Hayden Panettiere took increasingly serious steps to protect herself from ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson in the months before her death.
According to a source who spoke to Us Weekly, “she helped him from time to time because he made her feel guilty, claiming he was trying to turn his life around, but couldn’t because she put him in jail,” the source said.
“But he would always take advantage of her and wouldn’t leave, so she hired private security to not only remove him, but to keep him away from her.”
According to the source, Hickerson, 37, reconnected with Panettiere earlier this year after asking to stay with her temporarily.
“Brian said he needed to crash on Hayden’s couch. He told her that he had no money and nowhere to go because of the past criminal charges against him and he blamed that on her,” the source said.
“He said it was her fault. She let him stay there temporarily, but then he wouldn’t leave, so her private security was involved to remove him.”
At some point during that stay, Panettiere reportedly discovered he had set up cameras in her home. The source added that around the same time the building’s homeowners association warned residents about him, her private security guard actually lived with her to ensure he stayed away.
A former neighbor, Mia Terrazzas, described being frightened of Hickerson’s frequent presence at Panettiere’s West Hollywood apartment in an interview with Inside Edition on August 19.
“He never stopped living at her place,” Terrazzas said, recalling one incident in which “he ripped apart her bathroom, where he just took a sledgehammer at 5 in the morning.”
She said she called 911 at least half a dozen times over disturbances at the property.
Hickerson was reportedly out of Panettiere’s life for several months earlier this year, but that changed this summer.
“Brian was with her at the time of her death,” a source told Us Weekly.
“All was well up until a week ago when she went kind of silent, and then she passed away.”
Panettiere was found dead at an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday, August 16, at age 36.
