Santa Fe County officials announced that actor Gene Hackman died from heart disease with Alzheimer’s disease as a contributing factor and that his wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus.
Hackman, 95, likely died several days after his wife, the New Mexico Medical Investigator’s Office announced during a news conference on Friday. The contributing factors in the death of Arakawa, 65, are being attributed to rodents, according to health investigators.
Officials with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, the Fire Department and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator joined the press briefing .
Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 65, were likely dead for several days when their bodies were discovered at their Santa Fe home on Feb. 26. Hackman’s pacemaker was active until Feb. 17, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza.
Gene Hackman accepts his Oscar for best actor at the 44th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 10, 1972.
(Associated Press)
Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies responded to the home and discovered Arakawa’s body in a bathroom with prescription pills scattered on a countertop nearby. Hackman’s body was found in another room, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court. Both bodies showed signs that they had fallen down abruptly and were partially decomposed.
Authorities found no signs of forced entry at the property or blunt force trauma on the couple’s bodies.
One of the couple’s dogs was found dead in a closet near Arakawa’s body, and two other dogs found on the property were able to enter and exit the home through a door at the rear of the residence, according to Mendoza.
The couple‘s bodies were discovered by maintenance workers at the Santa Fe Summit housing community, where Hackman and Arakawa led private lives, authorities said. They told investigators they had not spoken to the couple in more than two weeks.
On Sunday, Hackman was memorialized at the Academy Awards ceremony by actor Morgan Freeman. The two co-starred in the films “Unforgiven” and “Under Suspicion.”
“Like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer whose gifts elevated everyone’s work,” Freeman said. “He received two Oscars but more importantly he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world.”
“Gene always said, ‘I don’t think about legacy. I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work.’ I think I speak for us all when I say, ‘Gene, you will be remembered for that, and so much more.’ Rest in peace, my friend,” Freeman said.
