Investigators in Santa Fe, New Mexico, are continuing to look for answers after Gene Hackman, an Oscar winner who has graced the silver screen for more than 60 years, and his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, has been found dead in their home under suspicious conditions.
A maintenance worker found the couple’s bodies at their home on Wednesday, along with one of their three dogs, who was also found dead. The front door is open, even though the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office says there are no signs of foul play, and there is no clear evidence of a gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning. But the scene was strange enough that the Sheriff’s office asked for a search warrant on Wednesday night.
Hackman, 95, appeared to have fallen into an entryway, said a deputy, and a cane was found nearby. Arakawa, 65, was found in a bathroom above with an open bottle of prescription and pills scattered on a nearby countertop. The dead German shepherd was found in a bathroom wardrobe.
“There is no indication of a struggle,” said Santa Fe County Sheriff Adam Mendoza. “There is no indication of anything that is missing from home or disturbed … You know, that would be a hint that there was a crime that had happened.”
At a press conference he said the couple “died for a long time”, but could not offer the exact time. Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s office is trying to determine the last time with Hackman and Arakawa contact.
Hackman and Arakawa appeared to have suddenly fell to the floor and did not show signs of blunt force trauma, an affidavit said. Mendoza said two other dogs were found alive, and that those dogs were out of a crate and moved freely inside and outside the house of a pet door.
Authorities contacted after a worker performing pest control reached their open door but did not contact the couple and sent security to the area to check them.
“I think we just saw two or a deceased person[s] Inside a house for buying here, “a caller said 911.” I’m not indoors. Closed. It’s locked. I can’t go in. But I see them. He lay on the floor from the window. “
Hackman, a former marine known for his raspy voice, appeared in more than 80 films, as well as on television and stage during a long career that began in the early 1960s.
He achieved his first Oscar nomination for his breakout role as the bank of the thief Clyde Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde of 1967. He was also nominated for the Best Supporting Actor in 1971 because I never sang for my dad.
His role as Popeye Doyle, the Rumpled New York Detective chasing international drug dealers with director William Friedkin The French Connection, brought him a Stardom and a Best Actor Academy Award.
He also won a best supporter of actor Oscar in 1993 as a mean Sheriff at the Clint Eastwood Western Unforgiven, and nominated for an academy award for his turn as an FBI agent in the 1988 historic Mississippi Burning’s historic drama.
Since the 1980s, Hackman has lived near Santa Fe, a attractive -attractive art town – in 2005 it recognized as a UNESCO “creative city” with a thriving tourism industry. It became a well -known part because of the well -known artists and writers who called it at home, with George RR Martin and Cormac McCarthy.
Hackman has been well established in the community, and for decades it has been seen walking around town. Between 1997 and 2004, he served on the Board of Trust for the Georgia O’keeffe Museum. Speaking of the grand museum’s grand opening, he said: “In the 10 years I have lived here, I am taken aback and uncontrollable spirit of this place.”
The couple lived in a gated community just outside Santa Fe.
“He is loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant career in the arts, but to us he is always a father and grandfather,” his daughters and grandchildren said in a statement on Thursday.
“We will overcome him and destroy him.”
