Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa May Have Been Dead Several Days, Says Sheriff – Hollywood Reporter
Gene Hackman & wife Betsy Arakawa during The 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards - Arrivals at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, United States. (Photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterSubscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterInvestigators are attempting to put together a timeline of the last days of the actor and his wife, who were found dead in Santa Fe on Wednesday.
By
Kevin Dolak
A timeline of the final days of Gene Hackman is beginning to emerge via the Oscar-winning actor’s pacemaker, which, according to police, indicates that he died on Feb. 17, more than a week before his body and that of his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were discovered in their Santa Fe home.
At a Friday afternoon press conference, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza revealed that they looked into Hackman’s pacemaker after his and Arakawa’s bodies were discovered. Hours after news of the couple’s death broke on Thursday, Sante Fe’s medical examiner announced that initial autopsies of the legendary actor and Arakawa show no signs of external trauma after the couple was found dead, along with one of their three dogs, inside the New Mexico gated community where they lived for decades. The pacemaker was first mentioned on Friday, and it appears to be the first major clue in determining the cause and manner of their deaths.
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“An initial interrogation was conducted of Mr. Hackman’s pacemaker,” Mendoza told the scrum of reporters gathered outside the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Station on Friday afternoon. “This revealed that his last event was recorded on February 17, 2025. … I think that is a very good assumption that that was his last day of life.”
A pacemaker-recorded event is a cardiac rhythm or rate recorded by the device. Pacemakers are small implanted medical devices that help regulate the heart’s rhythm by sending electrical impulses.
Details released Thursday indicate that the couple may have died earlier than originally believed. Both bodies had signs of decomposition, with “mummification in both hands and feet.” The actor seemed to have “suddenly fallen” in the mud room off their home’s kitchen and his partner for decades was found in a room off of the ground floor bathroom with prescription “pills scattered on the counter-top,” according to a police search warrant released on Thursday.
On Friday, the Sheriff’s Office released a list of items taken from the couple’s home when the search warrant was executed. This included two green cellular devices, thyroid medication, diltiazem medication (a calcium channel blocker), Tylenol, medical records and a 2025 monthly planner. Mendoza did not share if there are details in the calendar that reveal crucial information about the couple’s final days but indicated that it will be a key piece of evidence in the ongoing investigation.
“We will look and try to gain access to the cell phones. We’ll be analyzing cell phone data, phone calls, text messages, events and photos in the cell phone to try to piece a timeline together. In this case, it seems like we’re doing a reverse timeline. We’re doing a timeline from the time of death and the autopsy and the results, and we’re going to start working our way backwards. We’re going to do both and then hopefully make a determination as to what may have happened to both Hackman and Arakawa.
Mendoza also said on Friday that there is no surveillance footage of the couple’s sprawling property that investigators “know of right now” in the interior or the exterior of the residence that is going to help us determine a timeline or events that happen to answer.
The sheriff’s office has stated they do not believe that foul play was a factor in the deaths, but on Friday while appearing on NBC’s Today show, Mendoza said that all avenues are open as the deaths are investigated. Initial findings from the autopsy performed later on Thursday noted “no external trauma to either individual,” the Sheriff’s Office said. Carbon monoxide and toxicology tests were requested for Hackman and Arakawa. The New Mexico Gas Company said that there were “no signs or evidence indicating there were any problems associated with the pipes in and around the residence.” However, this does not rule out the possibility of some kind of gas leak into the house at an earlier date.
The company is assisting the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department in its investigation into the deaths.
The privacy that Hackman and Arakawa were known to have is also making it difficult for investigators to figure out their daily schedules and routines to close in on when exactly they died. The couple was last photographed together on March 28, 2024, at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen in Santa Fe. The 2003 Golden Globes, where Hackman received the Cecil B. DeMille Award, is believed to be the last Hollywood event they attended together.
The couple’s bodies will now be put into a thorough autopsy and more will be revealed in the Medical Examiner’s toxicology report.
This story was first published on Feb. 28 at 11:18 a.m.Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every daySign up for THR news straight to your inbox every daySubscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterSend us a tip using our anonymous form.
