RIP Gene Hackman
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The actor Gene Hackman was found dead in a mud room in his New Mexico home and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found dead on the floor of a bathroom on Wednesday, according to a search warrant affidavit. An open prescription bottle and scattered pills were discovered on a counter in the bathroom.
A dead German shepherd was found between 10 and 15 feet away from Ms. Arakawa in a closet of the bathroom, the affidavit said. There were no obvious signs of a gas leak in the home, it said, and the Fire Department did not find signs of a carbon monoxide leak.
Detective Roy Arndt wrote in the affidavit that sheriff’s deputies reported to the home on Wednesday afternoon after a maintenance worker made an emergency call. One of the deputies found Ms. Arakawa lying on her side on the bathroom floor with a space heater near her head, the affidavit said. The deputy who found her said he suspected that the heater could have fallen with Ms. Arakawa, the filing said.
Ms. Arakawa’s body showed signs of decomposition, the affidavit said. Two other dogs were found alive on the property.
The deputies found Ms. Arakawa first and then discovered Mr. Hackman lying in the mud room, with his body in a similar condition to his wife’s, the affidavit said.Sheriff Adan Mendoza of Santa Fe County said in a phone interview that investigators were still trying to determine what caused their deaths, noting that there were no obvious signs of trauma to the bodies and that no note had been found. The sheriff said the home was continuing to be searched on Thursday.
“At this stage in the process there isn’t anything obvious like that,” he said. “The autopsy is going to tell us more“
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Interesting...
I recall seeing a photo of Hackman recently and he looked so much older and frailer than what I remember from the movies (obviously). If they were in separate parts of the home, I wonder if any form of gas leak could cause their deaths. Presumably at the minimum one person would find another person passed out first and call 911.
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An open prescription bottle of WHAT exactly? And no one kills themself in the mud room.
It would be tough to get a dog to swallow enough pills to kill it, and why not the other two dogs? CO is the only thing that makes any sense.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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An open prescription bottle of WHAT exactly? And no one kills themself in the mud room.
It would be tough to get a dog to swallow enough pills to kill it, and why not the other two dogs? CO is the only thing that makes any sense.
@Mik said in RIP Gene Hackman:
An open prescription bottle of WHAT exactly? And no one kills themself in the mud room.
It would be tough to get a dog to swallow enough pills to kill it, and why not the other two dogs? CO is the only thing that makes any sense.
He could have died naturally, and then she took her own life with the pills. Not sure how to explain the dog.
I was only joking
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It sounds like she died first? They mentioned decomposition with her but not him.
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She was only 65… Concert pianist. The door was open, so any gas would have dissipated.
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Double suicide maybe? Maybe one had terminal health issue?
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@Mik said in RIP Gene Hackman:
An open prescription bottle of WHAT exactly? And no one kills themself in the mud room.
It would be tough to get a dog to swallow enough pills to kill it, and why not the other two dogs? CO is the only thing that makes any sense.
He could have died naturally, and then she took her own life with the pills. Not sure how to explain the dog.
@Doctor-Phibes said in RIP Gene Hackman:
@Mik said in RIP Gene Hackman:
An open prescription bottle of WHAT exactly? And no one kills themself in the mud room.
It would be tough to get a dog to swallow enough pills to kill it, and why not the other two dogs? CO is the only thing that makes any sense.
He could have died naturally, and then she took her own life with the pills. Not sure how to explain the dog.
Had the same thought. Maybe heart attack by Gene, suicide by his wife, and forgot about one of their 3 dogs who unfortunately starved to death. But who knows… maybe he found her, then went downstairs and fell out of panic and…
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@Mik said in RIP Gene Hackman:
An open prescription bottle of WHAT exactly? And no one kills themself in the mud room.
It would be tough to get a dog to swallow enough pills to kill it, and why not the other two dogs? CO is the only thing that makes any sense.
He could have died naturally, and then she took her own life with the pills. Not sure how to explain the dog.
@Doctor-Phibes said in RIP Gene Hackman:
@Mik said in RIP Gene Hackman:
An open prescription bottle of WHAT exactly? And no one kills themself in the mud room.
It would be tough to get a dog to swallow enough pills to kill it, and why not the other two dogs? CO is the only thing that makes any sense.
He could have died naturally, and then she took her own life with the pills. Not sure how to explain the dog.
Had the same thought. Maybe heart attack by Gene, suicide by his wife, and forgot about one of their 3 dogs who unfortunately starved to death. But who knows… maybe he found her, then went downstairs and fell out of panic and…
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Dead for “days or possibly weeks”
The wife showed “mummification in both hands and feet”
Dead dog was “in a closet in the bathroom”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/gene-hackman-death-updates.html
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Now they’re saying she died first from hantavirus, which you catch from rodent excrement, which causes respiratory failure. She died around A WEEK before he did.
He had Alzheimer’s which might explain why he didn’t report his wife’s condition or perhaps even notice she was dead. He died from heart disease.
Now I read the dead dog was crated. They don’t say explicitly but starvation/thirst would be the logical explanation. Must have sucked to be that dog for its last days.
Only non-witches get due process.
- Cotton Mather, Salem Massachusetts, 1692
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That makes more sense. Early reports mentioned that she had decomposed, but nothing about him, indicating that she had died first.
Poor dog.
