Hayden Panettiere Update | New Boyfriend Fight Video & Anonymous Law Enforcement Overdose Claim

New developments in the Hayden Panettiere case point to a fentanyl-laced oxycodone pill as a possible cause of death, according to sources cited by TMZ. Her boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, was also detained alongside his brother after a bar fight in Greenville, SC, reportedly started over backlash over Hayden's death.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:14Derrick Levasseur?

  Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derrick Levasseur.

• 0:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I'm Stephanie Harlow.

• 0:18Derrick Levasseur?

  And we are here with an update on the Hayden Penitentiary case. We've covered her, her story a couple of weeks ago. For those of you who did not see that or are not familiar with this story, Hayden died on August 16th, 2026, at the age of 36 years old. She was staying in Greenville, South Carolina with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson. First responders found her unresponsive and in cardiac arrest when they arrived at the apartment. The autopsy found no signs of physical trauma that contributed to her death and authorities initially said there were no signs of foul play. But at the time when we first covered it, toxicology testing was pending, but now we have some updates.

• 0:59Derrick Levasseur?

  We have multiple updates and at first there was a couple of videos that came out about Brian, which we're going to discuss. And that was really it. So it wasn't enough to cover then. And now we have reports coming from an unknown law enforcement source that are saying those toxicology results are back. And now we're getting reports from a unofficial law enforcement source that's saying they, they've been able to determine the cause of death due to the toxicology reports. We're going to talk about that. And we're going to talk about from an investigatory standpoint, if these toxicology results are true, where do we go from here? So as a quick turnaround, but you figured it would be with how high-profile this case is.

• 1:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So first, let's talk about what Brian Hickerson's been up to because-

• 1:46Derrick Levasseur?

  He's not been keeping a low profile.

• 1:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, I, yeah, definitely not, at least not in South Carolina. So-

• 1:52Derrick Levasseur?

  No.

• 1:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  On the night of September 12th, Brian and his brother Zach, who was also at the scene when Hayden died, they were at the Wild Wing Cafe in Greenville when police were called regarding an altercation. Witnesses reportedly said the brothers had been drinking for several hours and that an argument had broken out with other patrons. Brian allegedly threw a bar stool during the confrontation. Police showed up, they handcuffed and detained him while they investigated. But according to the Greenville police, Brian Hickerson was released, was not charged. And then his brother Zach Hickerson was arrested for disorderly conduct after police said he was highly intoxicated

• 2:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  and yelling profanities in public. Zach was booked and subsequently released on a personal recognizance bond. This is Zach, who I believe is also like a pastor at some church.

• 2:43Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, odd. We know that priests and pastors aren't always the best people. The title doesn't always mean that they're absolved of any criminal activity.

• 2:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  They're not living an innocent life all the time. Okay. But apparently the altercation itself may have been connected to Hayden because Zach told Page Six after his release that people had been confronting them.

• 3:02Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, they were heckling him.

• 3:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, because of rumors surrounding Hayden's death, he said the patrons at the bar had been heckling them about Hayden before the fight started, which yeah, I, I could see that being a thing that happened. But then, you know, this just happened, right? This hasn't even been a month. Why are you going out and drinking excessively in public when you know that this is a very high-profile thing? You guys were there.

• 3:30Derrick Levasseur?

  It's still under investigation.

• 3:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Still under investigation. Zach, your brother has already been arrested and charged with physical abuse of this woman. And he has been a known person to use substances and be getting in trouble for that. So maybe going out to the bar right now and drinking excessively is not a good thing. Because first of all, it doesn't look good. And second of all, maybe under normal circumstances, if you weren't intoxicated, heckling bar patrons might not bring you to the heights of throwing bar stools and yelling profanities in public.

• 4:06Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 4:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  You might just be like, hey, maybe let's go to a different bar or let's go home and, you know, keep more of a low profile right now. But because you're drinking excessively and acting like this thing didn't just happen less than a month ago in the same city, you're putting yourself in a position that now it's making you look worse. Whether or not you were nefariously involved with this, it's making you look like you're people that kind of just get into trouble.

