Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa have reached their final resting place. Nearly two months after the couple were found dead in their home, their bodies were laid to rest in a private memorial, E! News can confirm. Among the family and friends who attended the service in Santa Fe, where the pair resided, were the two-time Oscar winner’s three children, son Christopher, 65, and daughters Elizabeth, 62, and Leslie, 58.
Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies were discovered at their home on February 26, along with the remains of one of their three dogs. The actor’s cause of death was later determined to be hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with “advanced” Alzheimer's disease contributing to his passing, authorities shared at a press conference in March. As for Hackman’s wife, the classical pianist died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare respiratory illness transmitted to humans through rodent urine, droppings or saliva.
Notably, an assessment of the couple’s home in the days after they were discovered found both live and dead rodents, as well as their nests and feces, in three garages, two casitas and three sheds on their property, according to New Mexico Department of Public Health records obtained by CNN. However, the primary residence on the property was deemed clean and showed no signs of rodent activity, per the docs.
As details about the tragedy continue to emerge, Arakawa’s mother Yoshie Feaster requested that footage of her daughter and son-in-law’s corpses not be released to the public, arguing that she would face a “magnitude of trauma” if the images were published. “The public spectacle surrounding my daughter's death is one that no parent should have to live through,” she said in court documents obtained by People. "I believe a parent's right to choose how to care for a child during their life should reasonably extend to a parent's decision in dealing with a child's death.”
Gene Hackman and his wife of 33 years, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe, N.M., home on February 26, 2025, by two maintenance workers who spied their bodies through a window from outside the house. According to authorities, they alerted the caretaker in the gated community where the couple lived, and that person called 911. "No, they are not moving," the caller told 911, per an audio recording. "Please send someone out here quick."
When Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found Arakawa, 65, on the floor of a bathroom to the left of the front door. She was clad in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, according to a February 27 search warrant affidavit obtained by E! News, and there was an open prescription pill bottle and loose pills scattered on the countertop. Hackman, 95, was on the floor in what deputies described as a mudroom near the kitchen, with a walking cane and sunglasses near the body. One of the couple's three dogs—initially misidentified as their German shepherd Bear, it was actually their Australian Kelpie mix Zinna—was found dead in a closet of the bathroom, according to the warrant. Another healthy-looking dog was found near Arakawa's body and the other, also seemingly healthy, was running around outside.
A search warrant was executed on the house at around 9:30 p.m. on February 26, 2025, and Hackman and Arakawa's bodies were removed the following morning. While the sheriff's office said February 27 that there were no signs of foul play, investigators determined "the circumstances surrounding the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation," the warrant stated. The warrant noted there were no signs of obvious blunt-force trauma, carbon monoxide poisoning or forced entry into the home. Rather, deputies said they found the front door ajar.
There were also signs that Hackman and Arakawa had been dead for a while: One deputy observed that her body was partially decomposed, with mummification around her hands and feet, according to the warrant, while Hackman's body showed "similar and consistent" signs of death. It was also noted that both looked as if they may have fallen to the ground suddenly. The worker who first saw the bodies told investigators he had last spoken with the couple about two weeks beforehand, per the warrant, and that he usually communicated with Arakawa over phone calls and texting.
"All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation,” Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza told the Santa Fe New Mexican. "I want to assure the community and neighborhood that there’s no immediate danger to anyone." Sheriff Mendoza said at a February 28 news conference that Hackman's pacemaker last recorded activity on February 17, calling it "a very good assumption that it was his last day of life.” They were continuing to analyze "cell phone data, phone calls, text messages, events, photos in the cell phone," Mendoza said, "to try to piece a timeline together." But it wasn't going to be easy. As the sheriff explained on TODAY, "We understand that is a challenge because they were very private individuals and a private family. We're trying to put all that information together right now.”
Hackman's family expressed their grief publicly. "It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy," the actor's daughters Leslie and Elizabeth and granddaughter Annie said in a statement. "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." Leslie Anne Allen—one of three children the actor shared with first wife Faye Maltese—told Fox News Digital that she hadn't seen her father for "a few years" because she lived in California and he no longer traveled much, but they had "been in touch over the last couple of months." “I loved him dearly,” she said. "He was a genuinely good-hearted person."
