Hackman, 95, was\u00a0found dead on his mud room floor\u00a0<\/a><\/span>Wednesday; his wife Betsy Arakawa, 65, lifeless in a bathroom by the front door, with prescription pills scattered around. One of their three dogs died near her.<\/p>\n Two days after the shocking discovery, police announced that they believe\u00a0Hackman died on February 17<\/a><\/span>, after finding that was the day his pacemaker stopped recording his heartbeat.<\/p>\n Police saw no signs of foul play but are also\u00a0investigating the deaths<\/a><\/span>\u00a0as potentially suspicious.<\/p>\n The case is shrouded in the kind of intrigue reserved for Hackman’s detective thriller novels and has garnered international attention – with many wondering how their deaths went unnoticed for so long.<\/p>\n Neighbors in their gated private community off a winding canyon road five miles outside of Santa Fe told The\u00a0New York Times<\/a><\/span>\u00a0that despite living with the celebrity couple for years, most of them never even caught a glimpse of them.<\/p>\n ‘They have a gate, and we have a gate, and we just have never even seen each other,’ said James Everett, who has lived part-time in a house next door for about five years.<\/p>\n Bud Hamilton lived next door to the couple for about two decades, but said\u00a0he and his wife had dinner with them only once in 20 years.<\/p>\n Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife\u00a0Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found mummified in their New Mexico home<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Many of their neighbors in the gated private community off a winding canyon road five miles outside of Santa Fe said they had never even met the couple<\/p>\n Longtime resident and former president of the homeowner’s association, Harvey Chalker, said Arakawa handled their business and met Hackman once when he bought a pair of hiking shoes from his shop.<\/p>\n ‘He wanted to be quiet, he didn’t want to be bothered, and I don’t blame him,’ Chalker said.<\/p>\n Fernando Miranda, a neurologist who has owned a house near the couple since 2018, recalling visiting the neighborhood on February 17 and said it is saddening to know the couple may have died then.<\/p>\n ‘We all sort of cherish the fact that we are isolated,’ he said.<\/p>\n Beau Theriot,\u00a0visits his house in\u00a0the neighborhood<\/a><\/span>\u00a0a few times a year, said he saw Hackman using a cane as he walked along the road with his wife a few years ago.<\/p>\n ‘I know there’s some nice people up there, I just don’t know them,’ Theriot said.<\/p>\n Morgan Freeman paid an\u00a0emotional tribute to Hackman<\/a><\/span>\u00a0during the 2025 Oscars In Memoriam segment on Sunday.<\/p>\n Freeman, 87, who starred alongside double Oscar winner Hackman in Under Suspicion and Unforgiven,\u00a0lauded his friend and co-star<\/a><\/span>\u00a0as he took to the stage.<\/p>\n Hackman famously played Lex Luthor opposite Christopher Reeve’s Superman, but he was known for being a man of steel himself.<\/p>\n As a 16-year-old boy, he lied about his age to join the Marines in 1946.<\/p>\n Filming a heart-pounding car chase for 1971 classic The French Connection, he drove the car himself up to 90mph down busy Brooklyn streets and got in a real-life smash with a student driver who strayed onto the set.<\/p>\n Next door neighbor James Everett said, ‘They have a gate, and we have a gate, and we just have never even seen each other’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Two days after the shocking discovery, police announced that they believe Hackman died on February 17, after finding that was the day his pacemaker stopped recording<\/p>\n And some time after he moved to Santa Fe in the late 1980s, an unverified local legend tells of students at St. John’s College hopping his gate and getting in his pool, splashing around until they heard a shotgun being cocked and Hackman saying ‘Get out of my goddamn pool, you goddamn Johnnies’.<\/p>\n Both he and his wife could pilot an airplane \u2013 and did so, even into their advanced years.<\/p>\n Investigators\u00a0probing their deaths<\/a><\/span>\u00a0soon found a prescription bottle, surrounded by pills on the countertop in the actor’s home.<\/p>\n Three medications were removed from the home, including Diltiazem, a blood pressure medication; a thyroid medication, and Tylenol, according to\u00a0a search warrant<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n![\"Gene](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2025\/03\/03\/22\/95679337-14457171-Gene_Hackman_95_and_his_wife_Betsy_Arakawa_65_were_found_mummifi-a-1_1741040818190.jpg\")
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