• 4:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. We, before we started recording, we were saying, oh, maybe, you know, Zach was just out there like keeping his brother out of trouble. But clearly that's not the case.

• 4:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, well, he's a pastor. Maybe he's just watching Brian. Maybe Brian's like, I'm going out. And Zach's like, please don't, brother. But if you're, if you're going to-

• 4:46Derrick Levasseur?

  They're out partying.

• 4:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  I will come with you. No, they're out partying and drinking.

• 4:49Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep.

• 4:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Which is like, I get it. If you're upset about Hayden's death, you might be at home, have a few shots, talk about it amongst yourself. Like, oh, this is a really bad thing. But you're out there partying. It doesn't look like you're that upset.

• 5:01Derrick Levasseur?

  No, it kind of aligns with why we're here, right? There, there was obviously something going on inside that household and they were participating. I don't know who, but they were using drugs. That's why we're covering this right now. We shouldn't be. But before we go any further, because we have these reports, but we actually have video.

• 5:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  Let's watch the videos.

• 5:18Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, from inside the bar. So you can make your own, uh, come to your own conclusions, make your own judgment. Here's the first of two videos.

• 6:22Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay. So there it is. It looks like you have Brian in the greenish. I can't really tell the sweatshirt there. He's being held back by multiple patrons and it looks like, and I don't know for certain, but my guess would be that other little cluster in the top right-hand corner of the video, that's Zach. He's obviously beefing with somebody, having a verbal argument with someone. And it looks like maybe they were at the bar, they were going after Brian and Zach at the bar and Zach probably approached him. And then Brian was kind of held back. I've been there before. I'm not going to sit here and act like I'm innocent.

• 6:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  He's throwing the stool pretty early on.

• 6:55Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, throwing the stool. But the tough guys usually do that, right? When they're far away from the action, they get, they get tougher. That you see that all the time. So it seems like somebody said something, somebody was jawing with them.

• 7:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  And they probably kept going. I'm not going to say it wasn't, you know, annoying.

• 7:10Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm gonna even go further and say, listen, I put myself in their shoes, if that's my brother. And I'm not going to sit here and act innocent. Stephanie's been with me on, and social events. I've, I'm going to stick up for myself. I actually had an incident at Crime Con a couple of years ago where-

• 7:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  He got heckled. He got heckled.

• 7:27Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, where I got heckled by somebody and it didn't go well for them.

• 7:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  Don't just say that it didn't go well for them. Like you-

• 7:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, I didn't put my hands on anybody, but-

• 7:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  Like you beat him up or something? No, it was just like-

• 7:36Derrick Levasseur?

  No, no, but they, they, they thought they were gonna just say something.

• 7:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  They thought that they were gonna say something and then Derek was gonna be like, I'm, I'm meek and mild. And Derek was like, shut up, old man.

• 7:47Derrick Levasseur?

  It didn't work out for them. There was two of them. In fairness, I was by myself, but in fairness, it all worked out. But I only say that to because-

• 7:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  But you didn't, you didn't throw a bar stool. Okay. So I'm just gonna say that.

• 7:58Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. He's acting tough on the side. My point being, and you said it at the top of the episode, read the room, literally, right? Like my situation was different. We were there for a convention, for work. I wasn't expecting that. You have to know that with everything going on right now and the speculations surrounding Hayden's death, to go to a bar like that and be drinking heavily is not the right move and you're asking for problems. So I don't mind them defending themselves, but it also seems like people around them were trying to de-escalate. And Brian and Zach were the ones that were refusing to let it go. In fact, near the end of that video, I don't know if it's another patron or it's a bouncer, but someone picks Brian right up and like starts to carry him out.

• 8:40Derrick Levasseur?

  And he's actively fighting against them. So I don't know if that's a bouncer or one of his buddies, but he's not letting it go. And that's because of the intoxication, more than likely.

• 8:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah.

• 8:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Again, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, you shouldn't be there. But then also when everyone separated, choosing not to let it go, which is a little bit of a insight into the person we're dealing with here and why people didn't want Hayden around Brian.

