Report: Fentanyl-Laced Pill Killed Hayden Panettiere
Report: Fentanyl-Laced Pill Killed Hayden Panettiere
The News
Actress Hayden Panettiere died after taking a single pill that law enforcement sources believe was oxycodone laced with fentanyl, according to reports published Monday.
Panettiere died in August at age 36.
TMZ, citing multiple law enforcement sources, reported that she took one fatal pill the day she died. The New York Post reported that investigators are "zeroing in" on her alleged dealer.
The accounts rest on unnamed sources. No official cause of death appears in any of the reports.
What Is Claimed
That the pill was believed to be oxycodone; that it was laced with fentanyl; that one pill was enough to kill her; and that police are pursuing the person who supplied it.
Timeline
Panettiere dies at 36.
TMZ reports that multiple law enforcement sources believe the fatal pill was oxycodone laced with fentanyl, and that she took it the day she died.
The New York Post reports the same finding and says authorities are "zeroing in" on her alleged dealer. The Daily Mail publishes its own account of the reported cause of death.
Reactions
The reporting is so far one-directional: outlets relaying what law enforcement sources told them.
None of the published reports carries an on-the-record statement from a coroner, from police, or from Panettiere's family.
No suspect has been named publicly in any of the reports.
What's Next
The official cause and manner of death would come from the medical examiner's office, which has not been reported as having released its findings.
If investigators identify the supplier, prosecutors in fentanyl-poisoning cases routinely weigh charges against the dealer who sold the pill.
Until an official ruling is released, the fentanyl account remains attributed to anonymous sources.
More
Counterfeit pills pressed to look like prescription oxycodone and cut with fentanyl have driven a large share of American overdose deaths, and a single pill can be fatal — the pattern described in the reports about Panettiere.
Panettiere, 36, was known to audiences from "Heroes" and "Nashville."
Poll
Should dealers who sell fentanyl-laced pills that kill be charged with homicide?
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