Gene Hackman and Wife Betsy’s Initial Autopsy Reports Show No Signs of External Trauma
Sante Fe’s medical examiner indicated on Thursday afternoon that initial autopsies of legendary actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Hackman, show no signs of external trauma after the couple and one of their three dogs were found dead inside their Santa Fe home on Wednesday. The actor seemed to have “suddenly fallen” in the mud room off their home’s kitchen and his partner for decades was found in a room off of the ground floor bathroom with prescription “pills scattered on the counter-top,” according to a police search warrant released later in the day. Foul play was initially ruled out, but investigators quickly reversed that statement, calling the deaths “suspicious” and stating that an investigation is ongoing as of Thursday morning.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,” Hackman’s daughters Elizabeth and Leslie, along with granddaughter Annie, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday. “He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.”
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Hackman, 95, and Betsy, 64, had lived in Santa Fe since the 1980s in a home in a gated community northeast of the city on Old Sunset Trail. the two-time Oscar winning star of 1970s classic films The French Connection, The Conversation and 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums quit acting in 2004 and spent the final two decades of his life living quietly with Betsy in their ??two-story residence, noted by police for its olive green colored stucco and grand glass entryway in a gated-community outside of the New Mexico city.
“We do not believe that foul play was a factor,” a statement to media outlets early Thursday morning from the spokesperson for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office initially said, adding: “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail. This is an active investigation.'”
On Thursday, both bodies were transported to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator at the University of New Mexico. Initial findings from the autopsy performed noted “no external trauma to either individual,” the Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday. Carbon monoxide and toxicology tests were requested for Hackman and his wife. The manner and cause of their deaths have not been determined, and any official results of the autopsy and toxicology reports are still pending, according to a Thursday afternoon press release from the Sante Fe County Sheriff’s Office, which noted again that the investigation is still open.
Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed that one of the Hackmans’ dogs, a German Shepherd, was also found dead and that two other dogs had survived. The two deputies who arrived at the scene indicated in an affidavit that there were no signs of forced entry or rummaging among the couple’s possessions. The home’s front door was ajar, but there were no signs of forced entry into the home.
The department noted in its Thursday press release that the Santa Fe County Animal Control Division worked with the deceased’s family to ensure the safety of the two surviving pet dogs.
Officers arrived at Hackman’s home to find the couple dead during a welfare check around 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday after neighborhood security called in concerned about their well-being, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Denise Avila said on Thursday. A man who worked in maintenance on the couple’s property told police he grew concerned when he was unable to contact them on Wednesday morning. Security then observed Hackman and his wife on the ground unresponsive, through a window, then called 911.
Mendoza, in an interview with TMZ early on Thursday morning, had provided further detail when he said his office had obtained a search warrant; at that point, he said no one is ruling anything out as law enforcement continues to investigate. Mendoza told the outlet that his deputies determined that Hackman and his wife had been dead for at least a day and that while no visible trauma was discovered, they could have been victims of a double homicide, suicide, accidental death or natural causes.
According to the search warrant affidavit, later obtained by TMZ, the Santa Fe detective who sought the warrant wrote that he believes their deaths to be “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.”
The two sheriffs on the scene wrote that they found “the front door of the residence unsecured and opened, deputies observed a healthy dog running loose on the property, another healthy dog near the deceased female, a deceased dog laying 10-15 feet from the deceased female in a closet of the bathroom, the heater being moved, the pill bottle being opened and pills scattered next to the female, the male decedent being located in a separate room of the residence, and no obvious signs of a gas leak.”
The New Mexico gas company tested the gas lines in and around the house and concluded there were “no signs or evidence indicating there were any problems associated with the pipes in and around the residence.” The couple’s bodies were initially discovered by two maintenance workers, who said they hadn’t seen the pair in approximately two weeks. On Thursday morning, representative Tim Korte told The Hollywood Reporter that the company is assisting the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department in its investigation into the deaths.
The couple was last photographed together on March 28 at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen in Santa Fe. The 2003 Golden Globes, where Hackman received the Cecil B. DeMille Award, is believed to be the last Hollywood event they attended together.
Francis Ford Coppola, Viola Davis and Antonio Banderas were among those who paid tribute to the two-time Oscar winner after news broke of Hackman’s death.
Hackman was known for playing tough guys and starred in classic films, such as The French Connection, Bonnie and Clyde, I Never Sang for My Father, The Conversation, Hoosiers and Unforgiven. He retired from acting in his 70s and was last seen on screen in the 2004 satirical comedy Welcome to Mooseport. Since then, Hackman had lived a quiet, private life in Santa Fe and rarely gave interviews.
Hackman divorced his first wife, Faye Maltese, in 1986. He met Betsy Arakawa, a classically trained pianist, while she was working part-time in a California fitness center. They moved to Santa Fe in the late 1980s and married in 1991. She became stepmother to his three children, Elizabeth, Christopher and Leslie.
Arakawa, reportedly born in Hawaii, was a private person and had no social media presence. Hackman, who pivoted to writing novels in the 2000s, very rarely spoke about her but did say she helped him hone his writing.
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