CNN
By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN
(CNN) — Gene Hackman died of causes related to cardiovascular illness and was probably alive for several days after his wife, Betsy Arakawa, died of a rare disease in their secluded mountaintop home last week, investigators announced Friday, answering lingering questions in the once-mysterious deaths of the couple.
The case has drawn fervent national attention and intense pressure to deliver investigative findings after the remains of Hackman and Arakawa, along with one of their dogs, were discovered on February 26 in separate rooms and with no outward signs of injury.
Just over a week later, medical examiners made an “unprecedented” decision to release preliminary information about the couple’s causes of death and the circumstances surrounding them, apparently in response to public interest in the case.
“It is unprecedented for the Office of the Medical Investigator to make public statements about death investigations. However, the circumstances surrounding these two deaths require accurate dissemination of important information,” New Mexico Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said Friday.
The bodies were discovered by two maintenance workers who glimpsed the remains through the windows and called police. Hackman’s body was found near the kitchen, and Arakawa was discovered in a bathroom with pills scattered nearby. The condition of the remains – decomposing and partially mummified – as well as new evidence from Hackman’s pacemaker suggest that the couple had been dead for several days, possibly weeks.
Though officials were able to shed light on the moments leading up to the couple’s deaths, it is still unclear whether Hackman knew that his wife had died inside the home or why their dog had been shut in the crate where its body was found. The investigation is still ongoing.
Here is what we learned Friday.
Couple died of natural causes
Autopsies revealed that Hackman and Arakawa both died of natural causes, though their deaths are attributed to different causes and could have happened several days apart, Jarrell said.
Hackman probably died on February 18, when his pacemaker last recorded his heartbeat. The device recorded that the actor was experiencing atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm.
Hackman was hypertensive and died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, Jarrell said. He also had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, which the medical investigator said was “a significant contributory factor.” A postmortem CT scan showed that the 95-year-old had severe heart disease and chronic high blood pressure.
Arakawa, who was last seen in public about a week before her husband’s likely time of death, died first from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The syndrome is the result of hantavirus, a rare disease that can infect humans through contact with infected rodents, Jarrell said.
The pills found near Arakawa’s body were thyroid medication that had been prescribed to her and are not related to her death, Jarrell said.
Neither of them had any internal or external signs of trauma, the medical investigator said. Both also tested negative for Covid-19 and other common respiratory viruses. Investigators had already ruled out carbon monoxide poisoning.
Hackman may not have known his wife had died days earlier
It appears likely that Betsy died in the home before her husband, investigators said, and it is possible Hackman was in the home with his wife’s body for several days before he died.
“It’s quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased” due to his advanced Alzheimer’s, Jarrell said when asked whether Hackman was aware his wife had died. She noted he was in a “very poor state of health.”
Arakawa was last seen alive or heard from February 11, when she had a short email conversation in the morning with her massage therapist before driving into Santa Fe to run errands, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza.
But medical examiners believe Hackman probably didn’t die until February 18, when his pacemaker last recorded his heartbeat, according to Jarrell. “Based on the circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that Ms. Arakawa passed away first,” she said.
On February 11, between about 3:30 and 5 p.m., Arakawa was seen on surveillance cameras visiting a Sprouts Farmers Market, CVS Pharmacy and a pet food store in Santa Fe, Mendoza said. At 5:15 p.m., her car entered the couple’s gated subdivision using the remote control assigned to Arakawa, the sheriff said. She was not seen again.
Investigators have yet to access Arakawa’s phone records, but they found she stopped opening her emails sometime on February 11.
“There was no additional outgoing communication from her or known activity after February 11,” Mendoza said. Investigators have also found no signs Hackman was communicating with anyone.
Arakawa had contracted a rare disease
Though it is unclear how Arakawa contracted the hantavirus disease that led to her death, it is possible she had been ill for weeks before she died, Jarrell said.
Symptoms of hantavirus can take up to two months to show up after contact with an infected rodent, often starting with fatigue, fever and muscle aches. Within a few days, the symptoms can develop into coughing and shortness of breath.
A hantavirus infection can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which Arakawa had before she died, the medical investigator said. The syndrome can severely affect the lungs.
Hantavirus most commonly is contracted through deer mice in the United States, especially when exposed to their urine, droppings and saliva, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It does not spread from person to person.
New Mexico has confirmed 136 infections of hantavirus over the past 50 years, nearly half of which were fatal, according to New Mexico State Veterinarian Erin Phillips.
Once learning Arakawa had tested positive for the disease, health officials searched the couple’s property for signs of rodents, Phillips said. They found that the risk of exposure inside the home was low, but they did find evidence rodents had entered other structures on the property.
Investigators are tying up “loose ends” with dog, cell phones
Although investigators are confident they have pieced together much of the circumstances of the couple’s death, the investigation will remain open as authorities tie up “loose ends,” Mendoza said.
This includes obtaining data from Hackman and Arakawa’s cell phones that could shed light on their locations or other communications they had before they died, the sheriff said. Investigators are also awaiting the necropsy results from the couple’s dog, Zinna, who was found dead in a crate in the bathroom near Arakawa’s body.
The couple’s dog had undergone a medical procedure on February 9, which “may explain why the dog was in a crate,” the sheriff said.
Asked whether the dog died of starvation, the sheriff said it is a “possibility,” but investigators don’t know. Authorities have said the couple’s other two dogs were found alive and had been able to go in and out of the house through an open door.
Still, the sheriff does not think any significant revelations are left in the case.
“I think a lot of the questions have been answered,” Mendoza said. “We are waiting on the cell phones, but (it’s) very unlikely that the cell phones are going to show anything else.”
CNN’s Elise Hammond, Tori B. Powell and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.
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