On February 26, 2025, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their home in New Mexico. While initially, it seemed like a gas accident, upon further investigation, the discovery of pills and other things led the investigators to believe that it was not a natural death and that the possibility of suicide was considered.
What has now appeared to be challenging is determining the exact time of their death. As mentioned by an expert, since the bodies of Gene and Betsy had gone through a significant amount of decomposition, it would be difficult to say when exactly the death occurred.
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Betsy was found on the bathroom floor and Gene’s body was lying in their mudroom. Given the condition that the bodies were in, it seemed like they had been dead for some 10 days before they were discovered. The couple was unreachable by friends and family for a few days before their death and thus the fact that significant time had passed between their deaths and the discovery of their bodies makes sense.
Connecticut’s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr James Gill stated that when a body reaches the mummification stage, it becomes difficult to point out when exactly the death happened. In an interview with People magazine, he also said, “Once you get to that mummification stage, there’s nothing to be able to distinguish the two deaths timewise.”
Moreover, it should also be noted that external factors like aridity or warmth can quicken the decomposition process, leading to more complications when it comes to determining the time of death. As Dr Gill said, “Generally, dry environments will cause mummification to occur more quickly than in a non-dry environment.”
Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist also voiced the same opinion while talking to People. She also added that establishing a postmortem interval is a huge task for decomposing bodies.
She further explained that body temperature and early signs of death, like rigor mortis, serve as essential and helpful factors when it comes to deciding the time of death of the person. However, once the decomposition starts, these factors begin losing value, and the whole process gets a lot more complicated and difficult.
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Regarding the confirmation of Gene and Betsy’s death, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office said, “On 26 February, 2025, at approximately 1:45pm, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an address on Old Sunset Trail in Hyde Park where Gene Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa, and a dog were found deceased.”
The statement further mentioned, “It sounds like they had been deceased for quite a while, and I don’t want to guess in reference to how long that was. There was no immediate sign of foul play. Haven’t ruled that out yet. This is an investigation, so we’re keeping everything on the table.”
While mentioning how Betsy’s body showed clear signs of “mummification” and “decomposition” on her hands and feet, the police search warrant also mentioned, “The male decedent also showed obvious signs of death, similar and consistent with the female decedent.”
New updates are awaited on this unfortunate death of this very talented and veteran Hollywood actor and his wife.
