Update to Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa’s deaths expected from investigators

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Note from the publisher: Follow our live report on today’s press conference.

Questions still predominate more than a week after the beloved actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their remote, mountainous house outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The investigators still have to say how the couple died, how long their bodies were in the house or whether the husband and wife – found in separate rooms without signs of injury – died at the same time.

However, it can be more insights on Friday afternoon, since the Sheriff’s Office of the Santa Fe County, together with state medical examiners, is supposed to hold a press conference in order to present updates in the case.

After the office of sheriff, a slow drop in information emerged after the corpses were found on February 26, but the investigators have become tight in the past few days. The law enforcement authorities reacted to the inquiries from CNN for information requests on Wednesday.

The Investigators of Santa Fe are too familiar with the intensive pressure to provide answers in the celebrity case that has been highly certified, which has attracted passionate national attention. The Sheriff’s office set up an army of media and amateurs and commentators when they handled the examination of the fatal shootout of a actor on the set of Alec Baldwin’s film “Rust” in 2021.

In the death of Hackman (95) and Arakawa, the officials found no initial signs of a foul, although a deputy of a sheriff came to the conclusion that the circumstances of the death of the couple were “suspicious enough” according to an affidavit to justify investigations.

The corpses were discovered by two maintenance workers who saw the remains through the windows and called the police. Hackman’s body was found near the kitchen and Arakawa was discovered in a bathroom with pills nearby. One of the three dogs of the couple was found dead in a box in the bathroom, said the sheriff.

The condition of the remains – disintegrating and partially mummified – as well as new evidence of Hackman’s pacemakers indicate that the couple was dead for several days, possibly weeks.

So far we know the following.

The bodies of Hackman and Arakawa had broken down for several days before they were discovered and let the authorities put the time and circumstances of deaths together long after their appearance.

Hackman was probably dead for nine days before the corpses were found, the authorities and cited data from the actor’s pacemaker said.

The Pacemaker shows that Hackman’s “Last Event” was recorded on February 17, said the sheriff of Santa Fe County, Adan Mendoza,. “According to the pathologist, I think that this is a very good assumption that this was his last day of life,” he said.

The investigators have excluded carbon monoxide poisoning as the cause of death. The couple tested negatively for carbon monoxide and a gas company found no significant indications of gas leaks in the couple’s house, the office of the sheriff announced at the beginning of this week.

The couple did not seem to have external injuries, but their remains showed clear signs of decomposition. Arakawa’s face was bloated and her hands and feet seemed to be mummified, a deputy of a sheriff wrote in an affidavit. Mumification usually begins over two weeks after the death of a person, said Santa Fe Fire Chief Brian Moya.

Hackman was found in a similar condition, with his hiking tube and his sunglasses next to his body on the floor. The deputy wrote that he suspected that Hackman had suddenly fallen, but the sheriff later said that there was no indication that one of them had suffered injuries from a fall.

A dog was also found dead in the bathroom, although the investigators corrected the first details about the pet. The sheriff’s office initially said that the dog was a German shepherd that was found in a closet, but later made it clear that the dog was founded by the couple’s Kelpie mixture, and was found in a box according to Associated Press.

The other two dogs of the couple, Nikitia and a German shepherd named Bear, became a specialist for pet care that was involved in their care.

Several personal objects were collected from the couple’s house as evidence, including mobile phones and a monthly planner. Three medicines were also collected: a thyroid drug, diliazem – for the treatment of high blood pressure or pain in the chest – and Tylenol according to an affidavit of the search command.

Investigators are working to put together a timeline by analyzing the planner and cell phone data, including telephone calls, text messages, events and photos. You will also interview maintenance workers, family members and security in the couple’s shared apartment.

“We make an inverted timeline,” said Mendoza on Friday. “We make a timeline from the time of death, autopsy and the results, and we will work back.”

The Sheriff’s office is expected to publish body camera film material from the scene in the coming weeks. Officials combed film material from ten MPs who reacted to the scene.

As with any top -class examinations, the law enforcement authorities will operate on Santa Fe with an intensive examination, while examining the cryptic circumstances of Hackman and Arakawa’s death. And with so many outstanding questions, every step that the local sheriff department takes is observed closely and every unanswered question is asked to flood of public theories.

Small discrepancies in the first statements of the Sheriff Department have drawn the interest of public members who fervently followed the case, including the corrections regarding the breed and the site of the dead dog of the couple.

Confusion also grew whether the house was completely closed when the corpses were found, although investigators who reacted to the scene said that a door was found openly.

A caretaker who called 911 to report the corpses informed the operator that the house was closed and that he could not enter according to the audio of the call received from CNN. Later a deputy replied to the scene and spoke to the 911 caller and another maintenance worker, “who found and found the front door of the residence to be opened/Ajar.”

It is unclear when the workers found the open door or how many doors of the 911 caller had tried to open up before they called for help. The sheriff later said that the two surviving dogs could go through an open door and go out of the house.

Public madness about Hackman’s death takes place a few years after the top -class examination of the filming on the western film “Rust”, in which the cameraman Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot.

Although the Hackman and Arakawa case attracted the world’s attention, some experts warn that this may not lead to a shocking turn of events. Ron Martinelli, an expert in law enforcement agencies and certified medical investigators, told CNN that he was “very confident that it is a medical secret that is solved.”

“It is a tragic case. Is it a case of interest? Secure. I think Gene Hackman was one of the greatest actors in America, ”said Martinelli. “As for death, it is a somewhat unusual death. But if you don’t find out that something criminal has happened, it is a medical puzzle at the moment. ”

Kat Jaeger, Josh Campbell, Lex Harvey and Andy Rose contributed to this report.