Gene Hackman Found Dead with his Wife

[Verdinut]

Gene Hackman cause of death: Authorities don't suspect 'foul play' in actor, wife's death

Actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their New Mexico home. Here's what we know so far about their cause of death.

www.usatoday.com

 

[lovinthehd]

What other people? You counting the dog? Probably be a day or three before we get better info, tho.

 

[Verdinut]

What other people? You counting the dog? Probably be a day or three before we get better info, tho.

I had read the first sentence a little fast. The wife is the pianist. I corrected the heading. I suspect it was a suicide pact with drugs.

 

[lovinthehd]

I had read the first sentence a little fast. The wife is the pianist.

Seems what I was referring to has been amended in any case. I haven't seen much detail but there was a mention of pill bottles open near the wife....might take a while to sort.

 

[Verdinut]

Seems what I was referring to has been amended in any case. I haven't seen much detail but there was a mention of pill bottles open near the wife....might take a while to sort.

As mentioned in my previous edited post, I suspect this was a suicide pact.

 

[lovinthehd]

As mentioned in my previous edited post, I suspect this was a suicide pact.

Could be made to look like it otoh....let the details work out rather than guess....saw a mention front door was open

 

[Verdinut]

Could be made to look like it otoh....let the details work out rather than guess....saw a mention front door was open

There didn't seem to be any sign of violence, wound or fight reported so far. That's why I went with the suicide pact assumption.

 

[lovinthehd]

Open pill bottles near the wife's corpse was mentioned in one report. They're all unreliable reports at this point. Kinda like drumphy proclamations.

There didn't seem to be any sign of violence, wound or fight reported so far. That's why I went with the suicide pact assumption.

 

[j_garcia]

I read the article yesterday. The prime suspect is some sort of gas poisoning, since the dog died too, however it seemed to say the dead dog was closed in a closet. The two other dogs, one inside and one outside, were OK.

If you have a suicide pact, you don't usually take just one dog with you, so I kind of doubt that. It sounds like an accidental leak of some kind that suffocated them. The door being open is likely police, as it mentioned when the person who discovered them and called 911 said the house is fully locked.

My wife was in a car accident yesterday, so I wasn't online much.

 

[mtrycrafts]

...

My wife was in a car accident yesterday, so I wasn't online much.

Injured? or just car banged up.

 

[Mikado463]

My wife was in a car accident yesterday, so I wasn't online much.

Here's hoping all is Ok ....

 

[j_garcia]

Here's hoping all is Ok ....

She is still sore, but recovering.

Injured? or just car banged up.

Thankfully, no injuries, just whiplash.

 

[j_garcia]

Here is the police information. It is a very sad series of events. Seems Gene was in advanced stages of Alzheimer's. She had contracted hantavirus, which apparently 30% of those infected die, and it killed her. Gene was advanced enough that he probably didn't even realize she was dead. Gene died of a heart attack, potentially related to the fact that he was unable to properly care for himself. The dog who died was crated after having surgery and unfortunately likely starved.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/08/us/gene-hackman-wife-death-investigation/index.html

 

[TLS Guy]

Here is the police information. It is a very sad series of events. Seems Gene was in advanced stages of Alzheimer's. She had contracted hantavirus, which apparently 30% of those infected die, and it killed her. Gene was advanced enough that he probably didn't even realize she was dead. Gene died of a heart attack, potentially related to the fact that he was unable to properly care for himself. The dog who died was crated after having surgery and unfortunately likely starved.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/08/us/gene-hackman-wife-death-investigation/index.html

Hantavirus is a pathogen most common in the Four Corners States of the US SW. It was identified after a very lethal outbreak, in those states in the Spring of 1993.

A few years before that I had a case of a very odd pneumonia in a young man around 20 years of age. He was Native American from the Native American reservation at Devils Lake ND. He was a strong strapping young man. Despite mine and colleagues efforts he died. Since I did not know the actual cause of death I had a coroner's PM conducted. Despite extensive efforts we had been unable to find a pathogen. Even from specimens taken at postmortem we could not identify the cause. I followed the advice of my infectious disease professor, who said if you get a strange death and you suspect infectious disease, have the lab freeze serum. I did. When these cases hit the news and medical press, I had the serum unfrozen and test run for Hantavirus. Sure enough the young man had died from Hantavirus.

Some years later, I made Friday evening rounds with a new ICU physician hire. She had another young individual on life supports from the same reservation. I recognized it as Hantavirus as the X-ray appearance was so similar to my previous case. Sure enough serologic tests for Hantavirus were positive. This case survived.

So our institution made it widely known that this infectious disease was not confined to the Four Corners States.