• 9:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  I genuinely don't even agree with the, the whole defending yourself as far as like getting up and getting in people's faces. You're being heckled. It's time to look at each other as two grown men and be like, maybe this isn't the bar we, we should be at. Get up and walk out.

• 9:18Derrick Levasseur?

  I don't disagree with you. I was just trying not to be a hypocrite.

• 9:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, I'm not, I'm not a confrontational-

• 9:23Derrick Levasseur?

  There's some of our Crime Weekly people who were at Crime Con when it happened. So I can't, I can't come out and say a hundred percent, you know, you don't have a right to defend yourself, but I, I couldn't agree with you more.

• 9:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't think that confronting these people is gonna, I, in general, in my life, in a normal situation, I wouldn't be like, hey, if I yell at people and get in their faces, this is gonna de-escalate. Right now, maybe it's not going to make it anywhere. Cause you know, people are filming, right?

• 9:45Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 9:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  If they're heckling, you know, they're filming you. Maybe if I just get up and walk out, it won't make it anywhere because there's no news to be had here. But if I start engaging, this is when it's gonna look bad. And it's not gonna look bad for them. It's gonna look bad for me because my girlfriend just died less than a month ago. I was there. My brother was there. I already have charges for laying my hands on her and not being the best boyfriend. I, I should just leave this bar. This isn't the place for me now. So that's where we're at. Now we have another video and this is moving outside the bar when the police get there.

• 10:20Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes. This, this is after law enforcement arrives, Brian's detained, and you really want to pay attention to like the whole video, but especially the first like 10 seconds because Hayden is brought up here, not by name, but there is a mention of Hayden by Brian while he's on the ground, not knowing that he's currently being recorded. So really listen to this one.

• 12:03Derrick Levasseur?

  So there you go, right? You have Brian on the ground. And at the very beginning of that video, I believe he says GPD, which is obviously the Greenville Police Department. They leaked his girlfriend's death. That's what he's upset about. So clearly he's not too fond of law enforcement in that area right now. But again, that's the case. Maybe stay out of trouble. But you also see Zach in that video as well. And at first he's, it looks like he's trying to deescalate. There's a moment where it cuts away, where it looks like Brian's telling Zach to go inside and talk to someone who, who I'm assuming is inside the bar. And that goes south because when it comes back, you see Zach screaming, yelling, pulling away from one of the police officers. And I'm assuming shortly after this is where he gets arrested for disorderly conduct.

• 12:47Derrick Levasseur?

  But yeah, these two guys are just, they're a problem.

• 12:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Belligerent, belligerent, belligerent. Yeah, he's, you know, and it's, it's very like a lack of accountability. GPD leaked that my girlfriend died. Okay.

• 12:58Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 12:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  First of all, it's Hayden Panettiere, your girlfriend.

• 13:00Derrick Levasseur?

  But that also was important to me, right? Cause he's referring to her as his girlfriend. Again, you take that with a grain of salt, but we're wondering about the dynamics between them at the time. Clearly, at least from this video, it looks like he was under the impression they were together.

• 13:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they were.

• 13:15Derrick Levasseur?

  I would agree.

• 13:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  That's a toxic relationship. I'm sure they were.

• 13:18Derrick Levasseur?

  I would agree.

• 13:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  But it's, it's almost this like lack of accountability, not like my girlfriend was with me when she died doing something that like we've both have acknowledged as a problem for us and our relationship. Not that it's like GPD leaked that my girlfriend died. Like it was gonna, it was gonna get out one way or the other. It happened. So it's, it's a lack of accountability. They're belligerent. He's like, you know, giving the finger to everyone, just swagging around like.

• 13:43Derrick Levasseur?

  Like a cool guy. He's a cool guy.

• 13:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Like, you're not a cool guy. This isn't cool. None of this looks cool. And as a, and a person who has struggled with addiction, going out and getting plastered in public is not the best move for you.

• 13:55Derrick Levasseur?

  Nope, not at all. And that was what we had the other day. And so I saw those two videos and I'm thinking, okay, this isn't enough to cover. And then we get this update with some unofficial information from a law enforcement source that we now have a cause of death. And we're going to talk about that right after the break.

• 14:17Stephanie Harlowe?

