Man’s best friend ’til the end.
Gene Hackman’s dogs helped first responders find the actor’s dead body after they searched his home for more than 30 minutes.
After the “French Connection” star’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found dead in their Santa Fe, NM, home on Feb. 26, paramedics with the Santa Fe Fire Department searched the property for half an hour and did not locate anyone else, Fire Chief Brian Moya told USA Today.
As the paramedics continued looking throughout the 10,000-square-foot home, one of the couple’s dogs kept running up to them, barking and running off in a different direction.
The emergency medical responders initially thought the pet wanted to play, but they quickly realized it was trying to lead them somewhere.
“[The dog] was trying to say, ‘Hey, come over here! Come over here!’” Moya said.
The canine then led the first responders to a mudroom next to the kitchen in the home.
Inside the room was the body of Hackman, collapsed on the floor with his sunglasses and cane lying nearby.
Moya told the outlet that Hackman’s hands were blackened, showing signs of decomposition, and that the back door was propped open, which allowed the couple’s surviving dogs, Bear and Nikita, access outside.
Hackman, Arakawa and a third dog were found dead in their $4 million home on Feb. 26.
According to autopsy reports, Arakawa died nearly a week earlier than her husband after contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a rare rodent-transmitted virus. She was 65.
The Oscar winner’s cause of death, on the other hand, was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with “evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease” as a significant contributory factor. He was 95.
Due to Hackman’s battle with Alzheimer’s, a medical examiner believes it is “quite possible” the actor did not know his wife was dead during the week he was in the home with her decomposing body.
Hackman is survived by his son Christopher and daughters Elizabeth and Leslie, whom he welcomed with his first wife, Faye Maltese.
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