{"id":23029,"date":"2025-03-01T18:45:41","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T18:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=23029"},"modified":"2025-03-01T18:45:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T18:45:41","slug":"gene-hackman-was-dead-for-nine-days-before-being-discovered-decomposing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=23029","title":{"rendered":"Gene Hackman was ‘dead for nine days’ before being discovered ‘decomposing’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, who were found dead in their Santa Fe mansion on Wednesday (26 February), had likely been dead for over a week before being found.<\/p>\n

The retired actor, 95, resided in New Mexico,\u00a0USA<\/a>\u00a0after calling time on a seasoned career, which included roles in over 70\u00a0films<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adan Mendoza, the Sheriff of Santa Fe county,\u00a0originally stated<\/a>: “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail,” adding that they did ‘not believe that foul play was a factor.’<\/p>\n

The couple were\u00a0found mummified<\/a>\u00a0in separate rooms in their\u00a0home<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hackman<\/a>\u00a0was found in a ‘mudroom’ with his sunglasses and cane on the floor, while Arakawa was found in the bathroom with bloating on her face and mummification in her hands and feet, according to a search warrant obtained\u00a0by<\/a>\u00a0the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

As the cause of death is currently unknown,\u00a0authorities stated<\/a>\u00a0that the case was ‘suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation’.<\/p>\n

At a press conference yesterday (28 February), Sheriff Mendoza revealed that Hackman’s pacemaker’s last event was recorded on 17 February, while confirming that there was no carbon monoxide in their bodies.<\/p>\n

He said: “According to the pathologist, I think that is a very good assumption, that that was his last day of life.”<\/p>\n

This would mean that the 95-year-old may have been lying dead for nine days before being discovered.<\/p>\n

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The couple may have been dead for over a week before being found (Donaldson Collection\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

He had previously explained<\/a>\u00a0on the Today show, on Friday morning: “It\u2019s very difficult to put a timeline together even with the help of the office of the medical investigator.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust based on their body and other evidence on the body, it looked \u2014 it appears [that they were deceased for] several days, even up to a couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revelation that neither had carbon monoxide in their bodies means that the suggestions from Elizabeth Jean Hackman, the actor’s daughter, that\u00a0the pair died of a leak<\/a>, was incorrect.<\/p>\n

Santa Fe Fire Chief Brian Moya had also not ruled it out as a cause of death, though it was initially found that there were ‘no signs of a gas leak’.<\/p>\n

The front door was open and unsecured when they were discovered, while one of their three dogs had also died.<\/p>\n

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Their bodies were found partially mummified (Ron Galella\/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Santa Fe’s Sheriff further revealed that pills found next to Arakawa’s body in the bathroom she was found were ‘very important evidence’, as the information was passed to a medical investigator to find out more.<\/p>\n

“So we\u2019re looking at that specifically and other medications that were possibly in the residence. So that is something of concern,” he explained.<\/p>\n

Despite being ‘pretty confident’ that no foul play was involved, he added: “But of course, we\u2019re not ruling anything out.”<\/p>\n

The high-profile pair were found by two maintenance workers, who said they had not seen the couple for two weeks prior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, who were found dead in their Santa Fe mansion on Wednesday (26 February), had likely been dead for over a week … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23029","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\/23029","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=23029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23031,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23029\/revisions\/23031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}