Leaked 911 audio suggests Hayden Panettiere died from suspected overdose

Audio of a 911 call suggests that Hayden Panettiere was found dead due to a suspected overdose.

The Heroes star died on Sunday (16.08.26) at the age of 36 after being found unresponsive by a friend at her apartment in South Carolina.

Now, TMZ has obtained dispatch audio of the call to emergency services, which appears to pick up officials discussing an “overdose”.

The short recording includes one officer saying: “Responding. Overdose. CPR is in progress.”

After receiving the emergency call, paramedics rushed to the apartment and tried to resuscitate Hayden using “advanced cardiac life support”.

But after an hour, Nashville star Hayden was tragically pronounced dead at 2.32pm.

An official statement from the Greenville Police Department read: "[Officers] accompanied by EMS personnel, responded to a report of an unresponsive female” at around 1.50pm. Sunday.

"Upon arrival, medical assistance was administered; however, the individual, later identified as Hayden Panettiere, was pronounced deceased at the scene.

"The case is under investigation by the Greenville Police Department in conjunction with the Greenville County Coroner’s Office. The preliminary investigation has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances. An acquaintance of Ms. Panettiere placed the 911 call."

Hayden's representative, Kasey Kitchen, also confirmed officials are looking into what happened and more details will be revealed in due course.

Kitchen told NBC News: "There’s an investigation ongoing. We should know more tomorrow."

A coroner is due to perform an autopsy to determine an official cause of death.

Hayden's passing was confirmed by her father, Alan Panettiere, who hailed the actress as an "incredible light and a force of nature".

Alan said in his statement: "It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. "She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her - and to the millions who watched her onscreen."

Her father asked for privacy "as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss".

Hayden recently released her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in which she detailed her troubled personal life, including domestic abuse, battles with alcoholism, stints in rehab and a battle with undiagnosed postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter Kaya - who she had with her ex-fiancé, former unified world heavyweight champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko.

She previously told Us Weekly about the book: “I talk about traumatic moments and things that people don’t even know about. The abuse I went through at the hands of people that were supposed to be there to protect me.

"Admitting to all of the things that I did. I knew if I was going to do this, I wanted to be brutally, painfully honest.

"When I was honest about postpartum depression on Live With Kelly and Michael [in 2015], the repercussions were shocking. After that interview, I had no idea when I walked off that stage that I was going to get the call saying, ‘Neutrogena wants to fire you. They’re not okay with this.’ And you’re going, ‘Wait a second, of all the things, how can they judge me about something that is so human and so real?"