The actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, who were found dead last month in Santa Fe, New Mexico, were rarely apart from each other, and it’s that closeness that may have led to the circumstances of their deaths.
Arakawa had become Hackman’s caregiver in his later years when he developed Alzheimer’s disease and became incapable of carrying out even the simplest of tasks. She ran the household errands, made sure he remained active and protected him from illnesses.
Authorities in Santa Fe revealed on Friday that the couple had died of natural causes, Hackman from heart disease and Arakawa from a rare viral infection. Arakawa died first, perhaps on 11 February, when she was last seen or heard from. Investigators said in a press conference that Hackman, 95, was likely unaware that his wife had died.
He would have been alone in the house for days, disoriented and too frail to seek help. His pacemaker last recorded his heartbeat on 18 February, which indicates that he died about a week after his wife.
Their decomposing bodies were discovered on 26 February when a maintenance worker called security after no one answered the door. Emergency responders found Arakawa, 65, on the bathroom floor near spilled pills and a medicine bottle. The pills were identified as an unspecified thyroid medication, Tylenol and the high blood pressure medication diltiazem. Her body showed signs of “mummification”, which suggests she had been dead for some time.
Zinna, one of their three dogs, was found dead in a crate in a closet. Hackman’s body, wearing slippers, was found in a mudroom near a cane.
New Mexico’s chief medical examiner confirmed that Arakawa had succumbed to hantavirus, a rare and often fatal illness contracted from exposure to rodent droppings. Hackman’s Alzheimer’s, combined with his declining physical state, was listed as a contributing factor in his death.
“Autopsy examination and a full body postmortem CT examination demonstrated no acute findings of internal or external trauma, and showed severe heart disease including multiple surgical procedures involving the heart, evidence of prior heart attacks, and severe changes of the kidneys due to chronic high blood pressure,” said Dr Heather Jarrell, New Mexico’s chief medical investigator.
Authorities are still waiting for the dog’s necropsy results. During the press conference on Friday, New Mexico state public health veterinarian Erin Phipps said “it is a possibility” that the dog, Zinna, died of dehydration and starvation.
The exact details of that final week remain unclear. Friends and neighbors told the New York Times about how the couple had increasingly withdrawn from public life, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Arakawa had taken mighty precautions to avoid exposing Hackman to illness. She often wore a mask in public, and surveillance footage from 11 February showed her visiting a Sprouts Farmers Market, a CVS pharmacy and a pet food store in Santa Fe before driving back to their gated community around 5.15pm.
After that, she was never seen or heard from again. Investigators believe she stopped checking her emails that evening, and no further communication was recorded, authorities said on Friday.
The sheriff’s office found no evidence that anyone had been caring for Hackman besides Arakawa. “There was no food in his stomach, which means he had not eaten recently,” said Jarrell.
Hackman’s decline starkly contrasts with the life he had once built. The Oscar-winning actor moved to Santa Fe in the late 1980s after divorcing his first wife, and quickly fell in love with the city’s landscape and artistic community. He had already won an Oscar for his role in The French Connection in 1971 and would later earn another for 1992’s Unforgiven.
“I think you can escape anywhere, but I think the beauty of the city – they just loved the area,” Mark Kreusch, a photographer, told Fox News after the couple’s deaths. “Even though he was a bit reclusive, he really loved Santa Fe. It resonated with him.”
Arakawa, a classical pianist from Hawaii, met Hackman while working part time at a Los Angeles fitness center. When Hackman forgot his entry card one day, Arakawa refused to let him in. That encounter led to a relationship that bloomed despite their 30-year age difference.
“That part never came to mind because they seemed equal in so many ways,” a friend, Susan Contreras, told the New York Times. “She was a personality unto herself.”
As time went on, Hackman’s health visibly declined.
“Obviously, he was 95, so he was slowing down,” Stuart Ashman, who met Hackman in the late 90s when they served on a committee together at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, told Fox News. “And after Covid, he was more reclusive, protecting his immune system and everything else.”
Two of the couple’s family friends, Daniel and Barbara Lenihan, along with their son Aaron, told People magazine that Hackman had become “essentially home-bound” in recent times and had “stopped riding his bike through the neighborhood”.
“Betsy tried to keep him kind of active and engaged,” said Aaron, adding that Hackman did puzzles and yoga via Zoom daily. “She was still trying to keep him as active and engaged and healthy as possible.”
Daniel and Barbara Lenihan noted that in the “last couple of months”, the late actor “was really slipping there”.
Gary Sinise, who worked with Hackman on the 1995 film The Quick and the Dead, made a similar observation.
“I know once he retired to New Mexico, he was retired. He did not want to come back and get any awards or, you know, go to any Hollywood events or anything like that. He was done, and he was moving on from that part of his life,” Sinise told Fox News.
Their privacy, much-valued in Santa Fe, may ultimately have contributed to their tragic deaths.
