Legendary Hollywood actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home Wednesday, prompting investigating officials to call their deaths “suspicious.”
The bodies of Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 65, were found in separate rooms, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. One of their dogs was also found dead.
Hackman was an Oscar-winning actor who was best known for roles in “The French Connection,” “The Conversation” and “Unforgiven.” Arakawa was a classical pianist.
Here is what we know about their deaths.
How did they die?
It remains unclear how Hackman and Arakawa died, and officials are looking into the circumstances.
The sheriff’s office said Thursday afternoon that it has not determined a cause of death. Officials have said no signs of foul play are apparent, and an autopsy found no external trauma to either Hackman or Arakawa.
Toxicology and carbon monoxide tests were requested for both, and results are still pending, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Santa Fe City Fire Department did not find signs of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning, according to an affidavit for a search warrant, and New Mexico Gas Co. found no evidence indicating there was a problem with the pipes in and around the house.
“Circumstances surrounding the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation,” according to the affidavit.
When were they found?
Hackman and Arakawa were found Wednesday afternoon after someone called 911 to report the bodies. Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Thursday the couple had been dead “quite a while.”
A pest control worker was at the residence Wednesday and noticed the couple were not home, which was apparently unusual. The worker contacted a security officer in the subdivision, who went to the house and discovered the couple inside, Mendoza said.
A man who described himself as a caretaker of the subdivision called 911 to report the bodies, according to the call audio. He said that the door was locked and that he could not go inside, but that he saw them through the window and they were not moving.
Two maintenance workers said they found the couple’s front door ajar when they went to check on the residence, according to the affidavit.
Santa Fe County deputies “did not observe any signs of forced entry into the home,” according to the affidavit.
Where were they found?
Deputies found Arakawa’s body on the floor of a bathroom, according to the affidavit. A space heater was near her head, and an opened prescription bottle was on the counter with pills “scattered on the counter-top.” It was not immediately clear what kind of pills they were.
The deputies suspected “the heater could have fallen in the event the female abruptly fell to the ground.”
They then found the dead dog, a German shepherd, about 10 to 15 feet from Arakawa in a closet in the bathroom.
As the deputies cleared the home, they found Hackman in the house’s mudroom, and the deputies believed he could have suddenly fallen, the affidavit says.
Both bodies showed “obvious signs of death,” according to the affidavit. Arakawa’s also showed signs of “body decomposition.”
Two other dogs were also found alive on the property, according to the affidavit. One was in the bathroom near Arakawa, and the other was outside the home.
What do we know about the investigation?
The investigation continues.
In calling for a “thorough search and investigation,” officials in the affidavit cited a number of oddities found at the residence: the unlocked front door, the space heater on the bathroom floor, the open pill bottle with scattered pills, the presence of two living dogs and a third that was dead, the fact that Hackman was in a separate room from Arakawa and no obvious signs of a gas leak.
After they found the couple, the deputies searched the rest of the property and found nothing else “out of place,” according to the affidavit. All other buildings on the property and the garage were locked, and there was no evidence that the house had been “rummaged through or items were taken from inside.”
Even though there was no clear evidence of foul play, Mendoza said Thursday that investigators are not ruling anything out.
What has the family said?
Hackman’s family said in a brief statement Thursday that he was “loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa.”
“We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss,” Elizabeth, Leslie and Annie Hackman said.
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