Gene Hackman died a full week after his wife Betsy Arakawa died and lived in the house as her body lay in the bathroom ... this according to New Mexico officials.
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00:00There was a stunning development today in the death of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy.
00:05Gene Hackman was not the first to die. A lot of people thought that was the case.
00:11Gene Hackman died a full week after his wife Betsy died, and now we know the cause of death of both.
00:18For both of them, and as Harvey said, what they revealed, the sheriff and the medical examiner there in Santa Fe County, New Mexico,
00:26revealed that Betsy died first, they believe, on the evidence they have at this point, it was February 11th,
00:34and that she died from Hantavirus. Hantavirus is a respiratory disease that is particular to the Southwest.
00:43You contract it from rodents, oftentimes, and it is a very serious, sometimes fatal disease,
00:49and they say it was fatal in the case of Betsy.
00:52Remember, she was found in the bathroom with pills scattered about.
00:57They all said those pills were thyroid medication that was prescribed and being taken regularly,
01:03that those pills had nothing to do with the death.
01:06Now, as for Gene, remember what Charles just said was Betsy died February 11th.
01:13Gene died February 18th, that is a full week later, and he was living in the house.
01:20So, of course, the question, how could that be? He never called 911. There are answers to this.
01:26Gene Hackman had advanced Alzheimer's and was in frail condition.
01:32Right. Here's how the medical examiner laid out all the details that they have now uncovered.
01:38Our investigation shows that all the last known communication and activity from Ms. Arakawa was on February 11th.
01:46Mr. Hackman's initial pacemaker data revealed cardiac activity on February 17th,
01:53with subsequent pacemaker interrogation demonstrating an abnormal rhythm of atrial fibrillation on February 18th,
02:02which was the last record of heart activity.
02:05Based on the circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that Ms. Hackman passed away first,
02:13with February 11th being the last time that she was known to be alive.
02:17Do you believe that she was possibly not aware that if I had died, would she know what to do in that situation?
02:24I think that question is difficult to answer, but I can tell you that he was in an advanced state of Alzheimer's,
02:30and it's quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased.
02:34So, the coroner said, the medical investigator said, that it is likely she died February 11th, based on everything they know.
02:43This is where it just gets, what is already was a sad and tragic story, really gets heartbreaking,
02:50because essentially what they're saying is that Betsy dies, and then Gene is in the house,
02:57and with this advanced Alzheimer's, unaware that his wife is likely unaware.
03:04One of the reporters asked that question, and they said likely unaware.
03:08So, he was in such an advanced stage of Alzheimer's, that it may not have computed.
03:13Interesting that he had his sunglasses on when he fell to the ground and died.
03:20Which makes me feel like he was just going about his day, daily activity.
03:24Going in and out.
03:26Yeah, going in and out of the house, and when this heart attack happens and he dies, it's so sad.
03:34Did we, the dog, the dog had gone to the vet a few days before for some kind of a procedure, Zuma,
03:43and they crated the dog, so the dog was found in a crate.
03:48So, we don't know whether it was starvation, whether it was something connected to the procedure.
03:54Or did the dog have Hantavirus? They didn't do a necropsy on the dog, right?
03:59It's pending.
04:00Oh, that is pending.
04:01They said it's pending.
04:02So, that's what we know.
04:04So, you know, there were a lot of theories about what happened here, and nobody had this theory.
04:10The two wild cards that we just didn't know about, couldn't know about, were the Hantavirus and Gene's advanced Alzheimer's.
04:20It's just what we didn't know.
04:23Look, this investigation is still going on.
04:26They're still going to sort of try to figure out what happened with the dog precisely,
04:29and now we just know that she pre-deceased him, and he was in a very confused state.
04:33It's just a very sad ending for a guy with one of the best careers in Hollywood.
04:37Just very, very sad.
04:38We had seen, you know, photos and even video of him at times where he was walking around Santa Fe.
04:45We just did not know the severity of the condition.
04:47But we didn't know about the Alzheimer's, right?
04:48Yeah, we did not know anything about the severity.
04:50They were very, very private people.
04:53Yeah.
04:54Hello, I'm Lisa Perron from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
04:57Gene Hackman was one of the best actors of all time, and his death, and alongside his wife Betsy, came as quite a shock.
05:05I'm glad the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office has solved this mystery.
05:09This is such a sad story.
05:11I hope his family and his fans can find closure now.
05:15Yeah, you know what?
05:16I think that's part of the reason they held this news conference.
05:18So you remember when this happened on February 27th, they quickly said,
05:23it's going to be four to six weeks before we can get the results.
05:27That's typically what happens, but clearly in this case, with all the interest and all the calls they were getting...
05:32Well, the medical examiner said it.
05:33She said going into this news conference, she said,
05:36we don't usually comment on this, but there have been so many people speculating about it.
05:42We've talked to the family.
05:43The family is okay with us doing this news conference.
05:45Right, and also that they advanced the process of getting all the testing done.
05:50Right.
05:51That's very sad.
05:52Wow.