Gene Hackman cause of death released: Actor's wife died a week before him
'Based on the circumstances it is reasonable to conclude that Ms. Hackman passed away first, with February 11 being the last time she was known to be alive'
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Police have revealed that Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife, Betsy Arakawa, died of hantavirus in their New Mexico home.
In a press conference Friday, New Mexico’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Heather Jarrell, said the cause of death for Arakawa, 65, was hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
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“The manner of death is natural,” Jarrell said.
According to the Mayo Clinic, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is a rare infectious disease that begins with flu-like symptoms and progresses rapidly to more severe disease.
Jarrell said the symptoms consist of fever, muscle aches, cough, vomiting and diarrhea that can progress into heart or lung failure and comes anywhere from one to eight weeks after exposure to excrement from “a particular mouse species.”
The mortality rate for the particular strain of hantavirus Arakawa was afflicted with, Jarrell noted, was 38 to 50%.
Arakawa was discovered in a bathroom in the couple’s home on Feb. 26. An opened orange prescription bottle was observed on the countertop, and pills were strewn around it. A deceased Kelpie mix dog (which was originally misidentified as a German Shepherd) was located inside a “closed crate,” with two other dogs found alive on the property.
Jarrell said the pills were thyroid medication which were being taken as prescribed.
The cause of death for Hackman, 95, was listed as a result of severe heart disease with advanced Alzheimer’s disease playing a “significant” contributing factor.
“Laboratory testing was negative for COVID-19, influenza and other respiratory viruses,” Jarrell added.
Jarrell then addressed when death might have occurred for the couple — who had been married since 1991 and were found dead alongside one of their three dogs inside their sprawling home in Santa Fe last month.
“There is no reliable scientific method to accurately determine the exact time or date of death. (But) Mr. Hackman’s initial pacemaker data revealed cardiac activity on February 17. With subsequent pacemaker interrogation demonstrating an abnormal rhythm of atrial fibrillation on February 18, which was the last record of heart activity. Based on this information, it is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Hackman probably died around February 18.”
Jarrell went on to add that “based on the circumstances it is reasonable to conclude that Ms. Hackman passed away first, with February 11 being the last time she was known to be alive.”
She added that it was conceivable that Hackman did not know his wife had died inside their home.
“It’s quite possible he was not aware she was deceased,” Jarrell said.
“Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” Jarrell concluded. “He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that’s what resulted in his death.”
According to a search warrant affidavit, Hackman’s body was found in what was “believed to be a mud room … wearing gray sweat pants, a blue in colour long-sleeve T-shirt, brown slippers, and walking cane.”
In its report, police said Arakawa’s body showed “obvious signs of death, body decomposition, bloating in her face and mumification in both hands and feet.”
Both had been deceased “for quite a while.”
Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza said at the news conference Friday that Arakawa’s last known communication came on February 11 when she emailed her massage therapist in the morning and was spotted at a farmer’s market and a CVS drugstore later that afternoon.
“She then stopped at a local pet food store,” Mendoza said, adding that she re-entered their gated community at 5:15 p.m. But “numerous emails were unopened on her computer on February 11. There was no additional outgoing communication from her or known activity after February 11, 2025.”
Investigators believe the Kelpie mix dog (which had been originally misidentified as a German Shepherd) was in a crate because of a veterinary procedure it had undergone earlier in the week.
Authorities descended on the property on Feb. 26 after receiving a 911 call from a maintenance worker who described seeing a body on the floor and urged emergency services to send help quickly.
“I think we just found two, one deceased person inside the house,” the caller said on the recording first obtained by TMZ. “I’m the caretaker for the subdivision.”
The worker could be heard saying, “Damn, damn, damn,” as he became emotional over the phone.
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According to the search warrant, their deaths were initially considered “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation because the reporting party found the front door of the residence unsecured and opened.”
Hackman’s daughter Elizabeth Jean Hackman, 62, speculated to TMZ that the pair may have died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning.
However, in its warrant, the Santa Fe City Fire Department concluded that there were no signs of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning.
As theories swirled in the case, Chief Medical Examiner James Gill, who was not working on the case, speculated to PEOPLE that one of the two may have died as a result of a “kind of a broken heart-type thing.”
“Suddenly finding your loved one dead on the floor that can increase your adrenaline and that stimulates your heart to beat faster, and that can put your heart into an irregular rhythm,” he said.
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