As days went by, family members said they were trying to tune out the noise about what might have happened while they waited for official answers. "We’re waiting on toxicology," nephew Tim Hackman, whose dad was the actor's brother Richard Hackman, told Us Weekly in an interview published March 3. "That will tell us everything. It’s hard to theorize. There are lots of theories out there and I don’t want to speculate. It’s easy to speculate negative theories.” He added, "My uncle was 95 years old at an age where you think about, 'OK, it’s time.' But from the circumstances now things have changed a bit. It’s a major change.”
Hackman, whose last film credit was 2004's Welcome to Mooseport, had lived in Santa Fe with Arakawa since the late 1980s. A painter himself, he was active in the local arts scene and sat on the board of the Georgia O'Keefe Museum from 1997 until 2004. “He was a pretty low-key individual even though he was someone who had amazing stories to tell about Hollywood and other celebrities,” longtime friend and gallery owner Stuart Ashman told the Los Angeles Times. “He was just a regular guy.” Santa Fe film commissioner Jennifer LaBar-Tapia told reporters that both Hackman and Arakawa were "deeply woven into the fabric of Santa Fe." But sightings of Hackman had become increasingly rare, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Friend Daniel Lenihan told People the actor—who used to walk his dogs and ride his bicycle around their neighborhood and patronize local businesses—had been "essentially kind of home-bound" in recent months. His son Aaron Lenihan said Arakawa "was still trying to keep him as active and engaged and healthy as possible," but Daniel said Hackman was "really slipping." Daniel's wife Barbara Lenihan said Arakawa, a classical pianist, had been in "perfect health" and was "so fit." The last paparazzi shot of a frail-looking Hackman and Arakawa out in public together was published by Page Six in March 2024.
Tests on Hackman and Arakawa's bodies for signs of carbon monoxide poisoning came back negative, Sheriff Mendoza told reporters February 28, 2025. But, he noted, complete autopsy and toxicology results could take "three months or longer." The New Mexico Gas Company stated March 4 that while a "minuscule leak" was found in a stove burner, it didn't emit enough carbon monoxide to have proved fatal, nor did their investigation reveal any further leaks or gas line issues. Investigators said there were several other code violations in the home, but nothing having to do with gas or carbon monoxide.
Arakawa died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare respiratory infection caused by exposure to rodent feces, urine or saliva, New Mexico Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said during a March 7 news conference. Hackman, meanwhile, "showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” Jarrell said. "He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that’s what resulted in his death." Arakawa may have experienced flu-like symptoms before she died, the medical examiner said. A total of 122 cases and 52 deaths from hantavirus were reported in New Mexico between 1993 and 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the coroner, it looked as if Arakawa—last known to have run errands on February 11—had been dead for about a week before Hackman died, seemingly on February 18 going by his last pacemaker activity (a day after originally noted by authorities). Their bodies weren't discovered for another eight days, so 15 days after Arakawa died. As far as authorities know, Hackman was alone in the house with his wife's body until he himself passed. “It’s quite possible he was not aware she was deceased," Jarrell said. Hackman didn't have food in his stomach when he died, she noted, but he was not dehydrated. Their dog Zinna had been in a crate in the bathroom and died of starvation and dehydration, according to state vet Phipps.
“At this point," Sheriff Mendoza said March 7, "there’s no indication that there was a caretaker at the home." Arakawa had basically been managing her husband's life for years, scheduling his golf games and visits with friends, according to pal Tom Allin, who told the New York Times he knew Hackman for 20 years but it was always the actor's wife he spoke to on the phone. “She was very protective of him," Allin said, "and Hackman would have died "long ago" if not for her. “All of us that knew him should have been checking on him," Hackman's friend Ashman told the Washington Post. "I had no idea...It’s just really sad. And that she died a week before him. My God.”
On the apparent last day of Arakawa's life, she emailed her massage therapist in the morning, went to a grocery store in the afternoon and stopped at a pharmacy before going to a pet store. She was back home by around 5:15 p.m., according to authorities, and responded to no emails after February 11. Sheriff Mendoza said he believed she wore a mask while running her errands, which friends said she regularly did for fear of bringing any illnesses home to her husband. In an unexpected twist, a local doctor said he spoke to her the following day. "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 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 was not related to hantavirus, he added, noting, "We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply."
