Officials have released bodycam footage from outside the home of Gene Hackman, where the two-time Oscar winner and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in February along with one of their three dogs.
Partially redacted footage obtained by multiple outlets was released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office on March 21. The footage comes nearly two weeks after Hackman’s estate filed a petition attempting to block the release of videos or photos from the residence, citing the couple’s lifelong “vigilant steps to safeguard their privacy.”
In one clip from February 27, the day after the couple were discovered dead, an officer speaks on the phone with Hackman’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and notifies her that animal control had retrieved one of the surviving dogs.
When he asks her whether she would like the deceased dog, Zinna, to be cremated, Elizabeth opts to do so and requests that her remains be buried with Arakawa.
“If the dog was wearing a collar, could you save that for me?” Elizabeth asks.
In separate footage, deputies can seen walking around the property and wondering if carbon monoxide could have caused the couple’s mysterious deaths. Other clips include interviews with two witnesses who point to the “weird” circumstances, noting that something was “not right.”
In one interview, Hackman and Arakawa’s contractor tells authorities that after weeks of radio silence from the pair, he went to the residence on February 26 to perform a wellness check. Upon arrival, he found the couple’s other dogs loose on the property and “knew something was wrong.”
Carbon monoxide poisoning was eventually ruled out as their cause of death, with authorities determining Arakawa likely died two weeks earlier from hantavirus, a rare but sometimes fatal rodent-borne disease that can spread to humans.
Hackman, meanwhile, is believed to have died roughly a week after his wife, on February 18, the last time his pacemaker recorded any activity. The 95-year-old actor’s death was attributed to a combination of “severe heart disease,” high blood pressure, and advanced Alzheimer’s, which could have affected whether he was aware that his wife had died.
While Arakawa, 65, was initially believed to have died on February 11, new information surfaced that changed the timeline, including that she called a doctor service on February 12. Investigators are still working to establish an official timeline of events.
According to a veterinary lab, Zinna, a 12-year-old Australian kelpie mix, likely died from dehydration and starvation. She was found in crate roughly 10 to 15 feet from Arakawa’s body.
—Jami Ganz, New York Daily News (TNS)
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