Research on the mysterious deaths of Oscarscar’s winner Gene hackman and his wife, classic pianist Betsy ArakawaIt is clear that while authorities discover some answers around their passage – There are many unknowns.
95 -year -old hackman and arakawa, 64, were found dead In his house in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Wednesday, February 26, along with one of his three dogs. The other two animals were found alive and still on the property.
“It is very sad to announce the passage of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,” read a statement from Hackman’s representative on behalf of his family. “He was loved and admired by millions from all over the world for his brilliant actress career, but for us he was always just father and grandfather. We will miss him a lot and we are devastated by loss.”
Hackman is survived by his three adult children, Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie, since his first marriage to the missing ex-wife Faye Maltese.
There has yet been a reason to suspect his death on his death, but the Santa Fe Xerife department has not yet been able to rule out a cause of death and has determined that the situation surrounding his death is enough to justify a “exhaustive investigation”.
As authorities continue to look for answers, continue to move -for some of the biggest questions -and some possible answers -about Hackman and Arakawa.

How did Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa died?
The only question above all is simply how this happened – and there are very limited answers pointing why, but a large amount of information rules out some of the possibly most obvious possibilities.
According to authorities, there was no sign of forced entry into the home and no sign of any struggle, only two human bodies and a pet seemed to die suddenly. Hackman’s daughter Elizabeth initially suspected carbon monoxide poisoning but the stage fire body I have not found leak signs, According to an affidavit of the investigation.
During a Friday, February 28, Press Conference, County Xerif Adan Mendoza He announced that both Hackman and his wife “tried negatives in carbon monoxide”, probably discarding him as a possible cause of death.
However, some gas poisoning of some kind is not ruled out, as Mendoza said on Friday that the pathologist assigned to the case “would be the one that would rule out poisonous gas as a cause of death,” according to NBC.
Arakawa’s body was found in a bathroom with a space heater above the head. Next to her body was an open bottle of recipe pills spread to the floor. According to a search mandate, Tylenol, a thyroid medicine did not specify Found by authorities.
Hackman’s body was found on the floor near the kitchen in a similar state: a couple of sunglasses and the actor’s walking cane was next to him, suggesting that he experienced a sudden fall. According to the authorities, neither Hackman nor arakawa bodies showed no signs of external trauma, which means that it was unlikely to die as a result of a violent fall, and there were no immediate signs of gross play.
Hackman Leslie’s daughter I talked to Use weekly Exclusively that his famous father was generally in “good health”, although his memory faded. “But everyone was fine.” Shouting the death of Hackman and his “very strange” Make Miss, Leslie, 58, said that “there was no hint of any problems in his home … There has never been a problem.”
State Office of the spokesman for the medical researcher Chris Ramirez He said that a final cause of death may take four to six weeks to complete, according to CNN. Mendoza told NBC that a toxicology report could take even longer: three or more months.

When did they die?
During the Friday press conference, Mendoza shared that Hackman’s pacemaker showed that the actor’s “last event” was recorded on February 17.
“According to the pathologist, I think it is a very good assumption, which was his last day of life,” said Xerife.
Arakawa’s body “showed obvious signs of death, body decomposition, swelling on the face and mummification (sic) in both hands and feet,” according to the affidavit, which indicates that he had died at least two weeks before the discovery of his body.
Kaiko, Arakawa’s mother’s house, said throughout his mother Daily In an interview published on Friday, February 28th I had Arakawa not called to make the input registration to his mother in months.
“The last time he called was October,” he explained. “We were thinking, what happened.”
Hackman’s pacemaker recording does not reveal, but if Arakawa died the same day as Hackman, although Mendoza believes that the deadlines for his deaths were very “very close”. On Friday, he reiterated that the determination of those who died first is a “very hard determination to do”, adding that he does not believe that not a medical examiner “could make this determination based on initial autopsy”.
“There was no hint that someone moved on the house or nothing different, so it is very difficult to determine if they both happened at the same time or how far they happened together,” he said.

Why did it take so long to find their bodies?
After maintenance workers found their bodies, they said they had not heard Hackman and Arakawa in about two weeks.
A calling person told 911 that two unconscious people could see a window but could not enter the home, according to the call obtained by Us.
“No, friend, do not move,” said the person calling the recording. “Just send someone here very fast.”
One of the possible reasons why their bodies were not immediately found can be due to Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the couple’s friends, for a long time, Daniel and Barbara Lenihan“Arakawa took steps such as masking to ensure that her husband would not get sick,” for CNN, and “for his health worries after Covid-19 Pandemic,” the couple “had seen less” Hackman and Arakawa “in recent years.”
“Until a year ago, he was still on his bicycle and Betsy did him doing yoga and different things at home and trying to stay very in shape, and she fed him very well,” she said in the publication. “They were so lovely to be around. Probably never seen a couple who brought and enjoyed so much.”
According to Mendoza, Hackman and Arakawa were “very private people and a private family”, and the couple had not been seen in public since March 2024, also contributing to the delay in discovering their bodies.

What else do authorities investigate?
Mendoza described the recipe pills found near the body of Arakawa as “important evidence” for both the pathologist and the medical examiner in terms of determining a cause and form of death.
In addition to the medication, authorities also recovered several articles from the couple’s house to help them in their ongoing research, including two green cell devices, Myquest (a medical diagnostic diagnostic service) and a monthly planner for 2025, according to the affidavit.
It is not entirely clear how the aforementioned helps the authorities in search of the cause of death. According to CNN, security records for the couple’s closed community could help researchers determine who was coming and traveling the estimated time of the couple’s death.

Why were only 1 of their 3 dogs died?
One of the three German shepherds in the family was found dead about 10 to 15 meters from Arakawa’s body in a dog cove, although it was initially reported that the German Shepard was found in a closet.
The other two canines of the couple found themselves alive outside the house and are now in the care of the control of animals of Santa Fe.
If some toxin had been filtered in the house, it would make sense that the dog inside would have died, while the two exteriors survived. The Xerife office said that it could make an autopsy to the deceased dog if the Hackman and Arakawa results require it.



