SANTA FE, N.M. — Preliminary autopsy results didn’t determine how Oscar-winner Gene Hackman and his wife died at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but did rule out that they were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, the sheriff leading the investigation said Friday.
The condition of the bodies found Wednesday indicated the deaths occurred at least several days earlier and there was no sign of foul play.
Oscar-winner Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa may have been dead for days or weeks, sheriff says
At a news conference, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said the initial examination by the medical examiner showed no sign of carbon monoxide, a colorless and odorless gas produced from kitchen appliances and other fuel-burning items. When it collects in poorly ventilated homes, it can be fatal.
Mendoza also said an examination of the 95-year-old Hackman’s pacemaker showed it stopped working on Feb. 17, which means he may have died nine days earlier.
Hackman was found in an entryway. His wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, was found in a bathroom on her side. A space heater was near her head, and pills were scattered next to an open prescription bottle on the counter. Investigators said the heater likely was pulled down when she fell.Whether the pills or other drugs were a factor won’t be known until toxicology tests are completed in the coming weeks.
Carbon monoxide can be ruled out since it can dissipate from the environment but not from a body, renowned medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden said.
Examiners will look to test blood and urine, if available, but also could turn to an oily fluid that typically accumulates in lung and abdominal cavities, and samples of muscle and brain, to help determine the causes of death.
Dr. Philip Keen, the retired chief medical examiner in Maricopa County, Arizona, said the moment when a pacemaker stops working could mark the point when a person dies, but not always.
“If your heart required a pacemaker, there would certainly be an interruption at that point — and it might be the hallmark of when the death occurred,” Keen said. “But it’s not necessarily because some people get a pacemaker to augment things, not necessarily replace things.”
The initial autopsy also found no external trauma to either body. Dr. Victor Weedn, forensic pathologist, said there are plenty of reasons a body could be found on the ground without any sort of bumps or bruises, including if they simply lay down due to feeling unwell.
Investigators planned to comb through the couple’s phones and monthly planners and reach out to family members, neighbors and workers from the gated community to figure out the last time anyone saw or spoke to Hackman or Arakawa.
The couple was a “very private family,” Mendoza said, making it challenging to piece together a timeline.
Authorities do not believe the home had any surveillance cameras, he said.
Investigators who searched the home retrieved medication that treats high blood pressure and chest pain, thyroid medication, Tylenol, and records from medical diagnostics testing, court records filed Friday showed.
Detectives wrote in a search warrant affidavit that investigators thought the deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.” No gas leaks were discovered in or around the home.
A maintenance worker who showed up to do routine work at the house could not get inside and called a security worker who spotted two people on the ground, Mendoza said.
The worker called 911 and told an operator he did not know if they were breathing.
He and another worker later told authorities that they rarely saw the homeowners and that their last contact with them had been about two weeks ago.
Hackman was among the most accomplished actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
He was a five-time Oscar nominee who won best actor in a leading role for “The French Connection” in 1972 and best actor in a supporting role for “Unforgiven” two decades later. He also won praise for his role as a coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite “Hoosiers.”
