Hayden Panettiere’s Neighbor Claims Alleged Dealer Stopped By Days Before Her Trip to Carolina

TMZ
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1 Video View·Sep 16, 2026
Mia, why don't you kind of lay out what you saw and what period of time you saw it in?
Well, Hayden, she owned the apartment and her family had lived there for, you know,
quite a few years before she returned in January of 2020. And it was at that time I started seeing
a lot of people come into the building. And it was interesting because she would go to the door
and meet them at the lobby and go to the car and speak with them for a few minutes and then come
back. Or a couple of times I saw these individuals in the elevator. It was quite frequently for quite
a while. There were two women that I saw primarily and a male individual. And the male individual I
saw one week prior to her, I believe, no, it was a few days actually before she left for her trip,
where she passed.
What was it specifically that you saw them delivering, if there was anything that you
could see when they were going to her door?
I typically would see just like a brown paper bag or something. And at first I thought,
you know, perhaps it was marijuana or something. And I realized that no, it's nothing like that.
It seemed more nefarious than that. And, you know, I grew up in an environment that was
very similar to this, unfortunately. And, you know, it's pretty easy to identify what you're
familiar with. And I spoke with my daughter a couple of times. She had seen these individuals
as well. And we both agreed that there was something shady or that they were seen delivering
things.
The size of the bags were, are they like lunch bag, like brown paper lunch bag size?
Smaller, smaller. They were just, yeah, like smaller. Like I saw a lot of brown paper bags,
but they were much smaller than a lunch bag.
You mentioned a male showing up, the male you had seen repeatedly showing up a few days before
she left for South Carolina. Can you describe that in as much detail as possible? Was he holding
a bag? Did she answer the door? Describe that because that could be relevant.
Well, he was holding a bag. He couldn't get into the building. He had buzzed their apartment quite
a few times. And I was coming back from a walk and I led him into the building, went up into the
elevator with him and he did, yeah, he had a small bag on him. And interestingly enough, though,
it had Brian written on it. I believe it was just the first name and possibly the last initial H,
but I just thought, yeah, that's interesting. He was like, you know, kind of early thirties,
middle age. Sometimes it's really hard to tell how old people are now. And definitely, I don't
know. He resembled like a cartel member or something. He looked at, this man is a little
bit more sophisticated than the two women I saw delivering things. So you raised that
possibility that the bag said Brian, obviously Brian Hickerson.
Oh, I saw his name on it. I saw his name on it. And that was also, we know an issue in the
that we've seen the posters, they look like wanted posters, but it was basically the
management of the building saying they did not want Brian there. So if anyone saw him to report
him, even though those signs were up, clearly Brian, we now know was with Hayden all along,
even when they acted like they weren't together. Yeah. I saw him there constantly.
Did you see, did you see Brian there that week, the week before he left?
Yes, absolutely. I saw him constantly. They're just the next apartment over from me. And
we have parking spots in the garage that are right next to each other. And he would be in
the garage frequently working on his car or, you know, and I think at one point I had mentioned
that he had passed out and left the car running for hours and I had to get someone to get him out
of the car. And, you know, he was just always doing something that was kind of anti-social,
but yeah, he was here consistently. Did have the authorities come and spoken with you or
anybody else in the building as far as you know? No. And they keep saying that there's been raids
here. I haven't seen anything. You know, the, my unit faces the streets. I can see anyone who
pulls up and I can hear the elevator pinging. And I also have a ring and I haven't seen nor heard
anything. Well, this is really, really interesting. And it is particularly interesting
that this gentleman you saw showed up a few days before they left and had a bag with the name
Brian on it. That is interesting. I believe it was on a Tuesday. Yeah. And, and I believe they,
they left on Saturday, Saturday. Yeah. So it would have been that, that Tuesday.
And yeah, it was interesting. I, I remember talking to my daughter about it. Like there's,
you know, just some, like, could he be more obvious, you know, this, this individual that
he was some type of dealer or something, the way he came up in the elevator, like,
you know, we had seen him a couple of times before, as I mentioned, but
it just felt extremely obvious to me. It is, you know, and I think people might think this,
Mia, when you, as you're laying this out, if this person was a dealer or even a delivery person for
a dealer, it seems odd to put someone's name on the bag. That just seems like, unless he's doing
multiple runs and wants to keep it clear. It seems like it's something you wouldn't want
your dealer to do. That's what I thought as well. And then I realized that possibly they were doing
that to make it appear as though there were, you know, marijuana hash or some type of regular
delivery because yeah, otherwise it would look, you know, completely suspicious.
