federal law. But right now, I don't see any
10:57
Speaker 4: connection between the fentanyl that was found in her system
11:01
Speaker 4: and his action. Now, I agree with you. He's not
11:04
Speaker 4: going to be a great witness, but I'm not seeing
11:07
Speaker 4: how there's any connection between her death and his actions.
11:11
Speaker 4: And if there's evidence to that, I'm all ears. But
11:13
Speaker 4: I don't see it right now.
11:14
Speaker 2: Okay. Put him up, please.
11:18
Speaker 1: Aster, first, I asked you about the critical inconsistency of
11:23
Speaker 1: where she was when she died. That casts doubt on
11:27
Speaker 1: the entire COD and MOD. Okay, you ask, how can
11:31
Speaker 1: he be prosecuted? First of all, he's not charged.
11:33
Speaker 2: He's not a suspect. He's not a POI.
11:36
Speaker 8: None of that.
11:37
Speaker 2: Okay.
11:38
Speaker 1: That said, Does the name Matthew Perry ring a bell
11:45
Speaker 1: to you?
11:46
Speaker 7: Defendant Placentia knew full well the danger of what he
11:49
Speaker 7: was doing. In fact, on one occasion, he injected Mr.
11:54
Speaker 7: Perry with ketamine, and he saw Mr. Perry freeze up
11:58
Speaker 7: and his blood pressure spike. Despite that, he left additional
12:03
Speaker 7: vials of ketamine for defendant Iwamasa to administer to Mr.
12:08
Speaker 3: Perry.
12:09
Speaker 7: Of course, defendant Iwamasa had no medical training to speak of.
12:13
Speaker 2: The, oh, there she is.
12:16
Speaker 9: Wow.
12:17
Speaker 1: I don't recall this shot of her in her miniskirt
12:19
Speaker 1: and her see-through go-go boots.
12:22
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm not a kind of, oh my goodness.
12:25
Speaker 2: Do I need to see any more of her rear end?
12:28
Speaker 2: This is the so-called, what is.
12:29
Speaker 1: That on her foot? I guarantee you it's designer. Mark Astor,
12:34
Speaker 1: the so-called ketamine queen, was Matthew Perry's supplier. She's in jail,
12:40
Speaker 1: not just her, but his loyal assistant that handed over
12:47
Speaker 1: the fatal dose of ketamine to Matthew Perry, who died in.
12:50
Speaker 2: A hot tub. They're all in jail.
12:54
Speaker 1: Gigi McKelvey, joining us, investigative journalist, star of Pretty Lies
12:58
Speaker 1: and Alibis.
13:01
Speaker 2: Number one, you're very familiar with the.
13:03
Speaker 1: Death scene, where it is, the neighborhood, the works, but
13:07
Speaker 1: Isn't it true that reports have emerged from unbiased witnesses
13:12
Speaker 1: that don't have a dog in the fight, no skin
13:14
Speaker 1: in the game, that drugs were delivered to the residence
13:20
Speaker 1: of Hayden Panettiere labeled Brian? And she lived on and
13:27
Speaker 1: off with Brian Hickerson.
13:32
Speaker 10: That's what we're hearing. You know, I don't think it's
13:34
Speaker 10: been clear whether that was in L.A. or here in Greenville. But, yeah,
13:39
Speaker 10: we have heard that the drugs always had Brian's name
13:42
Speaker 10: on those when they were delivered, which could, you know,
13:45
Speaker 10: eventually become a problem for him. Like you say, these
13:47
Speaker 10: people that are supplying are ending up with 15 year
13:50
Speaker 10: prison sentences. And the investigation, according to the Greenville County
13:53
Speaker 10: Sheriff's Office, very much active and ongoing. So I'm sure
13:56
Speaker 10: behind the scenes, they are looking into a lot of things.
13:59
Speaker 10: And will it come back around on Brian? We'll see.
14:02
Speaker 9: He couldn't get into the building. He had buzzed their
14:05
Speaker 9: apartment quite a few times. And I was coming back
14:09
Speaker 9: from a walk and I led him into the building,
14:11
Speaker 9: went up into the elevator with him. And he did, yeah,
14:15
Speaker 9: he had a small bag on him. And interestingly enough, though,
14:21
Speaker 9: it had Brian written on it.
14:24
Speaker 2: There you go.
