The deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were being investigated, who were found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Wednesday.
Mr. Hackman’s body was found in the mud room and Ms. Alakava found it on the bathroom floor, according to the search warrant affidavit. A dead German shepherd was found in the bathroom closet near Ms. Alakava.
“There are no obvious signs of fouls,” the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, which is under investigation, said in a statement Thursday afternoon. But in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show Friday morning, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adam Mendoza said he “does not rule out the issue.”
According to the search warrant affidavit, there were no obvious signs of a gas leak in the house and the fire department found no signs of carbon monoxide leak.
That’s what we know.
what happened?
According to the sheriff’s office, a maintenance worker was called to the home after going to work on some work on Wednesday afternoon, when no one answered the door. Workers asked local safety for welfare checks and called 911 when they arrived and saw unresponsive bodies through windows.
The affidavit said deputies found Ms. Arakawa lying on one side of the bathroom floor with a space heater near her head, which might have fallen with her. An open prescription bottle and scattered pills near the counter in the bathroom.
Ms. Alakava’s body showed signs of decomposition, as well as “a mummy of hands and feet”, the affidavit said. Sheriff Mendoza told Today that according to the evidence, it has been “a few days, maybe even weeks,” said the couple. The dog is 10 to 15 feet from Ms. Alakava’s body in a bathroom closet. Two other dogs were found alive on the property.
Mr. Hackman’s body was in the mud room, and his body was similar to his wife’s body, the affidavit said. The affidavit says he was wearing gray sweatpants, a blue long-sleeved T-shirt, brown slippers and crutches. A pair of sunglasses is on his left. A representative at the scene said he seemed to have “suddenly fallen.”
Where is the investigation?
The investigation is underway on Thursday. The sheriff’s office said the autopsy performed on Mr. Hackman and Ms. Alakava showed no initial signs of external trauma on either of them.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said in a telephone interview that investigators are still trying to determine what caused the death, adding that no notes were found.
Both carbon monoxide tests and toxicology tests require both, but results are still waiting, according to the sheriff’s office. When asked in “Today” whether prescription drugs may be related to death, Sheriff Mendoza told the interviewer: “Yes, we have studied this specifically.”
How did Mr. Hackman spend his last years?
Mr. Hackman moved to Santa Fe County in the 1980s after filming some movies there. He married classical pianist Arakawa in 1991. The couple lives in adobe home in a secluded neighborhood above downtown Santa Fe, with winding roads and mountain views. Mr. Hackman sees it from time to time in the city center.
Mr. Hackman was nominated for five Academy Awards and won two awards over a 40-year career. He never officially retired from the show, but he told an interviewer in 2008 that he gave up on that because he didn’t want to “continue to put pressure” and risked “going out with sour taste.”
In his later years, Mr. Hackman spent time painting and sculpture. He also became a published writer. He worked with a friend to produce three historical novels and later wrote The Return of the Morning Peak (2011), The West and The Pursuit (2013), the thriller.