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• 16:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, we're back. So according to reporting this week from People, the LA Times and TMZ, the investigation has now expanded beyond Greenville, South Carolina, and it now involves the DEA. So investigators reportedly believe that Hayden may have obtained drugs shortly before traveling from Los Angeles to South Carolina. They're trying to identify the supplier. Brian Hickerson has reportedly spoken with the DEA as part of this investigation. But I also feel like Brian Hickerson, everything he's going to say to any law enforcement body at this point is just going to be like, yeah, she's got somebody in LA that gets her drugs.

• 17:09Derrick Levasseur?

  Of course.

• 17:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  To try to make it seem like there's no way that she could have gotten the drugs from him or through him. But the emerging theory reported by multiple outlets is that Hayden may have believed she was taking a pill that was oxycodone, but that pill may have contained fentanyl. Entertainment Weekly reports that investigators are examining whether she purchased prescription type pills from a longtime Los Angeles drug supplier before traveling to South Carolina. Now, it has not yet been officially established by the coroner that Hayden died from fentanyl or an oxycodone fentanyl overdose.

• 17:45Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, this is all unofficial at this point.

• 17:47Stephanie Harlowe?

  But from TMZ, TMZ is saying that somebody in the police department has reported that this is what the toxicology says.

• 17:57Derrick Levasseur?

  And say what you want about TMZ, but.

• 17:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, right? They seem to always get the inside scoop.

• 18:02Derrick Levasseur?

  They got good law enforcement sources and, and, and I'm not going to sit here and say they're always right. But if they're putting this out there, more than likely, there's some accuracy to it. And this opens up a whole can of worms. I think, and you had said this in the, the last time we covered it, that it was reported, Brian had administered Narcan prior to the first responders' arrival, correct?

• 18:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes. So according to the most detailed account we have, Brian administered the Narcan before first responders arrived. Brian's brother Zach told TMZ that he was the one who called 911 after Hayden was found unconscious. And then while Zach was on the phone with dispatch, Brian gave Hayden Narcan. And then Brian and Zach performed CPR together while waiting for the first responders. And people independently summarized Zach's account the same way. So the sequence we have appears to be Hayden was found unresponsive. Zach calls 911. Brian administered Narcan while Zach's on the phone with 911. Brian and Zach perform CPR while speaking with 911. And then EMS first responders arrived, continued advanced resuscitation efforts, but Hayden

• 19:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  could not be revived. That becomes more interesting in the light of the current fentanyl reporting because it raises the obvious question of why was Narcan immediately available to Zach and Brian, right? So it's not like first responders get there and they have Narcan, which they would, right? Zach and Brian, or at least Brian and Hayden have Narcan on hand at the Greenville, South Carolina apartment that they're temporarily staying at, which means, I think, just if you're asking me, it means you know you have some substances that you could either overdose from using with an opioid, even if it was just oxycodone with no fentanyl, or you know

• 19:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  you have some sort of substances that maybe you didn't get from a legitimate means that you understand could have fentanyl laced into them, which the Narcan would also address.

• 20:05Derrick Levasseur?

  Completely agree. And I do think there is a misconception out there when people hear Narcan. They think it's something that's only available to first responders. That's not true. You can purchase Narcan.

• 20:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  You can purchase it. I mean, in, in parks around where I live, they have it in little containers, just sitting there because they understand people, which is, I think, just.

• 20:22Derrick Levasseur?

  There's a whole different conversation to have there. I understand the rationale behind it. It's if it can save a life and they're going to use regardless, it should be available. So I don't think we shouldn't have it, but yes.

• 20:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's awkward when you're at a playground and there's a Narcan container right there. So.

• 20:35Derrick Levasseur?

