Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife appeared to have been dead for “quite a while” when the couple and their dog were found on Wednesday afternoon at their home in the US state of New Mexico, police say.
Hackman, 95, was discovered in a side room near the kitchen of the house in Santa Fe, while his wife Betsy Arakawa, a 65-year-old classical pianist, was found in a bathroom.
Authorities reported no signs of injury but deemed the deaths “suspicious enough” to investigate and have not ruled out foul play. No cause of death was given.
In a wide-ranging career, Hackman won two Academy Awards for The French Connection and Unforgiven.
What happened to Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa?
Hackman, 95, his wife Betsy Arakawa, 65, and one of their three dogs were found dead by a maintenance worker who had arrived to do routine work at their Santa Fe home on Wednesday.
In a recording of the 911 call, the worker who discovered the scene can be heard telling police he spotted Ms Arakawa’s body through a window.
According to an affidavit prepared by police to support a search warrant, Hackman was found in the home’s mudroom — a small room near an entryway where shoes and jackets are stored.
A deputy observed that Hackman appeared to have fallen. A pair of sunglasses and a cane were on the floor nearby.
Ms Arakawa was found next to a fallen space heater in a bathroom, where an open prescription bottle and pills were scattered on a nearby countertop.
Police said a dead German shepherd was found in a bathroom closet. Two healthy dogs were also found on the property — one inside and one outside.
Investigators say they were dead for some time, noting mummification in Ms Arakawa’s hands and feet.
That refers to when a body’s soft tissue has been preserved, often by environmental factors such as low humidity and cool conditions.
The search warrant affadavit stated “the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search investigation”.
It noted the home’s front door was “unsecured and opened”.
The maintenance workers told police they rarely saw the couple when conducting routine maintenance, and kept in contact primarily through text messages and phone calls with Ms Arakawa.
They said they last had contact with the couple two weeks prior.
How did they die?
Their cause of death has not yet been confirmed.
There was no indication they had been shot or had any wounds, nor any signs of an intruder.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said police had not ruled foul play out.
“What I did state was there was no obvious sign or indication of foul play; there was no immediate sign of foul play,” he told reporters.
“I haven’t ruled that out yet. This is an investigation, so we’re keeping everything on the table.
“I think the autopsy is going to tell us a lot, and any evidence we collect.”
Speaking to TMZ, Hackman’s daughter, Elizabeth Jean Hackman, suggested carbon monoxide poisoning may be to blame.
But there were no obvious signs of a gas leak.
The New Mexico Gas Co tested lines in and around the home, and the Fire Department found no signs of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning.
“As of now, there are no signs or evidence indicating there were any problems associated to the pipes in and around the residence,” New Mexico gas company reportedly stated.
Who was Gene Hackman?
Hackman was considered among the best actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
The five-time Oscar nominee routinely showed up on lists of Hollywood’s greatest actors of the 20th century.
He won Academy Awards for his roles in The French Connection and Unforgiven.
In recent years he was far less visible, though even the most mundane outings caught the attention of the press.
The Independent wrote about him attending a show at a performing arts centre in 2018.
The New York Post reported on him pumping gas, doing yard work and getting a chicken sandwich at a fast food restaurant in 2023.
Aside from appearances at awards shows, he was rarely seen in the Hollywood social circuit and retired from acting about 20 years ago.
“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,” his daughters and granddaughter said in a statement Thursday.
Who was Betsy Arakawa?
Ms Arakawa was a classically trained concert pianist and co-founder of a home furniture business.
She was raised in Honolulu and studied piano at an early age.
At just 11 years old, she performed for 9,000 children at the Honolulu International Center Concert Hall, according to a 1971 report from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper.
In Santa Fe, she helped found Pandora’s in 2001. The store’s website describes Pandora’s as “dealing in functional art, the art of life — what one lives in, sleeps in and wraps around one’s shoulders on a chilly day”.
She and Hackman met in the mid-1980s at a gym in California, according to a 1989 story in The New York Times, and they married in 1991.