{"id":22884,"date":"2025-02-28T17:39:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T17:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=22884"},"modified":"2025-02-28T17:39:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T17:39:31","slug":"what-we-know-about-gene-hackman-and-wife-betsy-arakawas-deaths-amid-reports-of-mummification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=22884","title":{"rendered":"What we know about Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa\u2019s deaths amid reports of \u2018mummification\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their Santa Fe home earlier this week on Wednesday (26 February).<\/p>\n

The married couple’s deaths have since been deemed\u00a0‘suspicious enough’ for investigation<\/a>, with a search warrant from police in Santa Fe revealing that\u00a0Hackman and Arakawa<\/a>\u00a0had been\u00a0dead for ‘some time’ and were found in different rooms.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Gene\"Gene<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their Santa Fe home earlier this week (26 February) (Donaldson Collection \/ Contributor \/ Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Where were Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies found?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hackman, 95, was found dead in a mudroom – a room designed for dirty or wet footwear and clothing – while Arakawa, 63, was found dead in a bathroom.<\/p>\n

Police said there was an open prescription bottle along with several pills scattered on the countertop near where Arakawa was found.<\/p>\n

The couple’s German Shepherd dog was found dead in a bathroom closet near to Arakawa.<\/p>\n

A portable heater, which was found near Arakawa’s head, was believed to have been possibly brought down in the event that she abruptly fell to the ground.<\/p>\n

Sunglasses and a walking cane were next to Hackman’s body, with a detective suspecting that the actor had also fallen suddenly.<\/p>\n

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\"Hackman\"Hackman<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies were found in two separate rooms (Ron Galella \/ Contributor \/ Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

What condition were\u00a0Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies found in?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A sheriff’s detective who responded to the scene said they believed the couple had been dead for some time because of Arakawa’s ‘decomposition’ and ‘mummification’ in the hands and feet.<\/p>\n

“The male decedent also showed obvious signs of death, similar and consistent with the female decedent,” the search warrant added.<\/p>\n

Preliminary findings from a medical investigation also found that the pair suffered ‘no external trauma’.<\/p>\n

A statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff\u2019s Office said: “In the early hours of Thursday, February 27 2025, Hackman and Arakawa were transported to the Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI).<\/p>\n

“An autopsy was performed. Initial findings noted no external trauma to either individual.”<\/p>\n

The Sheriff’s Office added that the official results of the post-mortem examinations and toxicology reports are pending.<\/p>\n

What have authorities said?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Authorities have confirmed that foul play isn’t suspected, although they haven’t ruled it out. They haven’t disclosed how the couple died.<\/p>\n

In a news conference on Thursday afternoon (27 February), Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said: “It sounds like they had been deceased for quite a while, and I don’t want to guess in reference to how long that was.”<\/p>\n

He added: “There was no immediate sign of foul play. Haven’t ruled that out yet.<\/p>\n

“This is an investigation, so we’re keeping everything on the table.”<\/p>\n

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\"Their\"Their<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Their deaths were deemed ‘suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation’ (New York Daily News Archive \/ Contributor \/ Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

What else did the search warrant reveal?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In an application for a search warrant, Detective Roy Arndt told a judge the circumstances of the couple’s death were ‘suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation’ because the person who called emergency services found the front door of the property open.<\/p>\n

There was no sign of forced entry into the home with nothing appearing out of place inside.<\/p>\n

“There was no indication of a struggle,” Mendoza told the media. “There was no indication of anything that was missing from the home or disturbed that would be an indication that there was a crime that had occurred.”<\/p>\n

Two other, healthy dogs were discovered roaming the property – one inside and one outside.<\/p>\n

The fire department and the gas company were also called out to check for a natural gas leak, which could cause carbon monoxide poisoning, but they didn’t detect anything, and there were ‘no obvious signs of a gas leak’, Arndt added.<\/p>\n

Police said there\u2019s no immediately clear cause of death, and also revealed that they have not discovered any kind of note or final statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their Santa Fe home earlier this week on Wednesday (26 February). The married couple’s deaths have since … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22886,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884\/revisions\/22886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}