  I agree. I agree. That's a whole different CWN, right? But we have a situation where Brian, I don't know about Zach, but definitely Brian has a history of substance abuse. Hayden has a history of substance abuse. They're partaking in these extracurricular activities. So as a precaution, because they understand the risks of, you know, you're getting these pills or substances from a source where you don't know where it originated from and you run the risk of a potential fentanyl overdose. This is like a, a very big issue in our country right now. So they had Narcan on hand in case of something like this. And it does seem like Brian administered it as soon as he found Hayden. But that also gives you an indication that he was aware of what she was taking at the

• 21:20Derrick Levasseur?

  time because he went in there and was able to act immediately. And you have to ask the question, is that because he supplied her with this medication? And I say medication in air quotes. Or is it because he was partaking in the same type of medication with her and he just didn't have the same effect? And, and I know a question a lot of you are going to ask me is going to be, well, why would she react this way and not him? I've seen this happen hundreds of times where it's the same batch. But what's happening is these are not professionals who are making these batches. This is something I think more of you will relate to, like a weed cookie. Okay? If you don't have someone who does it all the time, there are cases where you could have more THC in a certain part of the cookie where someone gets a higher high than the other person.

• 22:05Derrick Levasseur?

  And so when they're mixing these batches up and you're cutting it with fentanyl because it's cheap, there's a possibility that one pill could be. Filled with fentanyl while another pill from the same batch doesn't have much. And that's the risk you run. It's basically roulette with your life. Because you don't know what pill you're going to get. So it is possible that we will learn through the investigation that Brian may have taken the same pill. And yet he's here and she's not. So there's a lot to unpack. There's a lot to talk about.

• 22:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  I'm confused about the whole cutting anything with fentanyl, right?

• 22:41Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, it's cheap.

• 22:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Is it cheap? Cause isn't fentanyl like super strong? So like, is it cheap?

• 22:48Derrick Levasseur?

  That's the trick, Stephanie. Okay. So what they're trying to do, right? When you have oxies or you have a crack or whatever you have.

• 22:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  Cocaine even, yeah.

• 22:56Derrick Levasseur?

  Fentanyl gives you an extreme high for a very low cost. So it's synthesized, it's made in a laboratory and this could be a homegrown laboratory. I'm not talking like an actual lab. And it's something that you can buy certain products to create this, this, this fentanyl. It's synthesized. And the issue is not the fentanyl, because there are medicinal uses for fentanyl that are currently still in place. Right? But the problem is there's no regulation. There's no quality control. So how it's being distributed through the product is where the issue happens. These are not experts. These are not professionals that are dealing with these chemicals.

• 23:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  So what it sounds like is these aren't real oxycodone pills. They are pills made of like cheap powders and then they're using like fentanyl to give it the effect

• 23:43Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes.

• 23:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  of oxycodone.

• 23:44Derrick Levasseur?

  That's right.

• 23:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  And then kind of selling those as oxycodone pills, when in reality, the narcotic producing effect is coming from the fentanyl because it is so powerful. So they can make more pills than they would be able to do with, with normal oxycodone. And let's say you're making 50 or 75 pills in a batch and you're sprinkling in this fentanyl. Maybe one of the pills gets more of the fentanyl.

• 24:06Derrick Levasseur?

  There you go.

• 24:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  Than another pill and therefore, so I was seeing some people say, was this intentional? Like was Hayden targeted with this pill? That's not out of the question, but we see this happen every day where it's just as likely, if not more likely, that it was an accident, just based on how they made the pills and not having any quality control and not knowing what they're doing.

• 24:28Derrick Levasseur?

  It would be hard to know which, which pill is the bad pill, unless there's a lot more to this story than.

• 24:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  Unless it was intentional, there's a lot more to the story. Yeah.

• 24:34Derrick Levasseur?

  That's right. So we need to talk about where we go from here, because this is just the tip of the iceberg. We'll take a break. We'll be right back and then we'll discuss.

• 24:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay. So we're back and we talked about the production of these pills. And the good news is it, living in the digital world we're living in right now. I can guarantee you that the investigation, even without the toxicology results, is well underway. As far as reverse engineering, where Hayden got the pills from. There's a lot you can go in and look to, and they're not going to wait for those results because based on the evidence they have, based on probably statements that were given by Brian and Zach, based on her condition when they found her, based on the fact that Narcan was administered by the people that were with her, and also based on her history and Brian's history. Reasonable deduction, critical thinking is going to lead you to the conclusion that this was more than likely an overdose.