14:26
Speaker 1: That's from our friend Harvey Levin, TMZ. So, Mark Astor,
14:29
Speaker 1: when I asked you how important is it that there
14:33
Speaker 1: is an inconsistency about where her body was found, which
14:36
Speaker 1: is really important, and instead you launch into how could
14:38
Speaker 1: Hickerson be prosecuted, well.
14:40
Speaker 2: There you go. Well, okay.
14:44
Speaker 4: So there's a bag being delivered with his name on it.
14:46
Speaker 4: What's in the bag? I mean, if there are any
14:50
Speaker 4: drugs in there, what drugs are they? Are they the
14:51
Speaker 4: drugs that killed her? We don't know. And I'm sure
14:54
Speaker 4: we can sit here and speculate. But, you know, as lawyers, Nancy,
14:57
Speaker 4: we rely on evidence, especially prosecutors. You're amazing.
15:03
Speaker 2: You know what? I've dealt with lawyers like you before.
15:07
Speaker 2: They're amazing. They're silver-tongued. They win a lot of cases.
15:11
Speaker 2: For instance, in a rape case. That did not happen.
15:14
Speaker 2: He's never laid eyes on her. Well, sir, here's a
15:17
Speaker 2: video of you and her at a bar together the
15:20
Speaker 2: night she was raped. Oh, is that her? Okay, yeah,
15:24
Speaker 2: I guess she was at the same bar. She's sitting
15:27
Speaker 2: by you. I don't remember that.
15:29
Speaker 1: Well, here's a video of you two leaving the bar
15:33
Speaker 1: together arm in arm.
15:35
Speaker 2: Oh, you know what? I think that did happen. And
15:38
Speaker 2: it goes on and on and on.
15:39
Speaker 1: Well, then the next thing you know, weren't you in
15:41
Speaker 1: the car because her fingerprints are in there? Yes, yes,
15:44
Speaker 1: I did give her a ride. And what about your
15:47
Speaker 1: DNA being on her body?
15:48
Speaker 2: You know what? That was consensual. You see how this
15:51
Speaker 2: thing works? You see how it works?
15:53
Speaker 1: It's like you put the frog in the pot in
15:55
Speaker 1: the cold water and you slowly heat it up. And
15:59
Speaker 1: before the frog even.
16:00
Speaker 2: Knows it's warm, he's dead. Okay?
16:04
Speaker 1: So you started saying there's no connection. There's no way
16:07
Speaker 1: to prosecute him. And now you're saying what?
16:12
Speaker 4: Well, who knows what was in the bags? I mean, really?
16:14
Speaker 4: It could have been a food delivery. We don't know that.
16:17
Speaker 4: Was there something in there, specifically something that contained fentanyl,
16:21
Speaker 4: that was ultimately given to Hayden? We don't know that.
16:24
Speaker 4: We simply don't know that. We can certainly sit here
16:26
Speaker 4: and try and connect the dots and speculate, Nancy. But
16:29
Speaker 4: as I always say, show me the evidence because I'm
16:31
Speaker 4: not seeing it. I'm not seeing the evidence. I'm seeing
16:34
Speaker 4: sort of the connecting the dots, the leap of faith here.
16:36
Speaker 4: I'm not seeing any causation. Where's the causation, Nancy?
16:39
Speaker 8: Okay.
16:41
Speaker 1: I see that I am. I might as well be
16:44
Speaker 1: screaming out the cab door. on 3rd Avenue, trying to
16:49
Speaker 1: turn Mark Astor around. But that's what he gets paid
16:52
Speaker 1: to do, and he does a really good job at it.
16:54
Speaker 1: To Ken Seeley, guys, special guest joining us tonight, certified
16:59
Speaker 1: intervention professional, 25 years trying to help people, founder, intervention911. com,
17:09
Speaker 1: and Ken Seeley Communities.
17:13
Speaker 2: That's a lot. 25 years.
17:16
Speaker 1: When interventions. I have a question for you, Kim. They're
17:21
Speaker 1: so out of their gourds. They don't even know what
17:24
Speaker 1: they're doing when they hand over poisonous pills to a victim.
17:29
Speaker 11: Yep, you're absolutely right. I like to call it loving
17:32
Speaker 11: them to death, right? You have a loved one that's
17:35
Speaker 11: watching them die and you're loving them to death. You're
17:38
Speaker 11: enabling them to continue with their addiction and they're dying
17:43
Speaker 11: right in front of you. And my job is to
17:47
Speaker 11: get families to acknowledge the warning signs before. Like there
17:51
Speaker 11: was a huge amount of warning signs with Hayden. And,
17:55
Speaker 11: you know, we have to be aware of them and
17:58
Speaker 11: act on them. And that's how we save lives.
