bitchy | Gene Hackman had advanced Alzheimer’s & he passed away a week after his wife

The sadness around the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have been compounded by the mysterious circumstances in which they were found. Their remains were found in their Santa Fe mansion, and one of their three dogs had also died. Early indications were that Hackman and Arakawa had been deceased for more than a week when their bodies were discovered. Various medical examiners and pathologists offered their theories about what happened, but as it turns out, the real situation was even sadder. Betsy Arakawa died of the hantavirus on or around February 11th. Gene, a 95-year-old with advanced Alzheimer’s, died on February 18th. Meaning, he was in that house alone with his wife’s body, and no one was taking care of him for a week after Betsy passed away on the bathroom floor.

The actor Gene Hackman died from heart disease about a week after his wife, Betsy Arakawa, died in a separate room of their New Mexico home from a virus linked to rodents, the authorities said on Friday. The revelation that the famous and reclusive couple had died of natural causes put to rest much of the speculation that followed the discovery of their bodies on Feb. 26. But it also raised new questions about the state of mind of Mr. Hackman, who investigators said had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, and why the couple was not discovered sooner.

Ms. Arakawa, 65, had run a series of errands on Feb. 11, but the authorities could find no evidence of any activity after that, suggesting that she could have died that day. Mr. Hackman, 95, is believed to have died about a week later, on Feb. 18, according to New Mexico’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Heather Jarrell.

Mr. Hackman was found on the floor of the mudroom in the couple’s home, near his cane, while Ms. Arakawa was found on a bathroom floor, beside a counter with common medication scattered about that investigators later determined did not play a role in her death. They were not discovered until Feb. 26, when a maintenance worker arrived to the couple’s home east of Santa Fe and grew worried when no one answered the door. The worker contacted a security guard, who called 911.

Dr. Jarrell said it was possible, given Mr. Hackman’s Alzheimer’s disease, that he did not know that his wife had died. It was unclear whether Mr. Hackman was able to take care of himself on his own. Autopsies were performed on the couple, Dr. Jarrell said, and Mr. Hackman’s showed that his stomach was empty, meaning he had not eaten recently, but she said he did not appear to be dehydrated.

Sheriff Adan Mendoza of Santa Fe County said investigators did not find any evidence that Mr. Hackman had communicated with anyone after his wife’s death.

[From The NY Times]

The sheriff also said that they had no way of knowing what Hackman was doing after Arakawa’s death, or if it even occurred to Hackman to seek help or call 911. It sounds like Arakawa was taking care of him by herself, and that she had not hired any in-home nursing staff or even just a general odd-job person to help out around the house? That’s crazy to me – in photos, you can see that she’s a great deal smaller and shorter than Hackman. Even though he was physically frail, wouldn’t she need some kind of help just to get him out of bed or help him move around? Everything I’ve read about the hantavirus is terrifying too. She likely didn’t even know she had it, or she thought it was just a cold or a sinus infection. God, this is such a tragic story.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, Cover Images.