• 25:36Derrick Levasseur?

  If they've already ruled out foul play, because the first step is you treat it as a potential homicide. You can always go down from there, but you want to start at the highest possible point. Cause it's hard to work the other way. So once they've ruled out foul play, now you get into culpability. Who's responsible for what happened to Hayden? Who supplied her with these pills? Where did they come from? Can you identify that person? And if you can, then there could potentially be criminal responsibility.

• 26:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  So it kind of looks like what the next steps would be is they're going to trace that pill backwards.

• 26:09Derrick Levasseur?

  This is the fun part as far as the detective side of things.

• 26:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. When police got there, Brian did give them like a bag with Hayden's medication. And he said, this is Hayden's medication. So I'm sure they're going to go through that bag and see if any of the pills in there, because she had to fly, if she got it from LA, she had to fly from LA to South Carolina with the, these drugs. And if she did that, she probably put them into another container that looked like a legitimate medical prescription.

• 26:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Agreed.

• 26:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  So they're going to go through all of those pill bottles. They're going to test all of them. I would assume they'd ask Brian, hey, did you also take a similar pill? Were you using these same kind of pills? Were you using this day at the same time she was? And they'd want to know if he consumed anything that, that Hayden had gotten. But they're going to go through and they're going to try to trace that pill backwards. The DEA offices in Los Angeles and South Carolina are reportedly working together with LA agents, trying to determine whether the suspected fatal pill originated with this longtime drug dealer that Hayden allegedly used for what they called a black market prescription drugs. And that means phone records, texts, messaging apps, financial transactions.

• 27:15Derrick Levasseur?

  You got it. GPS locations, prior criminal histories, background checks, interviews, interrogations, you name it.

• 27:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  And they're probably going to want to reconstruct Hayden's last 24 to 48 hours. They're going to want to establish precisely when she obtained the pills, what she believed they were, when she took one, what she consumed alongside of it, who knew about that. The LA Times reports that federal authorities have already questioned several people and are focusing specifically on controlled substances and medications connected to her death. So they're going to want to find that person and they're going to say, hey, did you sell her these pills? Or did you sell her pills at all? When did you sell them to her? So if this drug dealer is like, hey, here's the last time I sold pills to her and it was two weeks before she left for LA. Maybe she didn't get it from this guy. Maybe she got it from somewhere else. But they're also going to want to determine Brian Hickerson's role.

• 28:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  And they have not named him as a suspect, but we know Brian has spoken to the DEA. Um, and investigators are going to want to know what he knew about the drugs, right? Did he participate in obtaining them? Did he know she was getting them? Was he with her when she paid for them or picked them up or had them delivered? Was he using them with her, what he told the police immediately afterward? And whether his account is going to match the digital and forensic evidence that they're now gathering.

• 28:30Derrick Levasseur?

  Nailed it.

• 28:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. I think they're going to try to also, I hope, build a distribution case if evidence supports one.

• 28:37Derrick Levasseur?

  That's possible.

• 28:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  Like they did with Matthew Perry, right?

• 28:39Derrick Levasseur?

  Damn girl, you're good. I was just going to say, so that's the best comparable. Matthew Perry, right? Go back and look at that case. You had, I believe, five people who were arrested and eventually charged and sentenced with multiple year sentencing coming toward these people from the person who provided it to, I believe, his assistant, who was like the intermediary in that whole situation. So if they can prove some level of culpability during this process, whether it was buying the pills, supplying the pills or administering the pills to her. So for example, if we learn that it was actually Brian's dealer from South Carolina, who gave the pills to Brian, who then supplied one of those pills to Hayden,

• 29:21Derrick Levasseur?

  he could be held criminally responsible as well as his drug dealer. So they're going to go through it.

• 29:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  If they can prove that this was a, a repeated thing as well, right? Like let's say for the last six to eight months, or even if it was Hayden's drug dealer in LA. But let's say for the last six to eight months, it was Brian who was going to meet the drug dealer and picking them up and bringing them back to Hayden. And you can prove there's a pattern there. Then that, that's also something they could use.

• 29:46Derrick Levasseur?

