Local authorities investigating the deaths of Oscar-winner Gene Hackman and his wife at their Santa Fe home are waiting for more details from their autopsies to determine why they died.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said at a Friday press conference that Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, both tested negative for carbon monoxide.
The 95-year old Oscar-winner and Arakawa, who was 65, were found Wednesday at the couple's home at 1425 Old Sunset Trail.
The sheriff said Hackman likely was dead for about ten days before his body was found because his pacemaker last showed activity on Feb. 17.
Sheriff Mendoza said there were no signs of foul play.
City of Santa Fe fire chief Brian Moya said Friday his crew tested the home on Feb. 26, not only for carbon monoxide, but for other gases as well, and found nothing.
“ We have our meters do multiple readings across multiple spectrums. I won't go into that detail, but none of our meters picked up anything in the house, so all of our meters were zero across the board,” said Moya.
Carbon monoxide can be ruled out since it can dissipate from the environment but not from a body, medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden told the Associated Press.
Hackman was found in an entryway. Arakawa was found in a bathroom on her side. A space heater was near her head, and pills were scattered next to an open prescription bottle on the counter. Investigators said the heater likely was pulled down when she fell.
Whether the pills or other drugs were a factor won't be known until toxicology tests are completed in the coming weeks.
Mendoza said investigators will meanwhile attempt to determine the sequence of events leading up to the deaths.
“We'll be analyzing cell phone data, phone calls, text messages, events, photos in the cell phone to try to piece a timeline together, usually, before the event happens. And that gives us a lot of information," Mendoza said.
"But in this case, it seems like we're doing a reverse timeline. We're doing a timeline from the time of death and the autopsy and the results, and we're gonna start working our way backwards. We're gonna do both and then hopefully make a determination what may have happened to both the individuals.”
Gene Hackman was a five-time Oscar nominee who won best actor in a leading role for The French Connection in 1972 and best actor in a supporting role for Unforgiven two decades later. He also won praise for his role as a coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite Hoosiers.
He met Arakawa, a classically trained pianist, at a California gym in the mid-1980s. They moved to Santa Fe by the end of the decade.
In his earlier years in New Mexico, Hackman was often seen around the state capital and served on the board of trustees for the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum from 1997 to 2004.
Adapted from an Associated Press story by Susan Montoya Bryan, Jacques Billeaud, and John Seewer.
