Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa in 1986
Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The deaths of actor Gene Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog have been deemed “suspicious,” according to a Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office search warrant. Although “foul play isn’t suspected,” the circumstances of deaths necessitated further investigation, the sheriff’s office said.
“The official results of the autopsy and toxicology reports are pending,” the office said. “This remains an open investigation.”
Hackman, Arakawa, and one of their dogs were found dead at the couple’s Santa Fe home on Wednesday, and while one of Hackman’s daughter suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in the immediate aftermath, there were “no obvious signs of a gas leak,” investigators said. (Sheriffs requested carbon monoxide and toxicology tests, however, for both Hackman and Arakawa.)
Instead, the search warrant reveals that the couple might have been dead for up to two weeks; their bodies weren’t discovered until two security workers arrived at the property and found the front door ajar. Upon entering the home, they found the bodies and alerted authorities.
According to the search warrant, police found “the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation because the reporting party found the front door of the residence unsecured and opened, deputies observed a healthy dog running loose on the property, another healthy dog near the deceased female, a deceased dog laying 10-15 feet from the deceased female in a closet of the bathroom, the heater being moved, the pill bottle being opened and pills scattered next to the female, the male decedent being located in a separate room of the residence.”
Hackman and Arakawa were found in separate rooms; Hackman was found fully clothed in a room near the kitchen, with authorities initially believing that he fell suddenly due to sunglasses on the floor near his body. Arakawa was found on the floor of a bathroom, with a prescription bottle and pills scattered on a countertop.
While the couple’s German shepherd was also found dead in a closet near Arakawa, two of the couple’s other dogs were located alive and healthy on the property.
The Santa Fe Fire Department did not see any immediate signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, and an initial investigation by a local gas company found “no signs or evidence indicating there were any problems associated to the pipes in and around the residence.”
“The official results of the autopsy and toxicology reports are pending,” the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “This remains an open investigation.”
From Rolling Stone US.
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