Lawyer Kurt Sommer filed a petition Tuesday in the state District Court in Santa Fe attempting to prevent the medical investigator and the Santa Fe County Sheriff\u2019s Office from releasing the footage.<\/p>\n
The petition wants to block the release of the couple\u2019s autopsy and \u201cdeath investigation\u201d until their deaths can be litigated.<\/p>\n
Sommer wrote that once the images are released,\u00a0\u201cthe bell cannot be unrung.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The estate is seeking to\u00a0\u201cprevent the Office of the Medical Investigator and the Santa Fe County Sheriff\u2019s Office from releasing, including but not limited to, any and all photographic evidence, video evidence, and body cam footage gathered through each entity\u2019s respective investigations into the death of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa-Hackman.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The 95-year-old and 65-year-old were found dead at their property in Santa Fe Summit last month.<\/p>\n Arakawa was found in a bathroom next to a space heater, while Oscar-winner Gene Hackman was found dead in an entryway.<\/p>\n The Santa Fe detective who examined the scene said there was \u201cbloating in her face and mummification in her hands and feet.\u201d<\/p>\n Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, tragically lost their lives at some point last month before they were ultimately found.<\/p>\n Both were found partially mummified in separate rooms of their New Mexico home.<\/p>\n Their surviving dogs were credited with helping responders find them.<\/p>\n The couple\u2019s two living dogs continuously ran up to them, barking and running off in a different direction.<\/p>\n Hackman died from hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, while Arakawa died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Authorities have concluded their investigation into the mysterious deaths of legendary actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Aaraka, but everything regarding their situation is not quite over. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24059","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\/24059","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=24059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24061,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24059\/revisions\/24061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Gene Hackman and Wife Betsy\u2019s Surviving Dogs Assisted First Responders<\/h2>\n
![\"Betsy](\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/gettyimages-104892858-594x594-1-1024x563.jpg\")