  There's going to be text messaging. There's, there's going to, because they're not expecting this to happen. And so there's going to be exchanges and communications where they're going to be able to go back and trace it. Here's the one issue with Matthew Perry, it worked out. It's not what you know, it's what you can prove. They have to be able to identify and also illustrate how this was done to a level where it would be proof beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. So this is definitely not the last time we've heard about this case. There is going to be something. The question I have at this point, is it going to be enough to actually hold people accountable? And we're going to keep you updated. We're going to keep you updated, whether it's here or on Crime Weekly. We will let you know if there's any future developments that are important to cover,

• 30:30Derrick Levasseur?

  because this isn't just about Hayden. This is about an epidemic in our country.

• 30:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  I was just going to say that. I was just going to say that. Yeah.

• 30:37Derrick Levasseur?

  It's not just because she's a celebrity. This is important because it's happening to people that you know and love every single day.

• 30:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Every single day.

• 30:46Derrick Levasseur?

  And I do think that if we continue this pattern of holding the people who are supplying these prescriptions responsible, it will serve as a, as a deterrent in the future. I don't think it'll solve the problem. That's a much bigger, you know, conversation to have, but it's a start.

• 31:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  I want people to know, like, there's people listening here now who may be doing this thing and no judgment. You may be using some sort of drug. You may be getting these pills and you're not getting them from a doctor and you're not getting a prescription. Maybe you're getting it from a friend or a friend who knows a guy. And, and there's been no issues with your friend. They've been taking these pills and they're fine.

• 31:22Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 31:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  I need you to understand that fentanyl is not a danger to someone who's intentionally going out and looking for fentanyl or buying heroin that's got fentanyl. And it's not just a danger to, to them. It's showing up everywhere. It's showing up in counterfeit pills that are made to look like legitimate prescription medications. Even Xanax, I heard that there was Xanax that had stuff put in it, fentanyl put in it. And you cannot look at one of these pills and actually know what's inside of it.

• 31:47Derrick Levasseur?

  Absolutely not.

• 31:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  So if you're buying a pill from somebody or getting it from a friend, ordering it online, if you're getting it anywhere other than a legitimate pharmacy, please understand that you are taking a risk and we don't want something to happen to you. And I understand that these, you may have back pain, you may have a legitimate medical reason. I understand that painkillers are so hard to obtain now because of everything that's happened in the past. But please don't put your life in danger for something like this, because if you're not getting it from a real source, you just don't know. Even the person giving it to you doesn't know.

• 32:23Derrick Levasseur?

  No.

• 32:23Stephanie Harlowe?

  Necessarily.

• 32:24Derrick Levasseur?

  We hear stories all the time about college kids who didn't have a history at all. And one night they're at a party and due to peer pressure or whatever, they try it and they're dead. And so we, we just got to continue to have these conversations and talk about it.

• 32:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  Even in marijuana, I've heard now.

• 32:40Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. You can lease marijuana with fentanyl for sure.

• 32:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Which is like, is that intentional? Cause I feel like that's intentional at this point.

• 32:46Derrick Levasseur?

  No, people are, they're just trying to increase the high and they don't know what they're doing.

• 32:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  They're trying to increase dependency. They're selling it to like young kids and hoping those kids come back to them. Cause it's like, oh, this weed is better than any weed I've had. But you see like 16 year olds, 15 year olds dying from fentanyl overdoses. They have fentanyl test strips. Obviously they have Narcan. We've talked about it, but I would say just try not to take the risk.

• 33:08Derrick Levasseur?

  The best prevention is, is stay away from it. If you don't know what you're consuming, don't take it. Be the quote unquote uncool person that night and refuse, because it's not worth the risk. It's not worth your life.

• 33:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  We don't want anything to happen to you guys.

• 33:20Derrick Levasseur?

  We'll keep you guys updated. We definitely want to open up this conversation. There's a lot to discuss here. If there's anything new that breaks with this particular case, we'll let you know. But our outro here is more truer than a lot of our episodes. Please stay safe out there. And we will see you later this week for the next part of our Jade Benning series, but part two. Uh, until then, have a good night.

• 33:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bye.