18:04
Speaker 1: Another issue to Ken Seeley, and you can find him
18:08
Speaker 1: at intervention911.
18:08
Speaker 2: Com. is these people surrounding the victim, many of them
18:18
Speaker 2: are high, they're addicts. So can you rely on anything
18:23
Speaker 2: they're saying?
18:26
Speaker 11: Well, that's what you were talking about earlier, Nancy. You
18:28
Speaker 11: see that family, like he said, one was sitting up,
18:32
Speaker 11: one was on the floor, one would, you know, all
18:34
Speaker 11: these different things that they're saying, they're so high, they
18:37
Speaker 11: don't even know what they're seeing. They just show up
18:40
Speaker 11: there and they say what they think they saw. So
18:42
Speaker 11: You can't really rely on any of it when you're
18:45
Speaker 11: dealing with that type of chaos. You know, in this situation,
18:49
Speaker 11: I can't really speak because I wasn't there.
18:51
Speaker 2: I didn't see it.
18:51
Speaker 11: But the point being is I'm familiar with patterns and
18:55
Speaker 11: the patterns of addicts and alcoholics. They always mess up
19:01
Speaker 11: the facts. They do not get things correctly because it's
19:04
Speaker 11: correctly in their mind. That's where it's correctly in. and
19:08
Speaker 11: the way they remember it, but it's not the facts.
19:11
Speaker 11: So you're absolutely right, Nancy. These are not the facts
19:13
Speaker 11: that we're dealing with.
19:15
Speaker 2: To Dr.
19:16
Speaker 1: Ernest Scioto joining us, he is a renowned toxicologist, physician,
19:21
Speaker 1: biomedical engineer, attorney. I guess you just got out of
19:26
Speaker 1: school for Pete's sake. Multiple degrees from both Oxford and Harvard.
19:32
Speaker 1: former medical director and manager of medical and public health
19:35
Speaker 1: services for Detroit. Never a lack of business there. He
19:39
Speaker 1: is the author of Toxic Torque, Medical and Legal Elements,
19:43
Speaker 1: that he wrote in all.
19:44
Speaker 2: Of his spare time. And you can find him at ErnestPSciotto.com.
19:51
Speaker 1: Dr. Sciotto, isn't it true that when medical examiners determine COD,
19:58
Speaker 1: cause of death, and MOD, manner of death, they look
20:01
Speaker 1: at extrinsic evidence, extrinsic evidence. For instance, this is a
20:08
Speaker 1: great example. In a murder-arson case I prosecuted, the wife
20:13
Speaker 1: died from smoke inhalation. But the medical examiner found where
20:19
Speaker 1: she also had a blow to the head. And we
20:22
Speaker 1: also discovered that the house had been set on fire
20:25
Speaker 1: by arson. We also discovered that the husband had removed
20:31
Speaker 1: all of his suits and his shoes, all of his.
20:35
Speaker 2: Own family pictures, his relatives, not hers.
20:38
Speaker 1: And when the fire department arrived, he was lounging across
20:41
Speaker 1: the street, Romanesque, watching the house burn. He was fully
20:48
Speaker 1: clothed at 3, 2 a.m., belt, wallet, keys, shoes. And
20:55
Speaker 1: after they talked to him for about two minutes, he went,
20:57
Speaker 1: oh yeah, my wife's in there.
21:00
Speaker 2: What? Okay.
21:02
Speaker 1: Those are extrinsic circumstances surrounding the death. Isn't it true
21:08
Speaker 1: medical examiners look at extrinsic circumstances?
21:14
Speaker 5: That's true. And one thing that's very curious about this
21:19
Speaker 5: is that she was found sitting cross-legged applesauce. I've never
21:24
Speaker 5: heard that term before, but I presume she's sitting down.
21:27
Speaker 5: She was sitting with her legs crossed. And then she
21:31
Speaker 5: was found... falling over with her legs still crossed. Well,
21:36
Speaker 5: that indicates, that implies that there was rigor mortis that
21:40
Speaker 5: had set in. But it takes two to six hours
21:43
Speaker 5: for rigor mortis to set in. And the rigor mortis
21:47
Speaker 5: really typically starts with the small muscles of the face
21:50
Speaker 5: and hands. So for the large muscles of the leg
21:54
Speaker 5: for rigor mortis to set in, you know, it usually
21:57
Speaker 5: takes closer to six hours for that to happen. So
22:01
Speaker 5: if in fact, She was putting on makeup at 10.30,
22:05
Speaker 5: and she was found sometime around, say, 1.30. That's only
22:10
Speaker 5: three hours. So that doesn't seem to fit. So that's
22:15
Speaker 5: a little puzzling.
