Police Change Timeline of Betsy Arakawa Death After New Details Arise
Originally appeared on E! Online
The timeline of Betsy Arakawa’s death is being clarified.
Weeks after the 65-year-old, her husband Gene Hackman, 95, and one of their dogs, were found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home Feb. 26, a medical examiner determined Arakawa had died around Feb. 11, with the two-time Oscar winner’s date of death following a week later on Feb. 18.
However, a doctor is now disputing the timeline, alleging Arakawa called his private clinic the morning after her presumed death date.
“She called back on the morning of February 12 and spoke to one of our doctors who told her to come in that afternoon,” Dr. Josiah Child, who runs the Cloudberry Heath in Santa Fe, told The DailyMail in an interview published March 17. “We made her an appointment, but she never showed up."
“The appointment wasn't for anything related to hantavirus,” he continued. “We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply.”
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As the physician recalled, Arakawa’s initial call came weeks prior, when she wanted to schedule a heart exam for Hackman.
“She'd called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband,” Child explained. “She was not a patient of mine, but one of my patients recommended Cloudberry to her. She made an appointment for herself for February 12. It was for something unrelated to anything respiratory.”
Following Child’s statements, the Santa Fe County’s Sheriff’s Office detailed how Arakawa’s interactions with the doctor’s office are providing further insight into the couple’s final days.
“The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office did not report a date of death,” the Sheriff’s office emphasized in a statement to E! News March 17. “We did state that the last known activity shown for Mrs. Arakawa Hackman was on February 11, 2025. We also stated that the investigation was open and we were awaiting cell phone records. Pending cell phone records, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office investigation showed the last known activity of Mrs. Hackman to be February 11, 2025.”
“We can now confirm that Mrs. Hackman’s phone was utilized on the morning of February 12 to call a medical center in Santa Fe, Cloudberry Health,” the statement continued. “A total of three calls were made that morning, all to the medical center. One incoming call was made to Mrs. Hackman from the same medical center that afternoon that appeared as a missed call on Mrs. Hackman’s cell phone. This information was learned through investigation into the cell phone data contained on her phone.”
During a March 7 press conference held by the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, and the New Mexico Department of Health, officials had relayed the respective causes and estimated timelines of death for both Hackman and Arakawa.
According to Sheriff Adan Mendoza, Arakawa’s official cause of death was from hantavirus—a pulmonary syndrome, a severe respiratory illness caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents. In addition to determining Arakawa’s cause of death, officials also shared her last public sighting from earlier that day, when she had been running errands in town.
As for the French Connection actor, his cause of death was ruled as hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD)—or hardening of the arteries—with Alzheimer's disease as a significant contributing factor. Based on the last recorded incident on his pacemaker, authorities believe he died on Feb. 18.
Keep reading to look back on Gene Hackman’s life and career…
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