Originally appeared on E! Online
Gene Hackman was an acting legend, and his death at 95 prompted the expected outpouring of tributes and career appraisals, including a special mention from his Unforgiven costar Morgan Freeman at the 2025 Oscars.
What was less expected was the complicated and ultimately heartbreaking investigation into what really happened to Hackman and his 65-year-old wife Betsy Arakawa, who like her husband was found dead Feb. 26 in the Santa Fe, N.M., home they had shared for decades. As was one of their three dogs, another disturbing detail.
So as Hollywood was singing the praises of Hackman’s performances in the likes of The French Connection, The Conversation and dozens of other films, speculation ensued, unfounded theories emerged and the most drastic of conclusions were jumped to as authorities started to piece together the couple’s final days together.
Answers have since been provided in the wake of autopsies, a search of their home, tracing their cell phone activity and more, but the picture that came into focus was even more upsetting than anticipated.
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Hackman and Arakawa died of natural causes, authorities shared during a March 7 news conference, but natural causes—as opposed to accident, homicide, etc.—can still encompass a number of head-scratching circumstances.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Arakawa died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, likely on Feb. 11, the last day she was seen alive in town, Chief Medical Examiner Heather Jarrell told reporters. Hackman apparently lived another week before he died of heart disease, according to the coroner, his pacemaker last showing activity on Feb. 18.
Hackman was in an “advanced state of Alzheimer’s,” Jarrell said, “and it’s quite possible that he was not aware” that his wife was dead.
Hantavirus, meanwhile, is a rare respiratory illness caused by exposure to contaminated rodent droppings, urine and saliva that initially presents with flu-like symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New Mexico state public health veterinarian Erin Phipps said that there was a “low risk” of exposure from the couple’s house, but other structures on their property showed signs of rodents.
Here are all the details of the investigation into Hackman and Arakawa’s deaths, from when they were both found until these haunting findings came to light:
Gene Hackman and Wife Betsy Arakawa Found Dead Feb. 26, 2025
Gene Hackman and his wife of 33 years, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe, N.M., home on Feb. 26 by two maintenance workers who spied their bodies through a window from outside the house. According to authorities, they alerted the caretaker in the gated community where the couple lived and that person called 911.
“No, they are not moving,” the caller told 911, per an audio recording. “Please send someone out here quick.”
When Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found Arakawa, 65, on the floor of a bathroom to the left of the frontdoor. She was clad in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, according to a Feb. 27 search warrant affidavit obtained by E! News, and there was an open prescription pill bottle and loose pills scattered on the countertop.
Hackman, 95, was on the floor in what deputies described as a mudroom near the kitchen, per the warrant. A walking cane and sunglasses near the body.
One of the couple’s three dogs—initially misidentified as their German shepherd Bear, it was actually their Australian Kelpie mix Zinna—was found dead in a closet of the bathroom, according to the warrant. Another healthy-looking dog was found near Arakawa’s body and the other, also seemingly healthy, was running around outside.
A search warrant was executed on the house at around 9:30 p.m. Feb. 26 and Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies were removed the following morning.
Gene Hackman Death Deemed “Suspicious Enough” to Conduct Investigation
While the sheriff’s office said Feb. 27 that there were no signs of foul play, investigators determined “the circumstances surrounding the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation,” the warrant stated.
The warrant noted there were no signs of obvious blunt-force trauma, carbon monoxide poisoning or forced entry into the home. Rather, deputies said they found the front door ajar.
There were also signs that Hackman and Arakawa had been dead for awhile: One deputy observed that her body was partially decomposed, with mummification around her hands and feet, according to the warrant, while Hackman’s body showed “similar and consistent” signs of death. It was also noted that both looked as if they may have fallen to the ground suddenly.
The worker who first saw the bodies told investigators he had last spoken with the couple about two weeks beforehand, per the warrant, and that he usually communicated with Arakawa over phone calls and texting.
“All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation,” Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza told the Santa Fe New Mexican. “I want to assure the community and neighborhood that there’s no immediate danger to anyone.”
Items of Interest Found in Gene Hackman’s Home
Two cell phones, blood pressure and thyroid medications, Tylenol, medical records and a 2025 planner were among the items removed by investigators during the search, according to a warrant summary.
A Timeline Slowly Comes Into Focus
Sheriff Mendoza said at a Feb. 28 news conference that Hackman’s pacemaker last recorded activity on Feb. 17, calling it “a very good assumption that it was his last day of life.”
They were continuing to analyze “cell phone data, phone calls, text messages, events, photos in the cell phone,” Mendoza said, “to try to piece a timeline together.”
But it wasn’t going to be easy.
As the sheriff explained on TODAY, “We understand that is a challenge because they were very private individuals and a private family. We’re trying to put all that information together right now.”
Gene Hackman’s Family Speaks Out
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,” the actor’s daughters Leslie and Elizabeth and granddaughter Annie said in a statement. “He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.”
