Hayden Panettiere died after taking a single pill that multiple law enforcement sources believe was oxycodone laced with fentanyl.
The sources, all connected to the case and with direct knowledge, say Panettiere had a long-time drug dealer in Los Angeles who supplied her with several black-market prescription drugs, including oxycodone.
She reportedly took several drugs purchased from that dealer on a flight from Los Angeles to South Carolina the day before her death.
Authorities believe she took an oxy on the morning of her death and suspect that pill was laced with fentanyl.
DEA Investigation and Pending Toxicology
The DEA in Los Angeles is actively piecing together the relationship between Panettiere and her drug dealer, attempting to trace the fatal pill back to him.
The case has shades of Mac Miller, where a drug dealer was convicted of supplying the rapper with drugs, including some laced with fentanyl, that killed him.
Law enforcement sources caution that everything hinges on the toxicology results, which are pending, but their working theory is that a fentanyl-laced oxy pill killed Panettiere.
When first responders arrived at the condo where Panettiere and her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, were staying, he gave them a bag of her prescription meds.
It would be telling if some of those pills were fentanyl-laced.
Brian administered Narcan to an unresponsive Panettiere before paramedics arrived, to no avail.
In addition to South Carolina law enforcement, the DEA in both South Carolina and Los Angeles are conducting the investigation.