22:16
Speaker 2: Put up Dr. Scioto, please. You're brilliant.
22:22
Speaker 5: Thank you, my sister.
22:22
Speaker 2: That was so insightful. Okay. I need to put that
22:28
Speaker 2: in regular people talk.
22:31
Speaker 5: Rigor mortis means that when you die over, over time,
22:35
Speaker 5: your muscles become set in the position in which you were,
22:39
Speaker 5: you were dead so that they become stiff and they're
22:44
Speaker 5: not readily mobile. So what it means is that she
22:49
Speaker 5: was sitting when she died, cross-legged sitting on the floor.
22:55
Speaker 5: And I presume on the floor, but sitting cross-legged and then,
23:00
Speaker 5: died probably almost certainly due to a fentanyl overdose, illicit
23:06
Speaker 5: fentanyl because they found a chemical that goes along with
23:10
Speaker 5: the fentanyl being illicit. And she stopped breathing because of
23:16
Speaker 5: the fentanyl and died. And then instead of just staying erect, cross-legged,
23:21
Speaker 5: she fell over. Well, if she had fallen over like that,
23:32
Speaker 5: within a relatively short period of time of dying, then
23:38
Speaker 5: her legs would not have been crossed. She would have
23:41
Speaker 5: fallen over because when you first die, your legs are
23:44
Speaker 5: still flexible and mobile. So this means that she was
23:48
Speaker 5: sitting cross-legged for some period of time before she fell over,
23:56
Speaker 5: enough period of time that rigor mortis had set in.
23:59
Speaker 5: So that sounds more like closer to six hours and
24:02
Speaker 5: not just three hours. The other thing, too, is that
24:05
Speaker 5: she was somehow tipped over. Why did she tip over?
24:10
Speaker 5: I don't know. But for a long period of time,
24:15
Speaker 5: several hours, she was sitting cross-legged dead with her legs crossed, sitting.
24:22
Speaker 1: You know, another thing I'd be curious about, Dr. Scioto,
24:26
Speaker 1: is what she was wearing. Was she wearing PJs? Was
24:29
Speaker 1: she still wearing street clothes from the day before? Did
24:34
Speaker 1: she have her hair in curlers? Because that would reveal
24:37
Speaker 1: a lot. Did she have on the outfit she was
24:39
Speaker 1: wearing the night before?
24:40
Speaker 5: Was she wearing makeup?
24:42
Speaker 1: Supposedly, yeah.
24:43
Speaker 5: I mean, supposedly she was putting on makeup. Did she
24:47
Speaker 5: have makeup on? Was it fresh makeup? Maybe she had
24:50
Speaker 5: some makeup from the night before, but was it fresh makeup?
24:54
Speaker 5: To make sure that everything fits with the story.
24:57
Speaker 6: Dr.
24:57
Speaker 2: Ernest Scioto, What does it mean that her face was purple?
25:03
Speaker 5: It means that she was probably dead for some period
25:06
Speaker 5: of time. And it depends where the purple is. If
25:10
Speaker 5: the purple is on one portion of the face, that
25:15
Speaker 5: happens because you get pulling of blood after death to
25:21
Speaker 5: that area. So was her entire face purple or was
25:26
Speaker 5: it primarily... the portion of her face that was on
25:30
Speaker 5: the ground. If it was a portion of the face
25:33
Speaker 5: on the ground, that also indicates that she had been laying,
25:39
Speaker 5: after being cross-legged, laying on the ground with her face
25:43
Speaker 5: on the ground for some period of time. So it
25:46
Speaker 5: doesn't sound like what you would expect in a death.
25:52
Speaker 5: Somebody taking fentanyl, say at 1030, and then being found
25:57
Speaker 5: Three hours later, this doesn't sound like that picture.
26:01
Speaker 1: And it doesn't sound like she was found seemingly sleeping
26:04
Speaker 1: in the bed or sitting on a chair. Her face
26:06
Speaker 1: was purple. Her legs were crossed and rigor mortis. An
26:10
Speaker 1: entirely different story. Gigi McKelvey, there's a big problem when
26:15
Speaker 1: you are working a case and the last known sighting
26:18
Speaker 1: of the victim alive or where the body is found.
