Gene Hackman, wife found dead

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The only explanation now is that it could have been a double suicide with the pills.

But how would we explain the dog?

I have a bad feeling about this. According to a story on the AP homepage,

"According to the search warrant affidavit, a maintenance worker called 911 after spotting the bodies at the couple’s Santa Fe home. He reported the home’s front door was open when he arrived to do routine work, a detective wrote.
{BUT}
In a recording of the 911 call, though, the worker said he could see Arakawa (Hackman's late wife) lying on the floor through a window but was unable to get inside.

HMMMMMMMM........

It wasn't till well over a week that the bodies were discovered. Possibly the one dog starved to death while the other two managed to hang on.

The deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife remain a mystery as authorities confirm there were "no significant findings" of carbon monoxide or gas leaks at their New Mexico home.

The New Mexico Gas Co. conducted an investigation after the Oscar-winning actor; his wife, Betsy Arakawa; and their dog were found dead last week.

On Tuesday, the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office released a brief update on the investigation, saying it had received the gas company's findings.

"Those results are not believed to be a factor in the deaths of Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa or their dog though the information was relayed to the Office of the Medical Investigator for consideration," the sheriff's office said.

The sheriff's office added that the gas company issued five red tags: one for a minuscule, nonlethal leak at one of the stove burners and four for code enforcement violations not involving leaks or carbon monoxide. The violations involved a water heater and gas log lighters installed in three fireplaces, the sheriff's office said.

The sheriff said the information about the pills had been passed onto the medical investigator to help determine a cause of death.

Gene Hackman's wife died from a virus found in rodents, and the actor, who was in an “advanced state of Alzheimer’s," likely died a week later, officials in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said Friday.

Betsy Arakawa, 65, died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and the Oscar-winning actor, who was in very poor health, died seven days later, said Dr. Heather Jarrell, chief medical investigator for the New Mexico office of the medical investigator.

His cause of death was determined to be "hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with Alzheimer's disease as a significant contributory factor," she said, based on autopsy findings.

“I can tell you that he was in an advanced state of Alzheimer’s, and it’s quite possible he was not aware" his wife was dead in their home, Jarrell added

Hantaviruses are spread by rodents, primarily through droppings, urine and saliva and can cause serious illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The viruses can cause diseases like hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.

Symptoms of the virus include fever, aches and cough and can sometimes include vomiting and diarrhea that progress into shortness of breath and heart and lung failure, Jarrell said

Hackman tested negative for hantavirus, Jarrell said.

While Jarrell acknowledged "there is no reliable scientific method to accurately determine the exact time or date of death," she said it is likely Hackman died around Feb. 18 — the day after his pacemaker last recorded an "event”.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza offered a timeline of Arakawa's whereabouts in the lead-up to their deaths, and Jarrell noted that Arakawa was last known to be alive on Feb. 11.

Their bodies were found Feb. 26 in separate rooms of their 9,000-square-foot Santa Fe residence. Police were called after a maintenance worker discovered the bodies.

Hackman was found collapsed in a mudroom. Arakawa was found in a bathroom, where an open prescription pill bottle and scattered pills were found on the counter. One of their dogs was also found dead in a closet in a bathroom near Arakawa.

Officials initially said the dog that was found dead in a closet in the bathroom was a German shepherd. But the dead dog is now believed to be their Australian kelpie mix, Joey Padilla, owner of the Santa Fe Tails pet care facility which is involved in the surviving dogs’ care, said to The Associated Press.

Mendoza said Friday the dead dog, named Xena, is now undergoing a necropsy and results are pending. Officials said it is possible Xena died from starvation, given the timeline of Hackman and Arakawa’s deaths, and that dogs don’t get sick from hantavirus.

An examination of the dog found dead along with actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, in their Santa Fe home shows dehydration and starvation were likely what led to the animal's demise.

A report obtained by The Associated Press from the state Department of Agriculture's veterinary lab details partial mummification and noted that while the severe decomposition could have obscured changes in the organs, there was no evidence of infectious disease, trauma or poisoning that could have resulted in death.

The report noted that the dog's stomach was mostly empty except for small amounts of hair and bile.

The kelpie mix named Zinna was one of the couple's three dogs. It was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa's body, while two other dogs survived.

A state assessment found rodents on the sprawling Santa Fe, New Mexico, property of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, but concluded their main quarters had not been infested.

The inspection followed the deaths in February of Hackman, 95, from hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and Arakawa, 65, from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which spreads to humans only by contact with rodents or their urine and droppings.

The state Health Department's "homesite environmental assessment," based on a March 5 sweep of the home, was obtained through the state's Inspection of Public Records Act.

Among the trove of documents and body camera video Santa Fe authorities released Tuesday is a Feb. 11 email from Arakawa to her masseuse to cancel an appointment because Hackman was sick.

Arakawa wrote in the email that Hackman "woke up today with flu/cold-like symptoms, did a COVID test, negative. But out of an abundance of caution, I should cancel."

Investigators noted in their reports that Arakawa made a trip to a grocery store and a local pet food store the same day, which may have been the last time she was seen alive in public.

Detectives reported viewing security video of both visits to confirm her outing. The owner of the pet food store confirmed to investigators that Arakawa was there on Feb. 11 and that she went to the store once or twice a week to fulfill a strict diet for her dogs that included “gently cooked rabbit,” according to the documents released Tuesday.

Hackman's adult daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie Hackman, told investigators that their father was in decline. They said that on Jan. 30, 2024, they had to remind him three times that it was his birthday, according to the documents.

The two also said Hackman was so unfamiliar with contemporary technology that he used only landlines for phone calls and avoided cellphones.

The daughters said the couple was very private and would not hire housekeepers, though sheriff's deputies reported the main residence was tidy.

The daughters said that they had not seen rodents at the home but tat they had seen mouse traps. State health inspectors also noted the presence of rodent traps in their March 5 inspection of Hackman's and Arakawa's residence.

The inspectors found live rodents, dead rodents and rodent feces in a detached garage and rodent feces in the property's two guest houses and in its detached storage facilities, according to the state report on the inspection.

They also found a rodent nest, a live rodent and a dead rodent among working vehicles, abandoned vehicles or farm machinery on the property, the report said.

Report author Elizabeth VinHatton of the state Health Department wrote that all three of the property's garages and both of its houses had signs of rodent activity and that its sheds were accessible to rodents.

She also wrote: "Main dwelling clean with no signs of rodent activity."

VinHatton estimated the size of the main house is 8,000 to 9,000 square feet. A Redfin listing for the address says the four-bedroom home is 8,761 square feet in size and stands on a 6-acre parcel.

The main residence is where body camera video from Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office deputies captured the scene upon their arrival, with the bodies of Hackman and Arakawa blurred.

Video shows one of the couple's three dogs, described by deputies as a German shepherd, staying near Arakawa’s body.

“I also observed a large, brown in color German Shepard dog sitting approximately five feet away from the deceased female," Deputy J.L. Thomas wrote in an incident report.

Nearby, another dog was found dead in a dog crate.

In a necropsy report made public as part of Tuesday's release of documents and video, veterinary pathologist John Ragsdale concluded that if the dog was confined amid the deaths of Hackman and Arakawa — whose bodies were discovered Feb. 26, roughly eight days Hackman died — it may have died from lack of food and water.

Another of the couple's dogs was running loose and had to be lured and trapped the day the bodies were found, according to the sheriff's incident report.

It says Hackman's family granted permission for a friend to take possession of the two surviving dogs.