As cops scramble to piece together what caused the tragic deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, friends of the couple lament how they had become increasingly insular in their final years and even stopped receiving guests.
Hackman, 95, and wife Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead alongside one of their dogs in their sprawling $3.8m home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Feb. 26.
The Hollywood couple are believed to have been laying dead for up to two weeks before maintenance workers stumbled across the scene and called emergency services.
The 911 caller and another worker later told authorities they rarely saw the homeowners.
No red flags had been raised by family or friends in the time between the pair dying and their bodies being found, but it was common for the couple to fly under the radar for long periods, according to longtime close friends Barbara Lenihan, 75, of Santa Fe and her husband, author Daniel Lenihan, 79.
Daniel told The Post it had been “years” since he last saw Hackman, his friend of more than 30 years, in person. Barbara, who also owned a home decor store with Arakawa, said she last saw Hackman about a year ago.
She last spent time with Arakawa in person sometime earlier this year and had exchanged emails with her in recent weeks. According to her, the pair had increasingly “become insular” in recent years.
“People loved to be around them,” she said. “We used to spend a lot of time at their house but it’d been a while since they were comfortable having others over.
“They were a little insular and that was fine, it just got tougher for them to have people over.
“We’re all deeply saddened. We’re all just in shock and can’t believe [that they are dead],” she added.
Almost one week on, it is still not known what caused the Oscar winner and his wife’s mysterious deaths.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said it had so far proven to be a “challenge” to determine the events that lead up to the pair’s final moments as they were “private individuals and a private family.”
“One of the things is in an investigation, we try to piece a timeline together,” Mendoza said in a press conference on Friday, adding investigators are having to work “backwards” on the case.
According to a search warrant affidavit, authorities found the actor on the floor of a mudroom near his cane, while his wife Arakawa was found in an bathroom next to a space heater, with an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on the nearby countertop.
A deputy observed Arakawa with “body decomposition, bloating in her face” and mummification of her hands and feet, the document states. Officers said it appeared that Hackman had “suddenly fallen.”
Because of the couple’s penchant “for privacy”, there is no surveillance footage from inside or outside the home to help piece together their last moments alive, according to the sheriff.
Mendoza said investigators were in the process of trying to crack the passwords on two cell phones found at the Hackman home and gain insight into the couple’s final days — including who last had contact with the couple, and when.
“We’ll be analyzing cell phone data, phone calls, text messages, events, photos in the cell phone to try to piece a timeline together,” he explained.
By all accounts, Hackman and Arakawa liked to keep a low profile, but as Hackman, who had battled several health issues, became frailer the longtime lovers spent more and more time at home together.
Hackman was last photographed in public when he arrived for a medical appointment in March 2024.
His own children and closest friends who spoke to The Post also hadn’t spoken to or seen him for months.
The youngest of Hackman’s three children — whom he shared with his ex-wife, Faye Maltese — explained she hadn’t seen the actor or Arakawa in a “few months” as she lives hundreds of miles away in California.
“We were close,” Leslie Anne Allen, 58, shared before admitting, “I hadn’t talked to them for a couple months, but everything was normal and everything was good.”
“They had a wonderful marriage. And I give credit to his wife, Betsy, for keeping him alive.”
The last public pictures of Hackman show him looking pale and gaunt, although Leslie Anne said the two-time Oscar winner was “in very good physical condition” and did yoga and pilates up until the end.
Hackman also spent much of his time writing and painting, according to several of his friends and family.
“[Betsy] took very, very good care of him and was always looking out for his health,” Leslie Anne said.
“So I am appreciative to her for that, and I’m very saddened by her passing.”
Keiko, a housekeeper for Arakawa’s mother, told the Daily Mail the classical pianist used to check in on her own 91-year-old mother, Yoshie Feaster, regularly, as the latter is battling dementia.
However, she added, “Betsy hadn’t called her mother in months.”
“She usually called every one or two months,” the housekeeper added. “Last time she called was October. We were thinking, what happened?”
Keiko said the family became worried over Arakawa’s alleged lack of communication.
Hackman, who retired from acting in 2004, was “deeply woven” into his New Mexico community, Jennifer LaBar-Tapia, Executive Director of the Santa Fe Film Office, said at a Friday press conference.
“Gene was not only a legendary actor whose talent shaped generations of storytelling, but he and Betsy were also longtime residents of our community,” she added.
Preliminary autopsy reports showed the couple — who had been married since 1991 — had no signs of external trauma and they both also tested “negative for carbon monoxide,” which would suggest they weren’t poisoned by a gas leak, as had initially been thought a possibility by the family.
Initial findings did not show any signs of external trauma, and there were no indications of “foul play”, however the deaths have been deemed “suspicious” and the investigation is ongoing.
One of the couple’s German shepherds was also found dead in a closet, less than 15 feet from Arakawa, while two other living dogs were found roaming inside and outside the property.
Hackman’s acting career spanned six decades, with bit parts in the early 60s before scoring his breakthroughs in Warren Beatty’s “Bonnie and Clyde” in 1967 and as the hard-boiled detective star of “The French Connection” in 1971, both movies became cornerstones of the New Hollywood era. The latter role also brought him his first Best Actor Oscar.
He went on to appear in up to five movies per year throughout the 70s and 80s, taking on iconic roles including Lex Luthor in “Superman” and Coach Norman Dale in “Hoosiers.” In 1993 he got his second Oscar as Supporting Actor for western “Unforgiven”.
In 2011, when an interviewer for GQ magazine told him, “You’ve got to do one more movie,” Hackman said, “If I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people.”