26:22
Speaker 1: When it changes, somebody is lying. If you could somehow
26:28
Speaker 1: make all witnesses speak the truth in puning perjury to.
26:31
Speaker 2: No one, that would be great.
26:34
Speaker 1: But here, there's a huge difference in lying in bed
26:37
Speaker 1: asleep dead, sitting on a chair found dead, and lying
26:43
Speaker 1: on a rug with your legs still crisscrossed in rigor mortis,
26:48
Speaker 1: and you finally just fall over. Those are three entirely
26:52
Speaker 1: different stories. Do you see where I'm going? And Gigi,
26:55
Speaker 1: You're very familiar with.
26:57
Speaker 2: This area and the Hickerson family. Explain.
27:01
Speaker 10: Yeah, I live about 10 minutes from the Judson Mill Lofts,
27:04
Speaker 10: which is where she passed away. And Brian Hickerson's grandfather, Dr. Ellison,
27:09
Speaker 10: delivered me back in 1977. Of course, I don't remember him.
27:13
Speaker 10: My mom has nothing but amazing things to say about him.
27:17
Speaker 10: The boys have a bit of a reputation here in Greenville.
27:21
Speaker 10: But I do agree, Nancy, when you have three very different...
27:24
Speaker 10: You can't just look around. Where do you think you are?
27:27
Speaker 10: You're not at the nail salon where you can just
27:29
Speaker 10: blurt out anything and nobody follow up.
27:32
Speaker 9: Sorry.
27:32
Speaker 2: What reputation? What are you saying?
27:36
Speaker 10: It's pretty well known in Greenville that the brothers, Brian
27:40
Speaker 10: and Zach, are kind of rough and they have a
27:43
Speaker 10: reputation for being troublemakers. So people around here are taking
27:46
Speaker 10: their version of events with a big grain of salt
27:49
Speaker 10: because they're just.
27:51
Speaker 2: Not a grain of salt.
27:53
Speaker 10: Yeah, and I mean, that's being generous.
27:54
Speaker 5: How about a box of salt?
27:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's being generous.
27:57
Speaker 1: Ken Seeley, I want to follow up on what Gigi
27:59
Speaker 1: just said before we run out of time. Ken, the,
28:03
Speaker 1: I believe, grandfather, or the father, the grandfather, is a
28:07
Speaker 1: medical doctor. That means the Hickerson young men, not boys,
28:16
Speaker 1: were raised with a silver spoon.
28:20
Speaker 2: They had access to education.
28:23
Speaker 1: To all sorts of opportunities and privileges that most people
28:29
Speaker 1: can't dream of. I mean, of course, I'm coming from
28:34
Speaker 1: growing up on a red dirt road with well water
28:37
Speaker 1: and nobody had ever been to college. So that's a
28:41
Speaker 1: far cry from someone whose grandpa had a medical degree.
28:46
Speaker 2: I mean, they had every opportunity and this is what happens.
28:51
Speaker 2: How does that go down?
28:54
Speaker 11: Well, I love that you brought that up, Nancy, because,
28:56
Speaker 11: you know, when I do interventions, it's not only on addiction,
28:59
Speaker 11: it's on mental health and bad behaviors also. And that's
29:02
Speaker 11: what we're seeing right now is, you know, this is
29:07
Speaker 11: a thing where people are covering up for bad behaviors.
29:11
Speaker 11: And so many people out there do it. And if
29:14
Speaker 11: you keep covering it up, what you're doing is you're
29:17
Speaker 11: preventing them from hitting a rock bottom to change that behavior.
29:22
Speaker 11: That's the problem here. I see it all the time
29:25
Speaker 11: in my practices. Families come to save the bad behavior.
29:29
Speaker 11: So grandpa comes in and let's get him a lawyer.
29:31
Speaker 11: Let's help him with this. Let's get him, you know.
29:33
Speaker 11: And then what ends up happening, the bad behavior continues.
29:37
Speaker 11: But if you let somebody face the consequences of their
29:40
Speaker 11: bad behavior, that's when change happens. That's when the miracle
29:45
Speaker 11: gets to happen. But I see it all the time
29:47
Speaker 11: in my practice when, you know, again, I don't know them,
29:49
Speaker 11: but the reality is, is that, you know, money brings
29:52
Speaker 11: in a lot of things. They could hire the attorneys
29:54
Speaker 11: to keep them in their sick behaviors and their unhealthy
29:58
Speaker 11: patterns of life. that creates all this type of chaos.
30:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories investigative reporter, Dave Mack. Hayden Panettiere's ex, Vladimir Kitschko,
30:12
Speaker 1: has filed an urgent and essential, his words, not mine,
30:15
Speaker 1: petition to protect her daughter because he claims that a
30:23
Speaker 1: $ 500, 000 ring His engagement ring that he gave her, wow,
30:30
Speaker 1: among other things, have been taken from the home and
30:35
Speaker 1: that someone with access to her in the home has
30:39
Speaker 1: deleted her emails.
30:42
Speaker 2: What can you tell me?
30:44
Speaker 3: Nancy, it's actually really shocking. What we have found out
30:47
Speaker 3: is that prior to Hayden's death, that she and her
30:51
Speaker 3: ex actually got into a discussion about somebody in her
30:56
Speaker 3: inner circle without her approval, without permission, has accessed her
31:01
Speaker 3: private emails and has deleted some of this information. Now,
31:06
Speaker 3: think about that for just a minute. You've got somebody
31:09
Speaker 3: in your world that has now accessed your private materials
31:13
Speaker 3: and had found access to her home in Hollywood. On
31:18
Speaker 3: top of that, Nancy, She and Vlad actually determined it
31:21
Speaker 3: was time to get additional security. We're talking security for computers,
31:25
Speaker 3: her electronics, and the home to protect what she has.
31:29
Speaker 3: The half-million-dollar engagement ring? Vlad says, hey, man, while they
31:33
Speaker 3: were investigating her death in South Carolina, this ring has vanished,
31:38
Speaker 3: along with a number of other items that are gone
31:41
Speaker 3: as well. Vlad is actually trying to protect the estate
31:45
Speaker 3: of Hayden for their daughter's Kaya, it's all for that purpose.
31:50
Speaker 3: You know, Vlad has been well known as a great
31:53
Speaker 3: dad and he is just trying to protect the future
31:58
Speaker 3: of his daughter's financial stability for his daughter and the
32:01
Speaker 3: estate of Hayden Panettiere.
32:03
Speaker 1: We're also learning, Dave Mack, that there is a pawn
32:06
Speaker 1: shop that is not cooperating, refusing to provide information.
32:10
Speaker 2: What do you know about that? A pawn shop.
32:13
Speaker 3: You know, Nancy, all states have different laws regarding pawn shops.
32:17
Speaker 3: And right now, law enforcement is digging into everything. They're
32:22
Speaker 3: trying to find every piece of jewelry, every piece of electronics,
32:26
Speaker 3: anything that has been removed from Hayden Panettiere and has
32:32
Speaker 3: been taken to a pawn shop or listed on any
32:34
Speaker 3: place online. They're looking into it. We have one pawn
32:37
Speaker 3: shop that is doing everything within their power to prevent
32:41
Speaker 3: opening their records to law enforcement. Remember, when you pawn something,
32:45
Speaker 3: the pawn shop is responsible for identifying the individual that
32:50
Speaker 3: is pawning it to make sure that this item is
32:52
Speaker 3: not stolen. The pawn shop bears a heavy burden to
32:56
Speaker 3: not take stolen property. So they're trying to protect that
32:59
Speaker 3: part of the job. They're going to lose, but that's
33:02
Speaker 3: what's happening right now.
33:04
Speaker 1: Reports that Several of Hayden Panettiere's valuable personal belongings were
33:11
Speaker 1: pawned without her knowledge, including a vintage guitar and more,
33:18
Speaker 1: tonight missing a $ 500, 000 engagement ring. If you know or
33:25
Speaker 1: think you know anything regarding this death, please dial 864-232-7463.
33:34
Speaker 1: We remember an American hero, Sergeant Brian Mull, Connecticut State Police,
33:40
Speaker 1: killed in the line of duty after 27 years on
33:44
Speaker 1: the force, leaving behind a wife turned widow, Susan, and
33:48
Speaker 1: grieving children, Brian, Peter, and Samantha. American hero, Sergeant Brian Mull.
33:57
Speaker 1: Thank you to our guests, but especially to you for
33:59
Speaker 1: being with us. Nancy Grace signing off for tonight, but
34:01
Speaker 1: I'll see you tomorrow night. And until then, good night, friends.
34:06
Speaker 4: Thank you.