Hayden Panettiere's estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, 70, is raising serious questions about the final hours of her daughter's life, claiming the account she received of events leading up to the actress's unresponsive state is "full of holes." The Heroes and Nashville star tragically passed away at 36 on August 16 at a residence in Greenville, South Carolina.

First responders arrived around 1:51 PM following a 911 call, finding Hayden in cardiac arrest. Despite resuscitation efforts, she was pronounced dead shortly after 2:30 PM. An autopsy revealed no signs of trauma contributing to her death, and the official cause and manner of death are still under investigation.

Lesley, who had a famously complicated relationship with her daughter, has now spoken out about what she was told regarding Hayden's final hours with her on-again, off-again partner, Brian Hickerson. In an extensive interview, Lesley stated she has pressed investigators for answers and questioned the timeline Brian reportedly provided to police.

Brian has not been accused of any crime in connection with Hayden's death, and authorities have not announced evidence of foul play. His attorney has requested privacy while the investigation proceeds.

According to Lesley, Brian informed police that Hayden was doing her makeup around 10:30 AM on the morning of her death before he left. Lesley said she was told Brian later returned to the property and took a nap. At some point afterward, his brother Zach reportedly arrived, and Hayden was subsequently found unresponsive.

This timeline is what Lesley is now challenging. "I don't know how you can take a nap near someone who's dying and not realize something's wrong," she told the Daily Mail. Lesley offered her own theory about what might have occurred, but there is no publicly available evidence to substantiate it.

Brian's brother, Zach, has provided a separate account of that morning, stating that Brian attempted to revive Hayden after finding her unconscious and administered Narcan, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses. A police report previously indicated that both Brian and Zach were at the property and were listed in connection with the 911 call. The report also noted that Brian showed responding officers a bag containing medication Hayden had been taking.

The investigation into Hayden's death is ongoing, and many questions remain. Audio from the emergency dispatch, obtained by several outlets, referred to an apparent overdose, though this has not been established as Hayden's official cause of death. Toxicology results are still pending. The Drug Enforcement Administration has reportedly joined the investigation, and Lesley previously told TMZ that she was informed a narcotics investigator was involved.

Lesley stated she questioned police shortly after her daughter's death about whether the circumstances would be further investigated. She had already publicly voiced concerns about Brian immediately following the tragedy. "This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death, and that was Brian Hickerson," she told NBC News. "There is a lot of history in the past that Brian has enabled Hayden many times and this is why her father and I had been concerned for a long time about him and frankly, his family," she added.

Hayden and Brian were first linked in 2018, and their relationship became increasingly turbulent. Brian was arrested following domestic violence incidents involving the actress and later pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend. He was sentenced to probation and served jail time.

Hayden candidly wrote about the relationship in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, published just months before her death. She detailed years of abuse and her struggles to extricate herself from the relationship, despite interventions from those around her. Lesley has now described her daughter's relationship with Brian as a deeply unhealthy "codependent bond." "I would talk to both of them about it," she told the Daily Mail. "I would say, 'This is a codependent relationship, and it is not healthy for either of you.'" She added, "My sadness is that everything that I did, her father did, friends did, business people did - we could not break that codependent bond. It is so much more powerful than people understand."

The tragedy is further complicated by the fact that mother and daughter were estranged when Hayden died. Hayden offered a painful account of their relationship in her memoir, describing the complicated dynamic that developed after Lesley began managing her career as a child.

Hayden began appearing in commercials as a baby before landing roles in One Life to Live and Guiding Light. By her teens, she was supporting a major Hollywood career that would lead to Heroes and Nashville. In her memoir, Hayden described feeling as though her relationship with her mother increasingly revolved around her career rather than simply being mother and daughter.

Lesley disputes aspects of her daughter's account. Speaking about putting Hayden into modeling as a baby, she told the Daily Mail that her original intention was simply to put any earnings into a college fund. "I never expected her to be a professional actor, never," she said. Lesley acknowledged that she could be demanding but denied being abusive, stating, "I was strong, definitely, but I was not abusive by any stretch of the imagination." Lesley has also addressed criticism regarding comments she made after Hayden's death.