Leslie Anne Allen—one of three children the actor shared with first wife Faye Maltese—told Fox News Digital that she hadn’t seen her father for “a few years” because she lived in California and he no longer traveled much, but they had “been in touch over the last couple of months.”
“I loved him dearly,” she said. “He was a genuinely good-hearted person.” And, Leslie said she knew him to be in good health, practicing yoga and pilates regularly.
As days went by, family members said they were trying to tune out the noise about what might have happened while whey they waited for official answers.
“We’re waiting on toxicology,” nephew Tim Hackman, whose dad was the actor’s brother Richard Hackman, told Us Weekly in an interview published March 3. “That will tell us everything. It’s hard to theorize. There are lots of theories out there and I don’t want to speculate. It’s easy to speculate negative theories.”
He added, “My uncle was 95 years old at an age where you think about, ‘OK, it’s time.’ But from the circumstances now things have changed a bit. It’s a major change.”
Inside Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa’s Private Life in Santa Fe
Hackman, whose last film credit was 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport, had lived in Santa Fe with Arakawa since the late 1980s. A painter himself, he was active in the local arts scene and sat on the board of the Georgia O’Keefe Museum from 1997 until 2004.
“He was a pretty low-key individual even though he was someone who had amazing stories to tell about Hollywood and other celebrities,” longtime friend and gallery owner Stuart Ashman told the Los Angeles Times. “He was just a regular guy.”
Santa Fe film commissioner Jennifer LaBar-Tapia told reporters that both Hackman and Arakawa were “deeply woven into the fabric of Santa Fe.”
But sightings of Hackman had become increasingly rare, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Friend Daniel Lenihan told People the actor—who used to walk his dogs and ride his bicycle around their neighborhood and patronize local businesses—had been “essentially kind of home-bound” in recent months. His son Aaron Lenihan said Arakawa “was still trying to keep him as active and engaged and healthy as possible,” but Daniel said Hackman was “really slipping.”
Daniel’s wife Barbara Lenihan said Arakawa, a classical pianist, had been in “perfect health” and was “so fit.”
The last paparazzi shot of a frail-looking Hackman and Arakawa out in public together was published by Page Six in March 2024.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, Gas Leak Ruled Out
Tests on Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies for signs of carbon monoxide poisoning came back negative, Sheriff Mendoza told reporters Feb. 28. But, he noted, complete autopsy and toxicology results could take “three months or longer.”
The New Mexico Gas Company stated March 4 that, while a “minuscule leak” was found in a stove burner, it didn’t emit enough carbon monoxide to have proved fatal, nor did their investigation reveal any further leaks or gas line issues.
Investigators said there were several other code violations in the home, but nothing having to do with gas or carbon monoxide.
Cause of Death Determined for Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa
Arakawa died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare respiratory infection caused by exposure to rodent feces, urine or saliva, New Mexico Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said during a March 7 news conference.
Hackman, meanwhile, “showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” Jarrell said. “He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that’s what resulted in his death.”
Arakawa may have experienced flu-like symptoms before she died, the medical examiner said.
New Mexico state public health veterinarian Erin Phipps said the couple were at “low risk” for exposure from their house but there were signs of rodents in other structures on the property.
A total of 122 cases and 52 deaths from hantavirus were reported in New Mexico between 1993 and 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Heartbreaking Death Timeline Revealed
According to the coroner, it looked as if Arakawa—last known to have run errands on Feb. 11—had been dead for about a week before Hackman died, seemingly on Feb. 18 going by his last pacemaker activity (a day after originally noted by authorities).
Their bodies weren’t discovered for another eight days, so 15 days after Arakawa died.
As far as authorities know, Hackman was alone in the house with his wife’s body until he himself passed.
“It’s quite possible he was not aware she was deceased,” Jarrell said. Hackman didn’t have food in his stomach when he died, she noted, but he was not dehydrated.
Their dog Zinna had been in a crate in the bathroom and died of starvation and dehydration, according to state vet Phipps.
Why Gene Hackman Couldn’t Live Without His Wife
“At this point,” Sheriff Mendoza said March 7, “there’s no indication that there was a caretaker at the home.”
Arakawa had basically been managing her husband’s life for years, scheduling his golf games and visits with friends, according to pal Tom Allin, who told the New York Times he knew Hackman for 20 years but it was always the actor’s wife he spoke to on the phone.
“She was very protective of him,” Allin said,” and Hackman would have died “long ago” if not for her.
“All of us that knew him should have been checking on him,” Hackman’s friend Ashman told the Washington Post. “I had no idea…It’s just really sad. And that she died a week before him. My God.”
On the apparent last day of Arakawa’s life, she emailed her massage therapist in the morning, went to a grocery store in the afternoon and stopped at a pharmacy before going to a pet store. She was back home by around 5:15 p.m., according to authorities, and responded to no emails after Feb. 11.
Sheriff Mendoza said he believed she wore a mask while running her errands, which friends said she regularly did for fear of bringing any illnesses home to her husband.
